Ozzy Osbourne Was Known as ‘The Prince of Darkness' for a Reason: All of His OMG Moments

Yahoo

4 days ago

Ozzy Osbourne's life on and off the stage was filled with countless OMG moments.
Throughout his career, the Black Sabbath member kept fans guessing with what he was going to say — and do — next.
Over the years, Osbourne made headlines for reportedly stripping in Germany, painting his nose purple and accidentally peeing on an unmarked police car during a late night in Tennessee.
Some of his memorable antics were even featured on the MTV reality show, The Osbournes, which documented Osbourne's life with his family.
Celebrity Deaths of 2025: Anne Burrell, Kim Woodburn and More Stars We've Lost This Year
'The reality show wasn't anything different than our regular life, because that's the way we are anyway,' he told Spin magazine in December 2023. 'We didn't become the Osbournes that you see just for the show. That's the way we are, and all they did was take funny bits out of it.'
While life understandably slowed down for Osbourne once he was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease in 2019, the musician lived life to the fullest until news broke of his death on Tuesday, July 22.
'He was with his family and surrounded by love,' Osbourne's family shared in a statement to Us Weekly. 'We ask everyone to respect our family privacy at this time.'
Keep reading to learn more about some of Osbourne's wildest moments over his lifetime:
Ozzy Osbourne Receives the 'Prince of Darkness' Nickname
Inspired by the horror genre, Osborne's rock group wrote the song "Black Sabbath," which became the title track of the band's 1970 debut album.
According to Osbourne, fans' reactions to the song's sound helped launch his unique nickname.
"When we started gigging way back when, as soon as we started playing this song's opening chords, young girls in the audience would ... freak out," Osbourne told NME in 2016. "They thought we were Satan's ... friends or something.'
'That's when the whole Prince Of Darkness s*** started,' he continued. 'When people get excited about Halloween coming around each year, all I think is, 'Well, we used to have Halloween every f***ing night.''
Kelly Osbourne's Quotes About Dad Ozzy Osbourne's Illness Before His Death: 'My Biggest Fear'
Ozzy Osbourne Bites a Bat
During a visit to Des Moines, Iowa, in 1982, Osbourne somehow found himself biting off a bat's head.
'I thought it was one of those rubber bats,' he recalled on an episode of Night Flight. 'I picked it up and it was a real bat, you know?'
When asked if the bat was alive when Osbourne picked it up, he replied it was 'until I bit the head off it.'
In the 1992 documentary Don't Blame Me: The Tales of Ozzy Osbourne, Osbourne said he needed to get medical attention after the incident.
'The guy said, 'We better give you some precautionary rabies shots,'' he recalled. 'I had one in each rear, one in each arm, and one in the top of my leg – and I had to have that every night.'
Ozzy Osbourne Visits the White House
While attending the 2002 White House Correspondents' Dinner, Osbourne was thrilled to receive a shoutout from President George W. Bush.
"Washington power brokers, celebrities, Hollywood stars, Ozzy Osbourne,' the president said when describing the crowd, before the musician stood on a table and started blowing kisses.
Bush later joked, 'OK, Ozzy. Might have been a mistake."
How Many Children Does Ozzy Osbourne Have? Meet the Late Rocker's Kids With Sharon and Thelma Riley
Ozzy Osbourne Throws TV Out the Hotel Window
In March of 2020, the Black Sabbath singer pushed a 50-inch TV set through a ninth-floor window of a Four Seasons in Prague.
'I ripped the television off the wall,' he recalled on his Boneyard radio show. 'It landed on the floor and f***ing exploded. It went like a bomb. … I had to pay three months for the room and the repair of the f***ing window.'
Ozzy Osbourne's Love of Shaving Off Eyebrows
According to Slade musician Noddy Holder, Osbourne came up with an idea of shaving people's eyebrows if they dozed off in the lounge of a tour bus.
'Ozzy Osbourne started that!' Holder shared on Planet Rock radio. 'If you passed out with Ozzy — whether you were drinking or whatever — he would shave your eyebrows. I could always keep up with Ozzy, so he never did it to me, but quite often he'd shave people's eyebrows. Of course, when they wake up in the morning and they look in the mirror, they know there's something wrong, but they don't realise their eyebrows have gone.'
Ozzy Osbourne Throws Meat on His Audiences
When concertgoers attended one of Osbourne's concerts, they were in for a literal show.
'I always liked old movies that used to have these custard-pie fights,' Osbourne explained in The Nine Lives of Ozzy Osbourne documentary. 'It gave me this idea to throw, instead of pie, bits of meat and animal parts into the audience. 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.'
The Black Sabbath member ultimately got tired of the trend and explained, 'It got to the point where people expected me to do crazier and crazier things. … It ain't fun when you get them rabies shots.'
Ozzy Osbourne and Sharon Osbourne's Family Album
Ozzy Osbourne Was Arrested for Urinating on Alamo Cenotaph
In February 1982, Osbourne was arrested on charges of public intoxication after he allegedly emptied his full bladder on the Alamo Cenotaph, a national monument in San Antonio, Texas.
Osbourne was banned from playing in San Antonio until he made a public apology to the city and donated $10,000 to the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, the organization that maintains the Alamo grounds, in 1992.
'We all have done things in our lives that we regret,' Ozzy said at the time via Loudwire. 'I am deeply honored that the people of San Antonio have found it in their hearts to have me back. I hope that this donation will show that I have grown up.'
Ozzy Osbourne Bites the Heads Off 2 Doves
In March 1981, Osbourne attended a record meeting and was supposed to release doves in a grand gesture of peace.
Band member Rudy Sarzo later revealed that Osbourne actually bit the heads off of two birds.
'He puts his hand in his pocket, pulls out another bird, looks at it and he just goes and bites the head off again — right in front of me!' Sarzo recalled to Yahoo. 'I gross-out, and he just laughs and keeps walking."
Ozzy Osbourne Once Snorted Ants
Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee recalled a 1984 incident when Osbourne allegedly snorted a line of ants in an effort to prove he was the wildest man of them all.
"Full-on true,' Lee said on an August 2024 episode of 'This Past Weekend With Theo Von' podcast. 'I know people ask that all the time. They're, like, 'Dude, really?' I'm, like, abso-f***ing-lutely. You can't make that s*** up."
Stars React After Ozzy Osbourne's Death at Age 76: Lady Gaga, Adam Sandler and More
Ozzy Osbourne Kills 17 Cats
At the height of his alcohol and drug addictions, Osbourne recalled the moment he killed more than a dozen innocent cats.
'I was taking drugs so much I was a f***ed,' Osbourne said via The Scotsman in 2007. 'The final straw came when I shot all our cats. We had about 17, and I went crazy and shot them all. My wife found me under the piano in a white suit, a shotgun in one hand and a knife in the other.'
Solve the daily Crossword