The Real Story About How Ozzy Osbourne Bit the Head off a Bat
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In three parts…the dove, the bat and the Alamo
In the 1980s, growing up, my mom would take me to this drug store in Brooklyn Heights and there were lots of movie, rock, comic books, games and novelties sold there.
There were also magazines and products at this drug store with Ozzy Osbourne on it that really stuck out and caught my imagination.
I’d see pics from his albums with his long hair, crazy smile, dressed as a black magician or as a werewolf and whatnot.
My mom would not ever let me buy any of it, so I’d just look at the pictures whenever we went to this drug store.
Girl, Girls, Girls
I remember vividly, one time, a girl I grew up with was going to school down the street and she happened to be in the drug store standing near the Ozzy Osbourne pictures for sale and she said, “Hi,” to me.
She was older now and I could’ve rekindled the friendship we had, but I was shy, and instead I was interested in looking at these images of Ozzy being all sacrilegious.
They really fascinated me more than her, and I’ll never forget how I shied away from becoming her friend again.
Looking back on it, that was dumb… but Ozzy Osbourne is not dumb!
Long Live Ozzy Osbourne
He’s a rock legend and has inspired more than one generation and even inventing “heavy metal,” according to Rick Rubin the producer, who was quoted saying that in “The Nine Lives of Ozzy Osbourne.”
POTUS George Dubya even invited Ozzy to an official presidential dinner that he attended.
Ozzy Osbourne has way more than nine lives
As you can tell, at the time of this writing, I just finished watching a great documentary called “The Nine Lives of Ozzy Osbourne” and I’ve finally learned what these legendary magazine covers I saw as a child were going on and on about.
Ozzy’s Story
From the documentary I learned Ozzy bought a PA and a microphone after getting out of prison when he was very young.
He’d learned his lesson and did not want to go back to prison, nor work a 9 to 5 job.
He gets a band
He put up a flyer and the bandmates of Black Sabbath gave him a call and a the rest was history.
They create their genre
They rehearsed in a community center across from a movie theater and realized how people really liked horror movies, so they started playing the “devil’s chords” so to speak.
A legend is formed
Ozzy says in the doc that everything happened really “fast” in his career and Black Sabbath become the number one band in England, after The Beatles of course, who inspired them.
The band breaks up
They broke up eventually though and Ozzy ended up going to LA with his new partners in crime, Randy Rhoades the guitarist of “Crazy Train” and Sharon Osbourne, then his manager.
1. Do doves really fly?
They decided to do something big and memorable, so he went into the LA meeting with two live doves in his hands.
One died when he bit the dove’s head off, shocking everyone but Sharon, it seems when you watch the doc.
Apparently, Ozzy was so wasted he hardly knew what he was doing and, yes, there are pictures of it.
2. The Infamous Bat Incident
Ozzy Osbourne decided to start sending raw meat into the audience with a catapult, like intestines, etc.; all lofted up into the air and onto the fans at concerts.
The concert goers started throwing animal parts back up on the stage themselves and it became a “thing.”
Dead chickens, snakes and one night a very big frog that Sharon thought was a baby. Then a bat that Ozzy thought was innocently made of rubber.
Wasted, he thought it would be funny to bite the rubber bat’s head off and instead, realized instantly, it was a live bat, but by then it was already too late and the myths of Ozzy Osbourne’s antics on stage were born and grew in lore.
He had to get a series of rabies shots even after making this “bat” mistake during his concert.
3. The Alamo and Ozzy… Perfect Together
One night Sharon Osbourne hid all of Ozzy’s clothes because she wanted to discourage him from going out with his mates to get wasted.
Instead he took her clothes and wore them out.
Later on, during interviews and a visit to “The Alamo,” he was still wearing girl’s clothes and decided to take a pee, right there.
Ozzy got arrested and was officially banned from San Antonio.
There’s more, more and even more to the Ozzy Osbourne story
The documentary is thorough about Ozzy’s interesting life and plays out like his video autobiography.
I highly suggest watching it to learn about this legend of rock and metal.
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