Ozzy Osbourne’s infamous bat-biting incident still makes people ask, “Why on earth did he do that?” You might imagine some wild, planned stunt, but the real story involves a teenage fan, an unlucky bat and a very surprised rock star. Even Ozzy himself later admitted he just thought it was a rubber prop when he sank his teeth into that poor creature.
The concert in question took place on January 20, 1982, at Veterans Memorial Auditorium in Des Moines, Iowa—now known as the Community Choice Credit Union Convention Center. While Ozzy was performing during his Diary of a Madman tour, Mark Neal, who was 17 at the time, hurled a dead bat onto the stage. When Ozzy spotted it, he thought it was a plastic toy, but soon discovered it was anything but fake.
Ozzy has repeatedly explained that the bat felt alive when he bit it, saying it “twitched” in his mouth. The truth, however, is that the bat was already dead when Neal and his friends decided to sneak it past security. It had been rotting in a freezer for two weeks after Neal’s brother discovered it and tried to keep it as a pet—which, of course, didn’t go so well.
Most people assume the bat should have just flown away, but clearly that wasn’t possible. The poor thing was very much deceased by the time it landed near bassist Rudy Sarzo’s feet. Ozzy ended that night with a frantic dash to get rabies shots, and for weeks he was stuck getting injections in nearly every part of his body.
“Every night for the rest of the tour I had to find a doctor and get more rabies shots: One in each arse cheek, one in each thigh, one in each arm,” Ozzy told the Des Moines Register in 2001. “Every one hurt like a bastard.”
News outlets worldwide went nuts over this shock-rock story. Broadlawns Medical Center, where Ozzy got his post-bite treatments, fielded calls from curious reporters as far away as England and Canada. Fans wanted every juicy detail: the cost, the pain, and exactly how many needles pricked the Prince of Darkness.
By October 1982, the venue banned any live animals from concerts without management’s approval. Ozzy later returned to perform there, signing a poster with “No more bats. Love, Ozzy Osbourne,” showing he had a sense of humor about the whole fiasco.
Legend has overshadowed reality after all these years. The story of a “mystery fan” and a “live bat” is way more dramatic than the facts—so it stuck around. Even Rolling Stone once stated that the fan who threw the bat never came forward, though Mark Neal’s story easily proves otherwise.
Over time, Ozzy has embraced his bat-chomping reputation, joking about it on talk shows and even releasing bat-themed merchandise. When he appeared in the Adam Sandler movie “Little Nicky,” he reprised his signature move by biting the head off a villain-turned-bat. He’s also launched a bat-inspired NFT collection called CryptoBatz, so he definitely doesn’t mind poking fun at himself.
This wild incident remains one of metal’s most infamous tales, and it’s become a piece of rock mythology that people still talk about. It ranks right up there with Alice Cooper’s crazy onstage antics and legendary mishaps. But while newer generations might only know the legend, the truth is both simpler and weirder: a clueless Ozzy, one unlucky frozen bat, and a story that’s become immortal in the world of rock.
