Musician Ozzy Osbourne bites the head off a bat during performance
On January 20, 1982, a legendary moment in the history of rock music occurred when heavy metal frontman Ozzy Osbourne shocked the world by biting the head off a bat that was thrown onto the stage during his concert at the Veterans Memorial Auditorium in Des Moines, Iowa. This incident would go on to define Osbourne’s career and persona for the rest of his life.
In a candid interview on late-night television with David Letterman, Osbourne attempted to explain his actions by claiming that he believed the bat was a harmless rubber toy. However, his impulsive decision to place the bat in his mouth quickly turned into a gruesome surprise. In his autobiography “I Am Ozzy,” Osbourne vividly described the horrifying moment when he realized that the bat was real: “Immediately … something felt wrong. Very wrong. For a start, my mouth was instantly full of this warm, gloopy liquid. Then the head in my mouth twitched.” There are conflicting reports about whether the bat was alive or dead when it landed on the stage.
Following the shocking incident, Osbourne was rushed to the hospital to receive a series of rabies shots as a precaution. Prior to this event, Osbourne had gained fame as the frontman of the iconic heavy metal band Black Sabbath, where he earned the moniker “Prince of Darkness” due to the band’s dark and satanic themes. However, Osbourne’s excessive substance abuse led to his dismissal from Black Sabbath in 1979, prompting him to form the successful band Blizzard of Ozz alongside guitarist Randy Rhoads, drummer Lee Kerslake, and bassist-songwriter Bob Daisley.
During the band’s “Diary of a Madman” tour, Osbourne developed a controversial ritual of catapulting raw meat, such as pigs’ intestines and calves’ livers, into the audience, which ultimately led to concertgoers retaliating by throwing animal parts like sheep testicles and live frogs onto the stage. As a result of this incident, the Des Moines auditorium where the concert took place instituted a policy banning the use of live animals in performances without prior consent from management.
Despite Osbourne’s reluctance to discuss the taste of bats, he capitalized on the notoriety by selling plush toy bats with detachable heads on his official website. Decades later, in January 2022, he introduced “Cryptobatz,” an NFT product inspired by the infamous bat incident, further cementing his legacy in the music industry.
Throughout his career, Osbourne sold millions of albums and became a cultural icon alongside his wife and manager, Sharon Osbourne. The couple launched the immensely popular Ozzfest music festival in the 1990s and starred in the groundbreaking MTV reality show “The Osbournes,” which offered fans a glimpse into their eccentric lives.
Osbourne’s influence extended beyond music, as he was posthumously inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame twice—first as a member of Black Sabbath in 2006 and later as a solo artist in April 2024. Many artists credit Osbourne with inspiring their own musical careers, including Metallica and Busta Rhymes. Osbourne tragically passed away on July 22, 2025, due to cardiac arrest, leaving behind a lasting legacy in the world of rock music.