Ozzy Osbourne Gave Up Acid in the '70s After Spending an Hour Talking to a Horse
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Kevin Winter/Getty Ozzy Osbourne
Ozzy Osbourne recalled how a conversation with a horse led him to stop taking acid in the 1970s.
In an interview with Classic Rock, the rock legend, 73, looked back on recording his former band Black Sabbath's fourth album, Vol. 4, which was released in September 1972.
"We lived together in a house in Los Angeles, rehearsed there, did loads of drugs and made an album: simple," Osbourne said. "Those were good times."
"At that time in America, people were very fond of lacing your drinks with acid," he added. "I didn't care. I used to swallow handfuls of tabs at a time."
Osbourne decided to stop taking acid after an encounter with a horse in England.
"The end of it came when we got back to England," he told Classic Rock. "I took 10 tabs of acid then went for a walk in a field. I ended up standing there talking to this horse for about an hour. In the end the horse turned round and told me to f— off. That was it for me."
RELATED: Ozzy Osbourne Reveals a Fight with Son Jack Helped Him Get Sober: 'It Knocked Me Sideways'
Ozzy Osbourne performs during the closing ceremony for the Commonwealth Games
Last year, Osbourne opened up about his uphill battle with substance abuse in an interview with Variety.
"I should have been dead 1,000 times," he told Variety after he admitted, "I thought I'd be drinking to the day I die."
The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer said his addiction impacted his ability to be a present father to his children.
Mike Marsland/WireImage
RELATED: Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne Share Romantic Kiss While Vacationing in Hawaii: 'Aloha'
"I didn't give a s—, because I was loaded," he admitted. "It's a very selfish disease. You don't think about it because you're loaded, in an altered state."
Over the years, his wife Sharon, 69, often worried about him — and whether he would return from his tours alive.
"I was terrified that he was going to get sick in the night, or fall over, hit his head," she told Variety.
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Sharon also spoke about the moment she realized she couldn't make her husband stop using drugs and alcohol during a 2016 episode of The Talk.
"It was an incident a few years back when my husband called me up and he said … 'I want you to know that I'm back drinking,' " she recalled. "And I just said, 'Hey, do what you've gotta do. Knock yourself out. See you later. Bye.' "
Osbourne continued: "And he told me that when I did that he was so shocked by it. He was really, like, taken back by my attitude that he thought again before he took another drink — however he still did. But it … shocked him."
