42 Years Ago: Ozzy Chomped Down on a Bat in Iowa

It's spooky season, the best time of the year to tell ghost stories. While we have no proof that the bat in this story came back as a ghost, the story has both haunted and heightened the legend of Ozzy Osbourne.

Ozzy Comes to Iowa

On January 20, 1982, Ozzy Osbourne performed at Veteran's Memorial Auditorium in Des Moines as part of his "Diary of a Madman Tour."

5,000 fans spent around $10 for tickets that night, but that concert would become a priceless chunk of Rock 'n Roll history after the 33-year-old 'Prince of Darkness' bit the head off of a bat during the concert.

The Poster Said it All

The tour poster for the concert that night was headlined with "Just When You Thought it Was Safe to Go Back to a Concert" and "Eating Before the Concert is Not Recommended."

According to an article from the Des Moines Register that ran two days after the concert, a 17-year-old high school student named Mark Neal was the fan who threw the dead bat on stage that night in Des Moines.

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About two weeks before the show, Mark's younger brother apparently found a dead bat outside an elementary school. They stuck it in a freezer and planned on taking it to the concert, and the rest is history—even though Ozzy has sworn that the bat was alive when he put it in his mouth.

Saying the bat was alive certainly adds to the intrigue of the story, but in the end, it's a fairly minor detail.

Ozzy Visit Letterman to Discuss His Antics

Later that year, Ozzy appeared on TV with David Letterman to discuss the incident:

Dead or alive, he was rushed to the hospital and given a host of painful rabies injections.

The 73-year-old is scheduled to resume his "No More Tours 2" Tour in May in Europe. He was originally scheduled to perform in Des Moines at Wells Fargo Arena in 2019, but that entire tour was put on hold due to medical conditions faced by the musician.

It was then rescheduled for June 2020 -- but then the pandemic hit. No new date has been announced.

Next time you're craving something strong, skip the bat, and grab a cup of Joe!