If Ozzy Osbourne had vanished from public life forever after Black Sabbath kicked him out in 1979, he still would have gone down in history as a monumental figure, thanks to his pivotal role in the creation of heavy metal. And had he truly retired in 1992 following his first farewell tour, he’d still be a two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee due to his groundbreaking solo career.
But as Jack Black explained when he inducted Osbourne into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last year, this was merely the beginning for Ozzy. “He teamed up with his family to create another genre, reality TV, maybe the most evil thing he ever did,” Black said. “Then what? Oh, maybe just a little thing called Ozzfest, only the most successful heavy metal music festival of all time. Ozzy, stop creating incredibly successful, genre-defining, world-changing hits. It’s too much success for one lifetime.”
Ozzy’s cultural impact goes even deeper than Sabbath, his solo career, the Osbournes, and Ozzfest. Here’s a look at other pop culture moments from Osbourne’s epic life that people will be talking about for decades to come.
Ozzy’s Influence on Trick Daddy and Lil Jon
2021
The iconic intro of 1980s “Crazy Train,” Osbourne’s first solo hit, feels like a call to action with each echoing “aye, aye, aye.” It found new life in 2002 as the foundation for Trick Daddy’s “Let’s Go” featuring Lil Jon and Twista, the same year MTV’s The Osbournes took off for millennial viewers. The song became Trick Daddy’s most successful, peaking at No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100. Unfortunately, “Let’s Go” never landed in Osbourne’s ears until 2021, when it was played for him on a tour bus. In the clip, reposted by Lil Jon, the rocker listens to the early aughts anthem with his mouth and eyes wide open in amazement, his only words being, “I’ve never heard this before.” —E.B.
‘The Fuck’s a Bieber?’
2011
For this 2011 Super Bowl spot advertising electronics retailer Best Buy, Ozzy plays to his reputation as an aging, easily confused rock icon by allowing a young, fresh-faced Justin Bieber to upstage him after he can’t get his lines right. The mini-spat with Sharon is, of course, quite true to life, as is Ozzy struggling to find the exit out of the futuristic set. But it’s his baffled reaction to the teen pop star that brings it all together: “What the fuck’s a Bieber?” —M.K.
A Visit to the White House
2002
God knows why Ozzy was invited to the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in 2002 — not exactly his scene — but George W. Bush didn’t want his presence to go unnoticed. When the president shouted him out, Osbourne climbed up onto his table with a grin to bask in the thunderous applause and laughter, blowing kisses to the crowd. “Okay, Ozzy,” Bush said to bring him back to earth, joking that the name-check “might’ve been a mistake.” —M.K.
A Bad Influence According to…Bill Cosby?
2002
The family dysfunction and profanity in The Osbournes didn’t sit well with not-yet-disgraced comedian Bill Cosby, who in 2002 trashed the show as “sad” and “not entertainment.” As Ozzy recalled in his autobiography, Cosby even wrote a letter chastising him for setting a poor example with his foul language. In response, Sharon wrote back to remind Cosby that he had no standing to criticize them after an affair of his had become public in the late Nineties, and that it was ridiculous to gripe about swearing as opposed to all the violence on TV. Of course, the dozens of allegations of sexual assault against Cosby that later came out left the Osbournes looking like shining role models by comparison. —M.K.
‘Fucking Dogs, Man’
2002
MTV’s megahit reality show about Ozzy and his family, The Osbournes, was memorable for his stoned reaction to everything and his constant bellowing for his wife and manager (“Sharon!”). But perhaps the most consistent theme was his frustration with their menagerie of pets — particularly the dogs, as apparently not one of them was house-trained. You could always expect an explosion of drama when Ozzy discovered another turd on one of his antique rugs. As the man himself put it: “Fucking dogs, man, they shit every-fucking-where.” —M.K.
Ozzy Narrowly Avoids a Murder Rap After Throwing a TV Out the Window
1995
Somehow or another, Ozzy Osbourne made it all the way to 1995 without throwing a TV out the window. That changed in 1995 when the Retirement Sucks tour hit Prague, and a drunken Ozzy decided it was finally time to try it out while hanging out in the Four Seasons with Zakk Wylde. “I ripped the window open, picked it up and threw it out of the fuckin’ window,” he recalled in 2019. “It landed on the floor and fuckin’ exploded. It went like a bomb. Little did I know that there was a guy smoking a cigarette and I shudder to think if that had hit him on the head. I would have killed him stone fuckin’ dead.” Let’s all be grateful that Ozzy wasn’t charged with attempted murder that night. —A.G.
Ants Go Marching
1980s
Partying on tour in the early Eighties, Ozzy proved no one could match him in terms of debauchery when he snorted a line of ants while hanging out around a pool with Motley Crue. “At that time, it was just kind of a thing — everybody was into [trying to] out-rock star and out-gross somebody out, like out-partying,” Crue drummer Tommy Lee recalled. “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 fucking just snorts the line of ants going to the popsicle.” Somewhat incredibly, things actually got crazier from there; when Lee got Ozzy back to his hotel room, he stood in awe as the veteran took a dump and painted his hotel room wall with his own feces. —J.D.
Raw Meat Ritual
1980s
While on the road in the early Eighties, Osbourne developed a ritual that took fan interactions to a bonkers new level. He started pelting the crowd with raw meat and animal parts, and welcomed his fans to chuck back whatever they were able to sneak in (including the aforementioned bat that Osbourne took a bite out of in Des Moines). While some might think this strange behavior was all about tapping into some Satanic frenzy, the reality is much funnier: Osbourne, as he explained in the documentary The Nine Lives of Ozzy Osbourne, was just a big fan of old movies with custard-pie fights. “It gave me this idea to throw, instead of pie, bits of meat and animal parts into the audience,” he said. “I thought it was hilarious. [They’d throw back] sheep testicles, live snakes, dead rats, all kinds of things. Someone once threw a live frog onto onstage. It was the biggest frog I’d ever seen, and it landed on its back.” —J.B.
A Lost Duet With Madonna
1982
Osbourne was at the peak of his solo powers in 1982 when Don Was asked him to feature on Was (Not Was)’s “Shake Your Head, Let’s Go to Bed.” It was an upbeat avant-pop track far from Osbourne’s typical metal fare, and at one point, an unknown, up-and-coming singer was brought in to add scratch vocals: Madonna. When “Shake Your Head” was first released in 1983, Madonna’s vocals were replaced by studio singers. But 10 years later, with Madonna now a bona fide super star, there was reportedly a plan to remix the track with her on it. It never surfaced, instead leading to a recording that featured, of all people, Kim Basinger. While there was never an official release of Madonna and Ozzy’s version, the track somehow leaked and has been floating around for years. —J.B.
Remember the Alamo
1982
On Feb. 19, 1982, a deeply intoxicated Ozzy Osbourne took a tour of the Alamo during downtime from a U.S. tour. Intending no disrespect, and really needing to empty his bladder, he lowered his pants at one point and urinated. He had no idea he was pissing on the Alamo Cenotaph, which commemorates the men and women who defended the fort in 1836. That didn’t stop him from getting arrested, and banned from performing in San Antonio for a decade. But all is now forgiven. “At the Alamo, we honor history in all its complexities,” reads a post on the Alamo’s Instagram account. “Today, we acknowledge Ozzy Osbourne’s journey from regret to reconciliation at the historic site, and we extend our condolences to his family, friends, and fans around the world. May he rest in peace.” —A.G.
Bat Out of Hell
1982
Technically, it was an accident. Then again, who other than Ozzy Osbourne would find themselves in a position to accidentally bite the head off a live bat? The creature found its way onstage at Osbourne’s Jan. 20, 1982 show in Des Moines during the part of the show where Ozzy chucked raw meat into the crowd, and they threw back whatever they’d snuck in. Osbourne thought the bat was made of rubber, hence his decision to take a bite. The incident affirmed Osbourne’s madman reputation, garnered him more press attention than he’d ever received, and also forced him to undergo a painful series of rabies shots. “It got to the point where people expected me to do crazier and crazier things,” Osbourne once said. “I’ll tell you what guys — it ain’t fun when you get them rabies shots.” —A.G.
Ozzy Has a Very Unfortunate Meeting With a Couple of Doves
1981
In 1981, Sharon Osbourne had the rather lovely idea of releasing live doves when Ozzy met with Epic executives. But her husband was blackout drunk that day, and bit the head off one of the birds when it landed on his knee. “This carcass was flapping around the table and feathers were flying,” Ozzy said years later. “They were all throwing up all over the place. People were freaked.” The label threw him out of the building, but Ozzy bit the head off another dove and threw it at reception before his exit. (It’s important to keep in mind that Ozzy loved animals. He just wasn’t in a place where he could make wise decisions at this point in his life.) —A.G.
Contributors: Andy Greene, Miles Klee, Jon Blistein, Jon Dolan, Elise Brisco
From Rolling Stone US.
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