I’m coming in from a position of ignorance here, so I was hoping the community would help me understand: the only thing I know about Ozzy is that he’s bitten the heads off of various animals, including doves and bats. That happened before I was even born. But, looking over the comments, no one seems to be talking about it.
My question is, is it just not a big deal? If someone did that today, they’d be crucified in the courts of public opinion.
One could argue that it’s disrespectful to bring this up on his death thread, but, two points: one, I hope that people will bring up my mistakes when I pass, so that others can learn from it; and two, this is the only opportunity to talk about it, since Ozzy has rarely been a topic on HN.
Ozzy fans, can you help me understand why few people seem to care? It’s hard to wrap my head around the idea that someone can decapitate some animals with their own teeth and then still build a loyal following. Was he just that good at music?
I’m posting this from a place of curiosity, not malice, for what it’s worth.
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.
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.
Doing it for fun and popularity is completely different. And especially in such a cruel and torturous way the Osborne did. He did it on several occasions and knowingly at that.
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.
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 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.
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.)
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.
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.
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.”"
My question is, is it just not a big deal? If someone did that today, they’d be crucified in the courts of public opinion.
One could argue that it’s disrespectful to bring this up on his death thread, but, two points: one, I hope that people will bring up my mistakes when I pass, so that others can learn from it; and two, this is the only opportunity to talk about it, since Ozzy has rarely been a topic on HN.
Ozzy fans, can you help me understand why few people seem to care? It’s hard to wrap my head around the idea that someone can decapitate some animals with their own teeth and then still build a loyal following. Was he just that good at music?
I’m posting this from a place of curiosity, not malice, for what it’s worth.
EDIT: Even if the bat was a mistake, what about the doves? https://kiisfm.iheart.com/content/2022-01-24-theres-another-...