Ozzy Osbourne has revealed he was once visited by the police for putting a dead chicken full of antifreeze on his garden fence.
The Prince Of Darkness and former Black Sabbath singer, 74, told the story on today’s (October 24) episode of The Osbournes Podcast, co-hosted by his wife Sharon, daughter Kelly and son Jack.
“The most satanic thing we’ve ever done is when we put the chicken on the neighbour’s fence,” Sharon said during the episode (transcribed by Metal Hammer).
“A cop knocked at the door that day,” Ozzy added. “He says, ‘You’ve got to stop!’”
The singer elaborated: “It’s because the coyotes were getting the dogs. My security guy told me, ‘You know what you’ve got to do? You’ve got to get a chicken and fill it full of antifreeze.’
“Two weeks later, I’d forgotten about it. A cop knocks on the door and he goes, ‘I’ve had a complaint.’ I say, ‘Complaint about what?’ [The officer replies,] ‘You’ve been leaving satanic effigies on the fence!’ I said, ‘What the hell are you talking about?’, and when the penny dropped I said it was kids messing about!”
Sharon previously spoke about a coyote problem at the Osbourne home in a 2003 interview with Us Weekly.
As reported by The Irish Examiner, the manager and reality TV personality, 71, revealed that Ozzy had to wrestle a coyote to save their dog, Pipi, from being eaten.
“Ozzy heard the screams and fought and got Pip out of the coyote’s mouth,” she said.
She reportedly added that the family had thrown a poisoned chicken over their garden fence in an attempt to kill nearby predators.
Ozzy rose to prominence in the 1970s as the singer of Black Sabbath, whom he fronted from 1968 to 1977, 1978 to 1979, 1997 to 2006 and 2011 to 2017. He and Sharon started dating after his firing from the band in 1979. The businesswoman began managing him at the same time, before marrying him in 1982.
The couple’s three children – Aimee, Kelly and Jack – were born in 1983, 1984 and 1985, respectively. The family, excluding Aimee, starred in MTV reality show The Osbournes from 2002 to 2005.
Ozzy retired from touring in February, citing various health issues, but is planning a return to live performance. He also recently began teasing a new solo album for 2024, his 14th overall and followup to 2022’s Patient Number 9.
“I’ve had all the surgery now, thank god,” the singer told Metal Hammer in September.
“I’m feeling okay – it was just dragging on. I thought I’d be back on my feet months ago, I just couldn’t get used to this mode of living, constantly having something wrong. I can’t walk properly yet, but I’m not in any pain any more and the surgery on my spine went great.
“I’m getting myself fit,” he added. “I’ve done two albums fairly recently [Patient Number 9 and 2020’s Ordinary Man], but I want to do one more album and then go back on the road.”
