Ozzy Osbourne’s Wildest, Most Outrageous, and Most Beloved Pop Culture Moments

Ozzy Osbourne, former lead singer of Black Sabbath, pictured in his open air hot tub in the garden of his luxury home in Goldwater Canyon, Beverly Hills,California biting the head of a rubber chicken. 28th April 1982.(Photo by Eddie Sanderson/Getty Images).

If Ozzy Osbourne had vanished from public life forever after Black Sabbath kicked him out in 1979, he still would have gone down in history as a monumental figure, thanks to his pivotal role in the creation of heavy metal. And had he truly retired in 1992 following his first farewell tour, he’d still be a two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee due to his groundbreaking solo career. 

But as Jack Black explained when he inducted Osbourne into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last year, this was merely the beginning for Ozzy. “He teamed up with his family to create another genre, reality TV, maybe the most evil thing he ever did,” Black said. “Then what? Oh, maybe just a little thing called Ozzfest, only the most successful heavy metal music festival of all time. Ozzy, stop creating incredibly successful, genre-defining, world-changing hits. It’s too much success for one lifetime.”

Ozzy’s cultural impact goes even deeper than Sabbath, his solo career, the Osbournes, and Ozzfest. Here’s a look at other pop culture moments from Osbourne’s epic life that people will be talking about for decades to come.