On May 15, 1984, Ozzy Osbourne played a legendary set at the Mid-South Coliseum on the Bark at the Moon Tour, and then ended up in a Shelby County jail cell just hours later.
Police reports indicated that Osbourne was arrested just after midnight while he was “staggering drunk” on Memphis’ Beale Street. He was charged with one misdemeanor count of public intoxication. After five hours in custody, Osbourne was released from jail and informed that he would not need to return for a court appearance.
When arrested he stated “See, I can’t just do a casual line of coke that concept doesn’t make sense to me,” he confessed. “I never walked into a bar just to have a drink. I never smoked a joint just to chill. If I was in a bar, I was there to get completely wasted. It honestly never crossed my mind that other people might be going there just to have one drink.”
So how exactly did the Blues jersey in his mugshot come to be?
Osbourne packed 132 performances over parts of three years during his Bark at the Moon Tour. This included two stops each in St. Louis and Memphis, albeit at different points of the year.
Osbourne performed at the St. Louis Arena (former home of the Blues) on Feb. 10, 1984 and at the Kiel Opera House on May 3, 1984. It’s believed he bought the Blues jersey in St. Louis during one of his visits that year, though documentation confirming when and how he got it was scarce.
Osbourne had one scheduled day off between two Tennessee shows (Knoxville and Memphis) on May 14, 1984. That turned into a night of drinking, ultimately leading to Osbourne’s arrest around 12:30 a.m. on the next calendar day, presumably in the Blues shirt.
Known for his eccentric personality, Osbourne’s arrest came well after he bit the head off of a bat and urinated on the Alamo Cenotaph. Many years later, he admitted to alcoholism and drug abuse during the peak of his career, though he remains hopeful for a healthier future.
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