Even those who aren’t fans of Black Sabbath or Ozzy Osbourne have wrestled with the one burning question: did he really bite a bat’s head off on stage?
Ozzy Osbourne, singer of Black Sabbath and king of metal, is dead. And while Ozzy has done many unholy things on and off-stage, one moment has clung to his legacy: the night he allegedly bit the head off a bat. Yes. A bat. With teeth. And wings. Allegedly.
Bat Outta Hell
It was January 1982, and Ozzy was knee-deep in his Diary of a Madman tour, which, to no one’s surprise, was living up to its title. His concerts had devolved into gory food fights, with Ozzy flinging raw meat into the crowd. Naturally, his fans responded in kind. You bring liver, they bring… bats.At one gig in Des Moines, something small and dark plopped onto the stage. Ozzy, assuming it was a rubber toy, scooped it up and did what any reasonable rock star would do: chomped down. Cue warm goo. Cue twitching. Cue the realization that it was very much not a Halloween prop.At least, that’s one version of the story. In another telling, the bat was already dead – perhaps for days – and lobbed onstage by a fan named Mark, who’d reportedly stored the poor thing in his freezer. Whether alive or freezer-burned, the bat met its end in Ozzy’s mouth, and the legend was born.
Peace Is For The Birds
But before the bat, there were the doves. The lesser-known, slightly classier cousin of the bat incident. Flashback to a CBS boardroom in L.A., nine months earlier. Ozzy, newly solo and hoping to make a good impression, arrived to a meeting with record execs – and, naturally, three white doves. The plan (well, Sharon’s plan) was simple: say a few words, release the birds, create a Kodak moment of peace and grace.Instead, Ozzy, allegedly drunk on brandy and fed up with a pushy PR woman, bit the head off one of the doves. Right there. In the boardroom. Then, for good measure, did it again with another. Well, the execs were horrified. Ozzy was shown the door. And just like that, his mythos grew another feathered wing.
The Verdict
So, did Ozzy really bite the head off a live bat? Probably. Depends on which Ozzy you ask. Dead or alive, the bat definitely went airborne and ended up on his menu. Same with the doves. And whether the stories are 100% true or just 85% Ozzy-fied, they did what they needed to do: make him a legend.