Ozzy Osbourne Once Soaked Hotel Room in Blood of Dismembered Shark | Revolver

Ozzy Osbourne Once Soaked Hotel Room in Blood of Dismembered Shark

Tony Iommi recalled insane drug binge story about former Black Sabbath bandmate
ozzy-osbourne-1982-getty.jpg, Paul Natkin / Getty Images
Ozzy Osbourne, 1982
photograph by Paul Natkin / Getty Images

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There are too many insane Ozzy Osbourne antics to count. Biting the head off a bat, snorting ants, taking so much acid he talked to a horse for an hour. Stuff like that. The Prince of Darkness was a true lunatic during the Black Sabbath years, and his former bandmate, Tony Iommi, recently recalled another unbelievable story in which Ozzy, addled on drugs, dismembered a shark and smeared its blood all over a hotel room.

The Black Sabbath guitarist was speaking with the Daily Star in promotion of his new book, Iron Man: My Journey through Heaven and Hell with Black Sabbath, and remembered some of the dark stunts that Ozzy pulled when the band were deep in the throes of drug abuse.

"With drugs, always you get bored, so you must do something to one another," Iommi said. "Like Ozzy hauling a shark through a window, dismembering it and soaking our room in blood."

Sadly, he didn't elaborate on what that scene looked like after the deed was done, and how they ended up explaining that to the hotel workers. But we can only imagine that it was a truly grisly scene. 

Elsewhere in the interview, Iommi recalled another one of he and Ozzy's classic antics: the time they set Sabbath drummer Bill Ward on fire just for fun. Apparently, during a wild night of boozing and bingeing, Ozzy asked Ward, "Bill, can I set fire to you?" The drummer reportedly responded with a casual, "Busy, so not just yet."

Later on in the evening, Ward gave Ozzy an opportunity to get his pyro tendencies satiated. "I'm going home now, so if you want, you can set fire to me." While most people would respond to that with a hearty chuckle and end the bit there, Iommi said Ozzy then drenched Ward in "a bucket of alcohol," and the guitarist ended up setting him on fire right then and there, leaving him with third degree burns. 

Fucking lunacy.