Ozzy Osbourne

format_quote 'I knew I was in trouble when I couldn't make it offstage quick enough to get whatever variety of shit I was tipping down me. I thought to myself: There are people working in gas stations, and all these menial jobs, to put money aside to see the Ozzfest, and I'm more interested in going back to the hotel, and doing a bag of white powder, or whatever shit it is I'm on.'

format_quote Of all the things I've lost I miss my mind the most

format_quote The only black magic Sabbath ever got into was a box of chocolates.

stars  Ozzy Osbourne's varied occupations before success came included slaughterman, bricklayer, laborer, factory worker, car-horn tuner and burglar.

stars  Son-in-law of Don Arden.

stars  Was sued in recent years by former bandmates Bob Daisley and Lee Kerslake for royalties on the Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a Madman. Ozzy retaliated by deleting their parts from the albums entirely and rerecording them with his then-current band.

stars  When he started out in music, the demand for rock singers in his hometown of Birmingham was so strong that anyone with their own microphone and PA amplifier could get a paying gig. Osbourne's father paid for the equipment, to spare him having to work a menial job after his failures in school.

stars  Before the success of "The Osbournes" (2002), he was known by most people as "the singer who bites heads off bats". This rumor traces back to one isolated incident. On January 20, 1982, at a concert in Des Moines, a bat wound up on stage, which had either been stuck in the rafters or thrown up there by a crazed fan. Osbourne bit it for a goof, thinking it was a rubber toy. He had to take a week of rabies shots. Despite a $25,000 donation later that year to the SPCA, the bat story grew to be an urban legend of its own, to the point where even numerous unrelated heavy metal bands were commonly accused of ritualistically killing live animals on stage.