Ozzy Osbourne Gave Up Acid in the '70s After Spending an Hour Talking to a Horse

Mar. 15, 2025

Ozzy Osbourne.Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty

Ozzy Osbournerecalled how a conversation with a horse led him to stop taking acid in the 1970s.

In an interview withClassic 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 toldClassic 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.”

Last year, Osbourneopened upabout his uphill battle with substance abuse in an interview withVariety.

“I should have been dead 1,000 times,” he toldVarietyafter 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.

Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne.Mike Marsland/WireImage

“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 wifeSharon, 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 toldVariety.

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Sharon alsospokeabout the moment she realized she couldn’t make her husband stop using drugs and alcohol during a 2016 episode ofThe 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.’ "

source: people.com