... Their 1970 self-titled debut album hit the top 10 in the U.K. and No. 23 on the U.S. charts. A year later, their second album, “Paranoid,” topped the charts in the U.K. and reached No. 12 across the pond.
Still, the critics were not kind at first. Black Sabbath was dismissed by some as “Satanic claptrap” and worse.
... Despite all his success, Osbourne — in the eyes of many in the public
— continued to be the madman who outraged animal rights groups in 1982
by biting the head off a live bat during a concert in Des Moines, Iowa.
“I thought it was a rubber bat,” Osbourne said at the time. “I picked it up, put it in my mouth, crunched down, bit into it, being the clown that I am.”
That same year, Osbourne infuriated the state of Texas by urinating on the Alamo, a stunt that got him arrested. ...
