Ozzy Osbourne has apologized for that one time he peed on the Alamo
LatestWell, that’s a relief!
Ozzy Osbourne visited to San Antonio on Thursday for a television show taping, and while he was there he took time to apologize for the time he peed near The Alamo back in 1982.
Osbourne arrived in Texas this week with his son Jack to film a show for the History Channel where the two visit sites of historical value.
Back in the 1980s, metalheads may recall, Osbourne wasn’t the Lone Star State’s favorite rocker. While on tour with Black Sabbath in February of 1982, the night before a show at HemisFair Arena, an intoxicated Osbourne was arrested after befouling a statue across the street from the fort-turned-museum. He was subsequently banned from the city for ten years. Per a 2003 story inThe Boston Herald:
“What happened was he was with a bunch of band members after the show,” says the guide. “They were dawdling and he had to go. When he couldn’t get them to leave he just unzipped his trousers and went right where he was standing.”
Where he was standing happened to be across the street from The Alamo at the stately, 60-foot-high Cenotaph. Erected in 1939 by the Texas Centennial Commission, the name Cenotaph means a monument erected in honor of a dead person whose remains lie elsewhere. He was arrested and charged with public intoxication. The next morning he felt something besides hung over.
He felt regret.
So, yeah, Ozzy Osbourne actually urinated across from the street from The Alamo, and not upon it. Nevertheless, the legend of Ozzy Osbourne peeing on the Alamo is a lot more exciting than the legend of Ozzy Osbourne peeing right across the street from the Alamo, so that is the story that stuck. Peeing on The Alamo became an illicit tourist activity, probably inspired by Ozzy. It’s even been the subject of a piece of installation art that makes a motion detector-activated wax statue of Osbourne pee on whatever surface it is facing should anyone walk by. It’s utterly horrifying.
Anyway, after his 10-year ban had lapsed, in 1992, Osbourne thanked the city and donated $10,000 to the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, the group that handles maintenance for Alamo.
Now, however, Osbourne is attempting to formally apologize. At first, it seemed like it wouldn’t happen at all because of state interference:
Humorously, Channel 5 was at the scene regardless:
https://twitter.com/joshx13_/status/662363635423973376
Which is good because the Ozz Man made an appearance at City Hall (presumably to clear up the permit issue):
And then he and son Jack were on the move:
People started to assemble to get a glimpse of Ozzy:
Finally, the moment that was nearly 34 years in the making:
https://twitter.com/gilgamesh470/status/662389353566474240
You can watch Fox San Antonio’s live video feed here. We’ll embed the archived video after the, um, stream has ended.
David Matthews operates the Wayback Machine on Fusion.net—hop on. Got a tip? Email him: [email protected]