Comment by sillysaurusx

He bit the head of what he thought was a rubber bat that someone threw on stage.

Turns out it was not rubber.

As for the rest. He was an icon. It's hard to see after the fact why something is revolutionary. Retrospectively it all seems obvious.

Like Newton and gravity, or calculus.

It doesn't look mind-blowing because everything that comes after it is influenced by it, and being first to start a new sound is only obvious if you look at the timeline.

Black Sabbath, of which Ozzy was the frontman, is considered to be either one of around three, or the one founder of heavy metal. It may not be entirely right to say so, because there was a development going on around that time, but the entire giant metal genre goes back to these few guys, with Ozzy being one of them, in this timeline.

This heavier and more aggressive music was paired with a more krass and evil image to distinguish it more. That's where a lot of the dark, evil and satanic themes come from. Both of these are why he is the lord / prince of darkness in our circles.

It was just part of the metal zeitgeist at the time constant escalation of pretend evil/darkness.

He’s kinda been grandfathered in.

But it caused plenty of controversy back then too.

Then he rehabilitated his rep with the Osborne show where he was this messed up shuffling pity type figure.

So in short the culture changed but Ozzie changed with it and by then he was too fucked up to be cancelled.

Not claiming it’s rational but culture rarely is.

Additionally Ozzie claims he thought it was a fake/prop but was so fucked up at the time he just went with it.

Also it happened once it wasn’t like he was out doing it every week!

As someone who listened to the music, it’s surprising to see this as the top comment.

Yes their lyrics are dark. That was the point.

Eating animals isn’t what comes to mind for me. I also rationalize it that 100s of millions of animals are slaughtered every day, especially birds. Which one of those facts is darker?

It’s surprising to see what people are remembered for.

He's in everyone's good graces because he's now known as a kookie old man from the MTV show _The Osbournes_ that aired in the mid-2000's. Same reason why Michael Jackson, arguably the most famous person of the 90s, isn't as popular after his death given his reclusiveness and scandals. We tend to remember stars for the last impact that they had — not what they started off with.

Legend has it that he was handed a live bat at a concert and thought it was a prop -- was almost more surprised than the bat.

Also - animal rights were still gaining traction re: the arts. It was only in 1972 that the first "No animals were harmed in this film" was aired.

also worth mentioning there are at minimum tens of millions of people that eat animals that are still alive - some dishes in some cultures are served not-entirely-dead. and many more cultures (american) that literally boil animals alive all the time (lobsters).

animal cruelty doesn't spark the backlash you might think it does, and especially not 40 years ago when ozzy did that

> Ozzy fans, can you help me understand why few people seem to care?

Because this is at best an anecdote for someone who had such a troubled life with alcohol and drugs?

Because his music is so great and influenced so many other great artists that we know that he didn't do those things as a gimmick for attention?

Because I know we shouldn't be looking at rock stars as paragons of moral virtue?

Ozzy has bitten the head of a bat because it was thrown on to the stage by an fan and he was expecting it to be a fake, rubber, bat. As far as I know he has not intentionally hurt an animal.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geek_show

I don't think this fully explains, but the way society as a whole thinks about animals has changed an awful lot over the last 50 years.

I also think that the boundaries of "polite society" and the law were different in scope.

(Not justifying, but considering figures like Strom Thurmond had no problem remaining in office despite issues arguably more human adjacent it does not surprise me.)

Satanic panic kind blew it up into something it wasn't.

Ozzy leaned into it a little and I think it helped his profile.

Other rumours were that he had ribs removed so he could better suck his own cock. The head biting and the rib story was later transferred on to Marilyn Manson.

Isn't it odd to think that a man covered in pentagrams caused such an outrage? How the world has changed.

When people die, folks usually share relevant stories about them, not inane nonsense.

Do you have any other half-remembered urban legends to share with the class? I heard that Marilyn Manson had some ribs removed so he could suck himself off.

I'm fond of pigeons, I don't want a rock star to bite their heads off for preference. However I don't think it matters very much. I probably wouldn't watch it more than once if that had been Ozzy's act, which it wasn't. But "crucified in the courts of public opinion" is just some bullshit. Public opinion shouldn't have a court, and courts shouldn't crucify people. So the most you'll get out of me is mild disapproval with a note about mitigating circumstances, regarding whatever addled headspace Ozzy was in in 1981. I think his career (and sanity) was somewhat shaky at that point, although the much admired Blizzard of Oz was released the same year, which makes up for the doves thing, which as I say I'm inclined to regard as somewhat trivial given that he didn't make a habit of it, wasn't in his right mind, and we eat them anyway.

~43 years ago he bit the head off a bat accidently: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/ozzy-osbourne-...

I'm not sure how that turned into "he’s bitten the heads off of various animals"

"That night in Des Moines, someone threw a live bat. “I thought it was a rubber bat,” Osbourne said. “I picked it up, put it in my mouth, crunched down, bit into it, being the clown that I am.”"

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