One of Ozzy Osbourne’s most iconic moments is when he bit the head off a bat during a performance, but over the years the story of what happened and whether the bat was alive has changed
Ozzy Osbourne will go down in history as one of rock music’s biggest icons. The Black Sabbath legend has died at the age of 76, with wife Sharon and the family releasing a touching statement.
And while fans will all have their favourite moments of the star, one of his most well known saw him bite the head off a live bat during one gig. Well, maybe.
Back on January 20, 1982, Prince of Darkness Ozzy was on stage promoting his second solo album Diary of a Madman. He had a sickening part of the show where he would lob bits of raw meat or animal body parts, like intestines, into the crowd. When it became clear that it was an ongoing thing, fans started turning up armed and ready.
During the gig at Des Moines’ Veterans Memorial Auditorium in Iowa, US, a bat was thrown up on the stage and Ozzy bit its head off. Whether or not the bat was dead was something which would be a mystery for a while.
In 2010, Ozzy appeared to believe it had been alive. He wrote in his autobiography I Am Ozzy: “Immediately, though, something felt wrong. Very wrong. For a start my mouth was instantly full of this warm, gloopy liquid. Then the head in my mouth twitched.
“Somebody threw a bat. I just thought it was a rubber bat. And I picked it up and put it in my mouth. I bit into it.”
He said he then realised: “Oh no, it’s real. It was a real live bat.”
The story started off differently, though. In 2006 there was a subtle change.
He told the BBC: “This bat comes on. I thought it was one of them Hallowe’en jokes bats ‘cos it had some string around its neck.
“I bite into it, and I look to my left and Sharon was going [gesturing no].
“And I’m like, what you talking about? She [says], ‘It’s a dead real bat.” And I’m… I know now!”
The man who threw the bat up was reportedly a man called Mark Neal, who was 17 at the time. According to a 2005 article from the Des Moines Register, the bat was definitely dead – and had been for a while.
Mark said his brother had brought the bat home a few weeks earlier and tried to keep it alive, but failed.
Ozzy was rushed for a rabies shot afterwards and the venue would go on to ban live animals being used in performances without prior consent.
Weirdly, Ozzy had bit the head off two dead doves during a meeting when a PR woman had been annoying him “just to shut her up”.
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