Did Ozzy Osbourne shoot 17 pet cats? Black Sabbath frontman's chilling recount revisited in the wake of his death at 76

Ozzy Osbourne, the lead vocalist of heavy metal band Black Sabbath, passed away on July 22, 2025. His family announced the news on Instagram. Osbourne battled with Parkinson's disease and emphysema for the last few years. The singer was 76 years old at the time of his passing.

Ozzy Osbourne struggled with alcohol and substance abuse for years. He shared one particular incident in an interview which was the "final straw" for him. The singer stated that in the 1980s, in a drug-fueled rampage, he killed his 17 pet cats with a shotgun.

When his wife, Sharon Osbourne, came home, she found him lying under the piano wearing a white suit, and holding a shotgun and a knife.

"I was taking drugs so much I was a f*****. The final straw came when I shot all our cats. We had about 17, and I went crazy and shot them all. My wife found me under the piano in a white suit, a shotgun in one hand and a knife in the other," the singer stated.

In another intoxicated rampage, Ozzy shot his chickens and burned their coop in his home in Birmingham, England.

According to The New York Post's report, the incident took place in 1976.

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A post shared by Ozzy Osbourne (@ozzyosbourne)

Ozzy Osbourne bit off the heads of a bat and a dove

In January 1982, while the band was performing onstage, a fan threw a bat at the singer. For the unversed, the singer liked the thought of "custard pie fights" so his fans often threw live frogs, snakes, dead rats, sheep intestines on stage.

Ozzy shared in his 2020 documentary, The Nine Lives of Ozzy Osbourne, that he thought the bat was made of rubber. After biting the head, he realised that the bird was real.

He had to get rabies shots after the incident.

"I thought it was a rubber bat. I picked it up, put it in my mouth, crunched down, bit into it, being the clown that I am. I had to go to the hospital afterward and get rabies shots, one in each rear," Osbourne said.

The bat incident caused headlines, and Ozzy Osbourne received mainstream attention, being invited to The David Letterman Show. On the talk show, Osbourne repeated that the rabies shots were not "fun."

In the 2020 documentary, the singer recalled another incident from 1981, when Osbourne was irritated at a Los Angeles gathering celebrating his CBS Records deal.

He was supposed to offer two doves as a "peace offering" to label executives. However, while waiting for his wife and manager, Sharon Osbourne's cue, he angrily bit off one dove's head.

She stated in the documentary that the action was not taken lightly, and they were informed that if Ozzy Osbourne did such a thing again, they would "destroy" the singer.

"The [boss] of legal said, 'If you ever do that again, we will absolutely destroy you," Sharon Osbourne said.

Ozzy Osbourne is survived by his wife and his six kids, three with his ex-wife Thelma Riley, and three with Sharon Osbourne.