Motley Crue had tried to take on Prince of Darkness Ozzy Osbourne but soon realized he was out of their league
Many avid fans of rock music know that when you put the "world's most notorious band" and the Prince of Darkness together, some sh** is going to definitely go down. The anticipation that everyone felt when Ozzy Osbourne and Motley Crue announced a tour together was palpable and everyone was hoping for stories of the ultimate forms of rock 'n' roll, but no one could have imagined what, and more specifically how much, of debauchery was going to happen when the tour began in January 1984.
Ozzy had already started his downward descent into chaos ever since his problematic alcohol and drugs consumption got him fired as the frontman of the legendary British rock band Black Sabbath five years prior to the tour in the US. Thankfully for Ozzy, the first two solo albums that he put out were great successes but the death of his friend and Sabbath guitarist Randy Rhoads in 1982 threw him off course.
The singer did not want to stick with music but then his wife and manager, Sharon Osbourne, believed that it would be much worse for Ozzy if he ever stopped. That's how the new album, Bark at the Moon, happened and that's how he met a young misfit bunch on tour in the US called the Motley Crue.
The Crue were, at the time, getting into the big leagues after cementing themselves as rising stars. Their second LP, Shout at the Devil, was on the cusp of going gold and then platinum while the tour was on-going. The young band members were filled with confidence and their bank accounts were filled with cash. That's when they decided to take on the Prince of Darkness himself and soon realized that they were way out of their league.
Ozzy and the band met during a sound check at the Cumberland County Civic Center in Portland, Maine, on January 10, and the insanity started almost immediately. The British rocker realized that he met his American partners in crime and then practically moved into their tour bus on the first night. Between Ozzy and Motley, many legendary tales would soon emerge that have rock enthusiasts debating even to this day.
The most infamous of these moments is reflected in Motley's 2001 memoir, The Dirt. Bassist Nikki Sixx says that he found himself in a strange situation challenging Ozzy, who had run out of cocaine and was wearing a woman's dress. Sixx dared Ozzy to snort a line of ants on the ground instead.
Sixx wrote in the memoir: "I handed him the straw, and he walked over to a crack in the sidewalk and bent over it. I saw a long column of ants. … And as I thought, 'No, he wouldn't,' he did. He put the straw to his nose and, with his bare white ass peeking out from under the dress like a sliced honeydew, sent the entire line of ants tickling up his nose with a single, monstrous snort."
The worst, however, was yet to come. Sixx continued: "Then he hiked up the sundress, grabbed his dick and pissed on the pavement. Without even looking at his growing audience … he knelt down and, getting the dress soggy in the puddle, lapped it up. He didn’t just flick it with his tongue, he took a half-dozen long, lingering and thorough strokes, like a cat. Then he stood up and, eyes blazing and mouth wet with urine looked straight at me. 'Do that, Sixx!'."
When recalling all the "peer pressure that I could not refuse," Sixx wrote that he also urinated in public but Ozzy got to the piss first and started licking. Sixx said: "I threw up my hands. You win." He commented at a later time that the band had no idea "whether [Osbourne's] antics were evidence of a wicked sense of humor or a severe case of schizophrenia".
In yet another insane incident from the tour, Motley's drummer Tommy Lee recalls that he was in a hotel room with Ozzy, after being tasked with babysitting him, and was horrified when Ozzy started pooping on the room floor. The Prince then allegedly used some of the poop to redecorate the room. Lee says in the 2011 film, God Bless Ozzy Osbourne: "He starts smearing shit all over the walls. He’s painting with it! And I thought, 'This is some next-level shit. I’m not ready for this! I’m cool with just taking a shit in the toilet'."
Talking about the time Motley Crue and Ozzy went on tour together in an interview in 2010, Sixx recalled that the experience in 1984 was "a blast" and "some of the best times of my life". Ozzy also, strangely, remembered that "every night, there was something crazier than the night before. … I remember being [arrested] for being drunk and disorderly in a public place. I came out of the jail at 7 in the morning and [Motley Crue] were all waiting outside with the bus – 'Come on, Oz!' It just carried on".