SINCE shooting to fame as part of Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne carved out a staggering career in the entertainment industry spanning almost 60 years.
But this week, he sadly passed away .
And with the world mourning the loss, it’s impossible not to look back at the jaw-dropping moments that defined his one-of-a-kind career.
Whether he was biting the head off a bat on stage, hurling raw meat into crowds, or feuding with TV royalty.
Here’s a look back at the most outrageous and iconic moments in the life of the rock legend.
Bat-Biting (1982)
The singer - dubbed the- has always played up to his satanic image.
So when a fan hurled what he thought was a rubber bat toy at him on stage in January 1982, .
Turned out it was in fact a real bat and he later recalled: “Immediately, something felt wrong.”
There was a foul taste, and he felt the severed head twitch in his mouth.
The teenage bat-thrower later insisted it was already dead, but Ozzy always maintained he felt it moving.
Ozzy’s Death Metal (1995)
Wild rocker whilst on his Retirement Sucks! tour in 1995.
He was boozing with guitarist Zakk Wylde in Prague unaware of a smoker outside when he decided to throw a TV out of his hotel room.
He recalled: “I am in The Four Seasons and I am watching the TV and I go to Zakk, ‘I have never thrown a f****** TV out of the window of a hotel room. Let’s f****** do it’.
“So I ripped the window open, picked it up and threw it out of the f****** window. It landed on the floor and f****** 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 f****** dead.”
Meat Throwing (1980’s)
In the Eighties, Ozzy took his fan interaction to a whole new level with a ritual asoutrageous as it was unforgettable.
The rock legend began hurling raw meat and animal parts into the crowd - all whilst encouraging fans to return the favour with whatever strange items they could sneak into the venue.
One being the now-infamous bat incident and whilst some chalked it up to his on-stage theatrics, the truth was far more tongue-in-cheek.
He revealed in his documentary The Nine Lives of Ozzy Osbourne, the inspiration came from old slapstick films featuring custard pie fights.
He said: “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.”
TV Legend Feud (2002)
Back in 2002 Ozzy and his family created a reality show big enough to rival .
The Osbourne’s documented the ups and downs of the family’s day to day life but not everyone had a good opinion about he show.
Not yet disgraced TV host and comedian Bill Cosby slammed the MTV series as “not entertainment”.
Ozzy later revealed in his autobiography that Cosby had sent a letter scolding the family’s use of foul language and supposed bad influence.
Wife Sharon was quick to fire back with a letter of her own, pointing out that Cosby wasn’t exactly a saint - especially after news of his extramarital affair surfaced in the late nineties.
She also called out the hypocrisy of him clutching at straws over swearing whilst TV was drowning in violence.
The Alamo (1982)
Back in 1982 a very drunk Ozzy was seen dressed in one of wife Sharon’s gowns during a photo shoot near the Alamo - the iconic Texas landmark where outnumbered rebels made their famed last stand against the Mexican army.
The Birmingham-born rocker was arrested at the site when he decided to publically urinate.
He later returned to the landmark with son Jack with Ozzy admitting he wasn’t sure if he actually peed on the memorial as he was “very inebriated”.
But Ozzy’s fears were calmed once they were met by local councilmanRobert Trevino who foundOzzy’s old police report.
He then revealed the starwasonly charged with public intoxication that day - and never with public urination or public indecency.
Dove De-Capitation (1981)
A bat isn’t the only thing The Frontman bit into.
Back in 1981, during a meeting with to celebrate his new solo deal, Ozzy pulled one of the most bizarre stunts in music history.
Hoping to make an impression, he arrived at the boardroom carrying two white doves.
What was supposed to be a quirky gesture quickly turned into a PR nightmare when he suddenly grabbed one of the doves and bit it’s head off.
Spitting it onto the conference table in front of label executives and later reportedly did the same to the second dove, he admitted: “They were all throwing up all over the place. People were freaked.”
He was immediately thrown out from the building and whilst the label was appalled, the stunt only added to Ozzy’s reputation as rock’s most unpredictable wild man.
