Ozzy Osbourne was sure his wild onstage antics would live on after his death.
Nearly three years before his family announced his death at age 76 on July 22, the Black Sabbath rocker reflected on a 1982 incident at his gig in Des Moines, Iowa — where he bit the head off a live bat that a fan threw on stage.
“I know when I eventually do leave this place, it’s going to be, ‘Ah, the man who bit the head off the bat — he joined the bat today,'” Osbourne told PEOPLE. “I mean, I’ve achieved quite a lot in my life, but all people do is go, ‘Ozzy, what do bats really taste like? Was it dead?’ But I’ll tell you what, when they gave me the rabies shot, I wasn’t smiling.”
Along with the bat incident, Osbourne said “survival” was a big part of his “legacy.”
“I never gave up,” he said. “If you’ve got a passion for something, you’ve got to find a way to carry on the passion. I mean, I’m 73. People ask why I don’t throw the towel in. Why should I? People still want to buy my records. People still want to see me. It motivates me to get off my backside and do something.”
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Ozzy Osbourne with a bat
Weeks before his death, Osbourne performed from a throne at the Black Sabbath farewell concert on July 5 in his hometown of Birmingham, England.
In recent years, Osbourne was unable to walk due to his Parkinson’s disease, which he was diagnosed with in 2003. During an appearance on his SiriusXM radio show at the beginning of the year, he said that while he “can’t walk,” he’s glad to “have made it to 2025.”
“For all my complaining, I’m still alive,” he said. “I may be moaning that I can’t walk, but I look down the road, and there’s people that didn’t do half as much as me and didn’t make it.”
Osbourne previously made an appearance onstage in Birmingham in 2022 at the Commonwealth Games. He told PEOPLE at the time he felt called to the stage.
“It’s where I really belong,” he said. “The relationship I have with my audience is the biggest love affair of my life. I miss them every day I’m not up there, and I’m absolutely determined to get well enough to go back on the road.”
Osbourne leaves behind his wife Sharon, 72, and their three kids Aimee, 41, Kelly, 40, and Jack, 39. With his ex-wife Thelma Riley, he also shared kids Jessica and Louis, as well as her son Elliot.
Read the original article on People
