Did Ozzy Osbourne Really Bite The Head Off A Bat?

In the wake of news breaking about Ozzy Osbourne passing away at the age of 76, countless fans have found themselves reflecting on the antics of the revered metal pioneer.

Of course, it goes without saying that he’s one of the most iconic figures in rock and metal over the past six decades, with his legacy and behaviour often preceding mention of famous musical exploits.

Notably, in the wake of Osbourne’s passing, PETA – the US-based organisation People For The Ethical Treatment Of Animals – also issued their own statement reflecting on the loss suffered by the music world.

“Ozzy Osbourne was a legend and a provocateur, but PETA will remember the ‘Prince of Darkness’ most fondly for the gentle side he showed to animals — most recently cats, by using his fame to decry painful, crippling declawing mutilations,” they wrote.

“Ozzy may have been the singer, but his wife, Sharon, and his daughter, Kelly, were of one voice when it meant protecting animals. Ozzy will be missed by animal advocates the world over.”

Now, PETA’s statement is significant for two reasons. Firstly, while Osbourne did indeed speak out against declawing cats, he infamously once recalled how he killed the 17 cats that he and wife Sharon owned. “I was taking drugs so much I was a wreck,” Osbourne later said of the incident.

Though he would express regret for that event and cite it as a contributing factor to cleaning himself up, one of Osbourne’s other most infamous moments can be traced back to 1982 when he bit the head off a bat on stage.

The incident itself has been shrouded in mystery and innuendo, with the story almost becoming bigger than the very act that inspired such discussion.

However, the truth is that the episode did indeed occur during Osbourne’s visit to Des Moines, Iowa back on January 20th, 1982.

"We get a lot of weird people at my concerts, it's rock n' roll," Ozzy told US late night host David Letterman soon after the event. "Somebody threw a bat onstage and I thought it was one of these toy bats, so l picked it up, bite the thing's head off and suddenly everybody is freaking out because it’s a real bat.”

Following the concert in question, 17-year-old Mark Neal spoke to The Des Moines Register to explain that it was he who threw the bat onstage. He reportedly believed the bat to have been dead, with the creature having been brought home by his brother two weeks earlier.

Osbourne’s reputation preceded him, so Neal thought it would be a good move to bring it along to the show. “It really freaked me out,” Neal said at the time.

But why did Neal think it suitable to bring a bat along to the show? Well, just a year prior – in early 1981 – Osbourne had met with a number of CBS record representatives in Los Angeles. The plan was to release a handful of doves as a gesture of peace, though the Prince Of Darkness had reportedly been drinking brandy in earnest and decided to bite the head off one of the animals.

“I just remember this PR woman going on and on at me,” Osbourne later told biographer Steve Wall. “I pulled out one of these doves and bit its fucking head off. Just to shut her up. Then I did it again… that’s when they threw me out. They said I’d never work for CBS again.”

Only three months after the incident though, Osbourne gave a different recollection. “I wanted to make a real impression,” he explained. “The scam is the bird was dead.

“We were planning to release it there, but it died beforehand. So rather than waste it, I bit its head off,” he added. “You should have seen their faces. They all went white. They were speechless.”

In Osbourne’s defence, the lead-up to the Des Moines show had also seen an unfortunate chain of events create precedence for what would happen.

According to a 2022 Rolling Stone article, Osbourne had started a mid-set ritual in which raw meat would be thrown into the audience, while they in turn would throw back whatever they had managed to smuggle into the venue.

“I always liked old movies that used to have these custard-pie fights,” he explained in his 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.”

Presumably, Osbourne hadn’t expected these mid-set events to take a dangerous turn, so when the bat was thrown onstage in 1982, it’s fair to assume he figured it was a harmless reference to his earlier incident.

“Immediately, though, something felt wrong. Very wrong,” he later reflected, “For a start, my mouth was instantly full of this warm, gloopy liquid, with the worst aftertaste you could ever imagine. I could feel it staining my teeth and running down my chin.

“Then the head in my mouth twitched. Oh fuck me, I thought. I didn’t just go and eat a fucking bat, did I?”

Of course, such an unexpected turn of events also necessitated an unexpected ending to the evening, with Osbourne being forced to endure a series of rabies shots.

“Bats are the biggest carriers of rabies in the world,” he later said. “And I had to go to the hospital afterwards and they started giving me rabies shots. I had one one each rear and I had to have that every night.”

“I can assure you the rabies shots I went through afterwards aren't fun,” he also told Letterman.

Of course, while the bat stories would swiftly rise through the ranks as one of rock’s wildest happenings, Osbourne found himself reflecting on the story for decades, with bats becoming inextricably linked to his profile.

Between referencing the bat during subsequent tours and even films such as Adam Sandler’s divisive Little Nicky, Osbourne even commemorated the incident in 2019 by releasing a behead-able bat plushie.

However, the memory of the 1982 show also bothered Osbourne to some degree, with the rocker once explaining that he believed it would become the only thing he’s remembered for.

“It’s not Ozzy Osbourne the man who’s travelled more miles than an astronaut and sold x billion records. It’s all they’re going to remember!” he stated. “When I die it will be OZZY OSBOURNE THE BAT BITER IS DEAD; BATS CAN NOW LIVE IN PEACE.

“The bats will go, ‘Fuck me, thank god he’s dead. I was waiting for him to come round our fuckin’ belfry.’”