The incident happened during a concert in Des Moines, Iowa, where Ozzy was performing as the lead singer for Black Sabbath.
During the show, a fan tossed something onto the stage that Ozzy assumed was a fake rubber bat.
Hoping to entertain his audience, Ozzy picked it up and bit into it, quickly realizing he had made a grave error.
According to Far Out magazine, Ozzy recounted: “Immediately […] something felt wrong. Very wrong.”
A YouTube simulation by Zack D. Films illustrates the chilling moment Ozzy experienced when he realized his mouth was filled with a warm, unpleasant liquid as he discovered the bat was real.
Ozzy described: “For a start, my mouth was instantly full of this warm, gloopy liquid, with the worst aftertaste you could ever imagine. I could feel it staining my teeth and running down my chin.”
The simulation depicts the blood trickling down Osbourne’s chin before he was rushed to the hospital to mitigate any potential health risks.
Initially, Ozzy feared the bat had been alive when thrown on stage and that he had killed it by biting its head off.
However, it was later revealed by the person who threw the bat that it was already dead.
The simulation has left viewers stunned, with one commenting: “His face of terror when he realized…”
At the hospital, Ozzy was given rabies shots as a precaution. While he emerged physically unharmed, the incident became a permanent part of his legacy.
By 1997, Ozzy lamented to journalist Edward Helmore that this story had followed him ‘every day since 1982’.
“It’s not Ozzy Osbourne the man who’s travelled more miles than an astronaut and sold x billion records. It’s all they’re going to remember!” he expressed. “When I die it will be OZZY Osbourne THE BAT BITER IS DEAD; BATS CAN NOW LIVE IN PEACE.”