It was on January 20th, 1982 when Ozzy Osbourne cemented his place in rock infamy by biting the head off a real bat during a concert in Des Moines, IA. It’s a story that rock fans know well: Osbourne – already known for biting heads off of things at shows – grabbed what he perceived as a rubber bat which was thrown on stage and bit the head off of it. He found out pretty quick it was real.
Ozzy had a show scheduled for March 23rd, 1983 at the Brown County Arena. He was no stranger to Green Bay… he played the Arena in August of 1981 with Def Leppard opening. But the bat incident along with other controversies that followed “The Prince of Darkness” were contributing factors to the 1983 show almost being cancelled. The Brown County Board received a complaint from a concerned citizen which was passed on to the Arena Committee about the concert and after hearing from the public voted 4-0 to cancel the show, which was essentially a recommendation to the Brown County Board who would have to vote on it at their next meeting.
However, WAPL was not about to let that happen. Program Director Wayne Shayne immediately started petitions which fans could sign at the radio station as well as local music shops. In addition, WAPL planned an on-air Ozzy “Superkill” featuring many of his songs. According to the Green Bay Press-Gazette, WAPL had over 5600 signatures by March 3rd and eventually over 10,000.
All the fuss was for naught however as Ozzy cancelled the show due to illness the night before. Osbourne would eventually return to Green Bay for a concert on July 11th, 1986 with Metallica as the opening act.
