THERE was by no means any doubt what can be on his headstone, in line with the rocker himself: “Right here lies Ozzy Osbourne. He bit the top off a bat.”

The singer – dubbed the Prince of Darkness – all the time performed as much as his satanic picture, so when a fan hurled what seemed like a creepy rubber toy at him on stage in January 1982, he put its head in his mouth and chomped.

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Ozzy – who has died aged 76 following a protracted battle with Parkinson’s illness, simply 17 days after enjoying a farewell gig together with his band Black Sabbath – later recalled: “Instantly, one thing felt improper.”

There was a foul style, and he felt the severed head twitch in his mouth.

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Subsequent factor the singer knew he was being rushed to A&E for emergency rabies pictures.

The teenage bat-thrower later insisted it was already lifeless, however Ozzy all the time maintained he felt it transferring.

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Regardless of the fact, the incident grabbed international headlines and overshadowed a profession of mind-boggling firsts.

The Brummie – whose full title is John Michael Osbourne – began out because the wild frontman of the band credited with inventing heavy metallic.

He went on to assist create an entire new style of TV in 2002 as a part of a ground-breaking actuality collection, The Osbournes, starring him, his manager-wife Sharon, 72, and two of their three youngsters – Kelly, 40, and Jack, 39.

Their eldest daughter Aimee, 41, refused to participate within the MTV present as a result of she didn’t wish to “develop up on digicam” and left dwelling aged 16 consequently – one thing Sharon has since admitted she regrets deeply.

The collection, which ran for 4 years and paved the best way for Paris Hilton and the Kardashians, received a Primetime Emmy Award for Excellent Actuality Program and at its peak, Ozzy, Sharon, Kelly and Jack had been incomes £3.7million every per season.

It adopted Sharon’s battle with colon most cancers and Ozzy’s near-miss in a quad bike crash, which kicked off years of failing well being for the rocker.

Ozzy admitted he was surprised by its success, telling Scorching Press in December 2002: “I imply, earlier than we did the TV present, I used to be Ozzy Osbourne the legendary rock’n’curler, and now I am this f—— demi-god!” he added.

“I am on the entrance of all these f—— magazines … f— me, it is mad!”

Whereas Ozzy stepped away from the limelight following the tip of the collection, it kickstarted Sharon’s actuality TV profession, along with her becoming a member of the judging panel on The X Issue from 2004 till 2007, adopted by America’s Obtained Expertise from 2007-2012, The Superstar Apprentice in 2010 and Celeb Large Brother final yr.

Whirlwind romance

Ozzy survived many years of booze and drug dependancy which had been frequently discovered to be at “deadly” ranges in his blood – and almost value him two marriages.

As he mentioned in March 2023, aged 74: “I ought to have been lifeless a very long time in the past.”

In 1971, aged 22, Ozzy married nightclub attendant Thelma Riley after a whirlwind romance, however rapidly determined it was “a horrible mistake”.

So he numbed himself with booze and cocaine, which he acquired despatched over from the US by way of air mail.

Off his head, he would use a semi computerized to shoot mannequins he tied to bushes at their cottage in Ranton, Staffs.

And as soon as, when Thelma requested Ozzy to feed her chickens, he as an alternative shot them lifeless.

He later admitted he additionally hit her. And he confessed he had been a “disgusting” father to their two children, Jessica, 53, and Louis, 50.

When Thelma was in labour with Jessica, Ozzy insisted on driving her to hospital regardless of being intoxicated and never holding a licence.

Ozzy’s unstable behaviour from his ingesting and drug abuse finally noticed the couple separate within the late 70s, with their divorce finalised in 1982.

Even Ozzy’s fellow bandmates couldn’t stand his behaviour, and he was sacked from Black Sabbath on April 27, 1979.

He thought it was the tip, and locked himself in a lodge room for a three-month bender.

Then someday, Sharon Levy turned up on the door.

He later mentioned of the lady who turned his second spouse: “If it weren’t for her, with no shadow of a doubt, I’d be lifeless.”

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Sharon, then 27, was the daughter of Black Sabbath’s supervisor Don Arden.

They’d first met when she was 18 and dealing as her dad’s receptionist.

The singer wrote in his autobiography I Am Ozzy: “I fell for Sharon so badly, man.”

Sharon satisfied the wreck that he might be a solo star, and that she ought to be the one to handle him.

Debut solo album Blizzard of Ozz was launched in September 1980 and went on to promote greater than 5 million copies.

She additionally amped up his satanic picture, encouraging stage antics equivalent to flinging animal entrails into the viewers.

It was throughout one in all these innards-soaked exhibits that the notorious bat-biting episode befell, in Des Moines, Iowa on January 20, 1982.

Years later Ozzy would moan: “It is all my f***ing profession is about, a f***ing bat.”

‘Tried homicide‘

Sharon and Ozzy wed in Hawaii on July 4, 1982, quickly after Ozzy’s divorce from Thelma, and welcomed daughter Aimee a yr later.

Whereas Ozzy’s solo profession soared, so did his urge for food for booze, unlawful medicine and prescription tablets.

He later mentioned: “I used to be a beast. Completely terrifying.”

The worst second got here within the early hours of September 3, 1989, when a zonked Ozzy instructed his spouse: “It’s clear that you must die,” earlier than making an attempt to strangle her.

She fought him off and Ozzy was arrested on suspicion of tried homicide, however Sharon later dropped the fees and he spent three months in rehab.

Sharon instructed the Guardian in 2001: “He was completely insane from all of the drink and medicines he was doing, and effectively, this stuff occur.”

Ozzy admitted as soon as killing 17 of his household’s cats whereas excessive on medicine, admitting: “We had about 17, and I went loopy and shot all of them. My spouse discovered me underneath the piano in a white swimsuit, a shotgun in a single hand and a knife within the different.”

The couple renewed their vows on an episode of The Osbournes, with Ozzy vowing to remain sober after he handed out within the lodge hall on their authentic marriage ceremony day.

Nonetheless, true to type, he acquired so drunk he handed out once more.

Shock affair

In 2016, Sharon took an overdose of tablets after discovering out Ozzy had a four-year affair with hairdresser Michelle Pugh.

She instructed Free Ladies: “I took an overdose and locked myself within the bed room. The maid tried to come back in to scrub the room and noticed me.”
Pugh described their relationship as “life altering”, claiming he made her really feel like “essentially the most lovely and worshipped girl on the earth”, and it was “a wrestle day-after-day” when it ended.

Sharon determined to finish their 34-year marriage however forgave him months later, and has stood by him for the remainder of his life.

She defined in her memoir Unbreakable: “As a lot as he’s hooked on alcohol and medicines, I’m hooked on him.”

The son of manufacturing facility staff, Ozzy grew up in Aston, Birmingham. His mum was a eager singer and acquired her six children to participate in “household exhibits” at dwelling.

Ozzy’s debut was at one in all these gatherings, singing Cliff Richard’s hit Dwelling Doll.

However he later admitted: “I used to be a really nervous child. Worry of impending doom dominated my life.”

He struggled at college due to undiagnosed dyslexia, and left aged 15 for short-lived jobs together with killing pigs in a slaughterhouse.

Then he tried his hand at housebreaking, stealing shirts from a neighborhood store. He was rapidly nicked and, aged 17, spent six weeks in Birmingham’s Winson Inexperienced jail.

When launched within the winter of 1966, he determined to have a go on the one factor he beloved to do: singing.

Ozzy later wrote that his dream had begun when he first heard The Beatles in 1963.

He recalled: “A lightweight went on … for the primary time I felt as if my life had which means.”

So he put up an inaccurate advert in a Birmingham music store, which learn: “Ozzy Zig Wants Gig. Skilled frontman, owns personal PA system.”

Quickly bassist Terry “Geezer” Butler confirmed up on his doorstep. And finally the identical advert additionally drew guitarist and composer Tony Iommi.

Along with drummer Invoice Ward, they fashioned a gaggle that started off underneath the title The Polka Tulk Blues Band, was Earth – after which lastly turned Black Sabbath.

Ozzy mentioned his principal position from the beginning was to be “the madman”.

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They performed commonplace 12-bar blues at tiny gigs till Iommi seen folks queuing to see gothic Hammer Horror films.

He then determined to have a go at writing a track that “sounded evil”.

The consequence was the 1969 monitor Black Sabbath that instantly impressed the band to rename itself.

Ominous, darkish and doom-laden, with Ozzy’s compelling monotone voice, it was not like something that had come earlier than it.

Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford later described it as “in all probability essentially the most evil track ever written”.

Quickly they’d a report deal and their self-titled first album was launched on Friday the thirteenth of February, 1970 – now extensively thought-about the day heavy metallic was born.

It was a monster hit world wide and charismatic Ozzy was quickly christened the Prince of Darkness.

Well being battle

Though Ozzy managed a reunion with Black Sabbath, full with a No1 album in 2011, and several other excursions, his well being declined as he suffered from worsening tremors.

A fall in 2019 left him in power ache.

The next yr he introduced that he had been identified with Parkinson’s and in 2023 he cancelled a deliberate world tour for well being causes.

By that stage, in line with Sharon, his principal pastime was watching the Historical past Channel.

On July 5 this yr, Ozzy performed his ultimate present – billed as Again to the Starting – alongside the unique Black Sabbath line up at Villa Park in Aston, Birmingham.

Acting on a black throne a stone’s throw from the pokey two-bedroomed dwelling the place he’d grown up, he was cheered by a crowd of over 40,000 spectators and almost six million watching on livestream.

Regardless of claiming he wanted to have his blood strain taken 15 instances a day earlier than his dying, Ozzy had all the time been extra involved about Sharon’s well being than his personal.

Requested in 2022 what he would do if she died earlier than him, he mentioned: “That’s a f***ing no-no for me.”

For his personal half, he as soon as instructed his spouse: “I wish to be put within the floor in a pleasant backyard someplace, with a tree planted over my head.”

He additionally mentioned: “It’s ridiculous, actually. My life ought to by no means have occurred the best way it did. However consider me, I am grateful.”

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