How did Ozzy Osbourne get the 'bat-biting' rocker title? Infamous 1982 Des Moines incident explored as the Black Sabbath singer dies at 76

Ozzy Osbourne, the famous Black Sabbath rocker who died on July 22, at 76, will always be remembered by his infamous 1982 black-biting incident.

More than 40 years ago, Ozzy bit the head off a real bat. On January 20, 1982, Ozzy, during his Diary of a Madman tour at the Des Moines Veterans Memorial Auditorium, developed a sickening ritual with concertgoers. Ozzy would throw raw meat at the audience, and they in return would toss whatever bizarre item they snuck into the show.

During his January 1982 performance, someone chucked a real-life bat on the stage. Ozzy mistook the bat for a fake and proceeded to bite its head off, with his mouth filled with blood. The incident was one of Ozzy Osbourne's most popular incidents.

The singer recalled the incident in his 2020 documentary, The Nine Lives of Ozzy Osbourne, and said,

"I thought it was a rubber bat. I picked it up, put it in my mouth, crunched down, bit into it, being the clown I am."

Since bats are the biggest carriers of rabies in the world, the rocker had to go to the hospital afterwards and get rabies shots, "one in each rear."

Ozzy Osbourne looks back at his bat-biting incident

The singer had been asked a lot about the infamous bat-biting incident. In 2022, Ozzy, while speaking to People Magazine, reflected on the incident and said,

"I know when I eventually do leave this place, it's going to be, 'Ah, the man who bit the head off the bat - he joined the bat today. I mean, I've achieved quite a lot in my life, but all people do is go, "Ozzy, what do bats really taste like? Was it dead? But I'll tekk you what, when they gave me the rabies shot, I wasn't smiling."

During a previous appearance on The David Letterman Show, Ozzy mentioned that after the bat-biting incident, people expected him to do "crazier and crazier things."

Osbourne in 1984 had also reportedly snorted ants while touring with Motley Crue. Tommy Lee, during a 2024 appearance on The Past Weekend with Theo Von, mentioned that Ozzy Osbourne was wasted when he saw a little trail of ants going all the way to a kid's popsicle on the ground. He noted that Ozzy looked down and just snorted the line of ants. He said,

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“So Ozzy’s wasted. He sees there’s a little trail of ants going all the way to this kid’s popsicle that he left on the ground. And Ozzy looks down and f–king just snorts the line of ants going to the popsicle.”

Some of his other weird antics included licking band bassist Nikki Sixx's urine and biting off a dove's head in 1981 in front of a group of executives.

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