So it turns out that ageing rocker Ozzy Osbourne doesn’t only have a sordid history with bats, he’s done some pretty nasty things to sharks too.
Continuing on the publicity trail for his memoir “Iron Man: My Journey Through Heaven and Hell With Black Sabbath”, former bandmate Tony Iommi has explained in an interview with the New York Post about his drunken antics when he was younger and how Ozzy escalated the partying with drugs in Black Sabbath.
“My life sounds awful,” he said. “I’m from England’s rough area. Gang fights. Playing jokes on each other. Like pouring alcohol on a friend then setting him afire and burning it off. Like once I said, ‘Bill, can I set fire to you?’ He said, ‘Busy . . . so not just yet.’ Later he said, ‘I’m going home now, so if you want you can set fire to me.’ I threw a bucket over him, and he went on fire. It soaked third-degree burns into his legs.”
He continued “He could take it, so we always started with him. In Bel Air we got drunk, so seemed a good idea to spray him head to toe with gold paint then lacquer him. His skin couldn’t breathe. Thought he’d die. We called the hospital, who asked, ‘What’s wrong with him?’ We said, ‘He’s naked and in gold paint.’ So they gave him an injection. He’s still with us. Once he asked, ‘Is something wrong?’ Why? ‘You haven’t done anything to me.'”
But things went from dangerous to downright psychotic once Iommi formed Black Sabbath and he and his fellow bandmates started to regularly take drugs. “With drugs always you get bored, so you must do something to one another,” he said. “Like Ozzy hauling a shark through a window, dismembering it and soaking our room in blood.”
Iommi explained that he has continued to chat to his former bandmate on a weekly basis, and one can only assume the friends will become even more chummy should the rumoured Black Sabbath reunion actually take place. “I talk to Ozzy couple times a week,” he said. “He’s up, down. I love him, although his attention span lasts three seconds.”
All four original Black Sabbath members have called a press conference for this Friday at the Whiskey Go-Go in Los Angeles. Whilst an official reason for the conference wasn’t given many have placing their bets that the band will reform once again and release a slew of new material.
Check out some footage of the infamous Ozzy Osbourne incident with a dead bat below. Also, check out slideshow of why drugs are bad for you, and our slideshow of rock n roll bad behaviour part 1 and part 2.
