Every musician has their fair share of disappointing performances, and for Ozzy Osbourne, it just happened to be his very first show. However, what made it truly memorable was not what happened on stage, but what followed. Ozzy took revenge on the person who booked the band in a rather unhygienic manner by defacing their car.
In a new interview in the latest edition of Classic Rock, Geezer Butler, former bassist of BLACK SABBATH, reminisces about his first encounter with Ozzy. This happened when Geezer was a member of the band RARE BREED, prior to the formation of BLACK SABBATH.
“When he first came round to our house, one of my brothers answered the knock at the door,” Geezer recalled. “My brother came into the front room and told me, ‘There’s something for you at the door.’ When I asked him what he meant by ‘something’, he said, ‘You’ll see.’
“I opened the door and there was Ozzy. He had a haircut that was only a bit longer than a skinhead,” he continued. “He was wearing his dad’s toolmaker’s work gown. He’d a chimney sweeps brush over his shoulder, no shoes on his feet, but he was holding one shoe on a dog lead. It was pissing down with rain, too. I just burst out laughing at him.”
Geezer quickly became aware of Ozzy‘s peculiar talent – the ability to defecate at will. This incident left a lasting impression on Geezer when Ozzy played his very first gig as a member of RARE BREED at Aston University in Birmingham.
“We were so bad, the bloke who’d booked the night refused to pay us,” Geezer said. “He may have eventually given us a couple of quid, but as we were leaving, we saw his Jag was parked outside the front door. Ozzy climbed up onto it and did a great big turd on the bonnet, at will, and then we scarpered.”
Butler also discussed his present relationship with Ozzy and his former BLACK SABBATH, saying: “I haven’t spoken to Ozzy since the last [SABBATH] gig [on February 4, 2017]. Sharon Osbourne and Gloria [Butler, Geezer’s wife] fell out and that was it, we’re not allowed to speak to each other by command of our wives. I’ve seen Tony [Iommi] a couple of times. We got given a lifetime Grammy in 2019, and that was the last time I saw Bill [Ward, drummer].”
