Would Ozzy Osbourne still be ‘The Prince of Darkness’ without the bat incident?
He’s one of the founding fathers of metal, a frontman of legendary proportions, and one of music’s most notorious figures: Ozzy Osbourne. Rising to fame as the vocalist of Black Sabbath, the heaviest band of their era, Ozzy didn’t slow down even after his departure under a cloud of cocaine dust. Instead, he continued to shape metal’s sonic legacy, collaborating with a long list of legendary musicians, including the iconic guitarist Randy Rhoads.
However, Osbourne’s story is not just about the music. He has long been one of rock’s most notorious hellraisers and, remarkably, has gone further in this department than even Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones. In his time, he has partaken in many crazed capers that were driven by two key things: drugs and alcohol. These two intoxicants have long come hand in hand, and Osbourne knows the extent of their effects more than most.
His index of insane drug-addled bouts of madness, in addition to him being the frontman of the band who put a genuinely haunting spin on rock that went much deeper into the pits of hell than Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and Iron Butterfly, has led to Ozzy Osbourne coming to embody the very essence of metal. Without his primal wailing, black-clad aesthetic, ominous lyrics and an extensive list of antics, the general stereotype of heavy metal that invokes images of devil horns, hellfire and Satan would likely not exist as it does today.
These factors have culminated in Osbourne earning himself the apt moniker ‘The Prince of Darkness’ among modern fans. However, his infamy as Satan’s earthly lieutenant was solidified on January 20th, 1982, during a performance at the Veterans Memorial Auditorium in Des Moines, Iowa. In one of rock’s most mythologised moments, a fan threw what appeared to be a fake rubber bat onto the stage. Without hesitation, Osbourne picked it up and bit its head off.
In an instant, Osbourne knew that it was not a rubber bat. His mouth was full of warm, gloopy liquid that tasted foul and ran down his chin. For a while, he even thought the bat was alive until the person who threw it on stage confirmed it had been long dead. Regardless, that moment cemented Osbourne’s position as ‘The Prince of Darkness’ and caused a sensation in headlines worldwide. He has since lamented the mistake and feels it has overshadowed his musical work.
So, was it all because of the bat incident?
According to the man himself, yes. While ‘The Prince of Darkness’ moniker became world famous after that grisly moment in 1982, Osbourne says that the tag was given to him during Black Sabbath’s early days, when occult-obsessed hippies anointed him as such due to the darkness of their lyrics and sonics.
Osbourne told NME in 2016. “They thought we were Satan’s fucking friends or something.”
He added: “That’s when the whole Prince Of Darkness shit started. When people get excited about Halloween coming around each year, all I think is ‘well, we used to have Halloween every fucking night.”
Despite the negative connotations of the moniker, in 2013, Osbourne spoke to Broward New Times and revealed that he doesn’t mind it, as he could be called far worse. “It’s a name. I didn’t wake up one morning and go, ‘You know what, I’m going to call myself…’ It started as a joke name, really,” he clarified. “I’m okay with it, you know? You know, it’s better than being called an asshole.”
Whether it be the bat, his music, or the time he massacred 17 innocent cats, Osbourne has done much that qualifies him as ‘The Prince of Darkness’.
