Back in November 1978, Van Halen was the opening band on Black Sabbath’s North American tour. By most accounts, David Lee Roth’s band put on a far superior show. Sabbath were in the throes of their drug-induced downfall, had just fired and then re-hired their lead singer Ozzy Osbourne, and the entire band struggled to keep it all together.
On the other hand, Van Halen were on an incredible upward trajectory. They were younger, hungrier, had more energy, and were thrilled to be on their first world tour. They savoured every minute – and none more than their frontman David Lee Roth. The energetic and flamboyant singer was ready to challenge anyone, even Ozzy Osbourne.
The show at the Boutwell Memorial Auditorium in Birmingham, Alabama on 8 November had been great. Spirits were high, and Ozzy and DLR both felt like partying. Their substance of choice that evening was cocaine. Ozzy was more than known for partying, but Roth was a legendary hard partier in his own right, and had become enough of a drug enthusiast that he challenged The Prince of Darkness to a snort-off. Ozzy did not need to be asked twice, and the two rock frontmen engaged in a competition to see who could snort the most cocaine without collapsing.
The snort-off lasted all through the night and until 9 the next morning. “Oz, wake-up’s in, like, thirty minutes,” said DLR. I’ve got to go clean up a little.” Ozzy agreed. “Okay. We’ll continue this later.” At that point, they had snorted enough cocaine to stop the hearts of a half-dozen normal men. They still managed to get onto their tour buses as they took off.
The next show was scheduled to happen on the very next day, in Nashville on 9 November 1978. The buses arrived at their hotels without any problems. The musicians jumped out of their transport and went inside to check in.
Hours later, Black Sabbath’s touring party realise that nobody has seen or heard from Ozzy. They know he can’t be in his hotel room because the tour manager never gave Ozzy his hotel room key. No extra key has been checked out at the reception either.
This is the start of a manhunt. Everybody ends up looking for the Black Sabbath singer, and in the end the tour manager even contacts the police to let them know Ozzy Osbourne is missing. Shortly after, the Nashville police and the FBI begin searching for Ozzy. The entire hotel and surrounding area is swarming with officers. As Ozzy continues to be missing, the authorities start wondering whether he has been kidnapped.
At the back of everybody’s minds lingers the thought that he might be dead. Everybody had heard of the snort-off at this time, and knew there could be sudden aftereffects from such an ordeal. DLR feels heartbroken about it and terribly guilty. His Sabbath bandmates had seen a lot before, and were now wondering whether this was going to be the one time when Ozzy did not make it. Everybody is seriously concerned. DLR later recalled the Sabbath guys hanging out sitting on a carpet in the hotel lobby with grim faces, waiting to have their worst fears confirmed.
The band did the soundcheck without Ozzy, hoping for the best. When it got closer to showtime with the singer still gone, it started dawning on them that he was really not going to show. They were getting nervous. The manager asked DLR if he could fill in for Ozzy, but he didn’t know the songs and couldn’t. In the end, the manager had to cancel Black Sabbath’s concert.
About 24 hours after he was last seen, Ozzy stumbles into the hotel lobby and says ‘Hello guys, where is the show tonight?’ The guys were literally yelling, ‘Ozzy’s alive!‘ and the singer had no clue what all the fuss was about.
Apparently, Ozzy had his old room key from the hotel in Alabama and thought it was for the Nashville hotel. Ozzy went straight to the room with the same room number. As fortune would have it, the door was currently open as it was being cleaned by a housekeeper at the time. Ozzy kicked them out of the room and promptly passed out on the bed for 24 hours as his body attempted to recover from the coke duel.
Lt. Sherman Nickens of the Nashville, Tennessee PD commented on the incident after the fact. His info about Ozzy was likely not firsthand.
“Ozzy Osbourne may have been kidnapped or been the victim of some other form of foul play. Here’s a man who makes a lot of money and has never missed a show in ten years. He doesn’t drink or use dope. He disappears and his people are so frantic. So it was possible that something had happened to this man. While all the time he’s sleeping.”
The moral of the story? Never enter a coke-snorting competition with David Lee Roth, even if your name is Ozzy Osbourne!
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