.

The Day Ozzy Bit The Bat

01/20/2011
.
(Gibson) On this day in 1982, the wild man of rock, whose life was threatening to run out of control, did something at a concert in Des Moines that would turn into one of the great rock and roll tales of all time.

Ozzy Osbourne was touring America in support of the Diary of a Madman album with his Night of the Living Dead tour. The album title was strangely apt since stage shows had become more and more outrageous. At the end of a gig Ozzy would catapult meat (mostly intestines from a butchers shop) into the crowd. Naturally, Ozzy fans started to get into the spirit of the event and started bringing their own meaty offerings to shows. One fan was turned away from a concert for bringing in a whole Ox's head. On top of that, word was out that at a meeting with his record company in Los Angeles, Ozzy had bitten the head off a dove and fans were now beginning to bring small creatures of their own to gigs.

But that was the tone of relations between Ozzy and fans. So on this otherwise unremarkable night in Iowa, someone at the Des Moines concert threw a bat on stage. The bat, stunned by the bright lights, lay seemingly dead on the ground. Ozzy, always the showman of course, picked up the animal and bit into it. When the bat reacted by flapping its wings, Ozzy knew it was alive and, more importantly, a real bat (he later said he had presumed it was made of rubber). Ozzy was immediately rushed to hospital for rabies shots � not the best end to an evening. more on this story

Gibson.com is an official news provider for the Day in Rock.

Preview and Purchase Ozzy Osbourne CDs

Ozzy Osbourne MP3 Downloads

.