The story of Ozzy Osbourne snorting ants has been well-told, most famously in Motley Crue’s notorious biopic The Dirt.
Though fans - and manager/wife Sharon - have come to doubt that the prank ever really happened, Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee has reflected on the incident during a recent appearance on This Past Weekend With Theo Von, insisting that it's "full-on true".
In 1984, Lee's band Motley Crue were on tour with The Prince Of Darkness, both staying in together in a hotel and engaging in what can only be described as unregulated rockstar excess.
During their tour-stop, the two bands, who undoubtedly were under the influence of copious amounts of drugs and alcohol, got involved in a competition to see who could perform the most outrageous prank.
Emphasising the story's validity, Lee continues, "I know people ask that all the time. They're, like, 'Dude, really?' I'm, like, abso-fucking-lutely. You can't make that shit up."
He says, "At that time, it was just kind of a thing — everybody was into [trying to] out-rock star and out-gross somebody out, like out-partying".
Circling back to the moment the star supposedly sent critters flying up his nose, the drummer explains: "So Ozzy's wasted. He sees there's a little trail of ants going all the way to this kid's popsicle that he left on the ground. And Ozzy looks down and fucking just snorts the line of ants going to the popsicle.
"And Nikki [Sixx] is like, 'Okay. Well, fuck that.' So Nikki pulls his dick out at the pool. This is a hotel. This was, like, the Four Seasons [hotel], I think, in Dallas. And [there were] people, kids, everything. Nikki goes, 'Fuck that. Watch this.' Nikki goes to pee on the ground and Nikki's gonna lick up his own piss to outdo Ozzy. And before Nikki could do it, Ozzy fucking beats him to it and licks up his piss. And we're, like, 'All right, Ozzy. You win. You win, dude.’”
Speaking of what prank Ozzy pulled next, Lee reveals that things took an even grosser turn after his bandmates left.
“I'm like, 'Come on, Ozz. We're getting kicked out [of the pool]. I'm gonna take you up to your room", he recalls. "We get in the elevator. We're going up, and there's people in the fucking elevator.
“He pulls his pants down and he just starts fucking [pushing hard],” Lee recalled. “He's shitting. I'm, like, 'Ozzy, dude. No! Fuck! Dude, no.'”
Though Lee succeeds in stopping Ozzy from defecating in the lift with the er, love-making' couple, the Sabbath star continues his work when back in his room, sadly nowhere near a toilet.
“I'm like, 'OK, buddy. See you later,'” Lee says. “And he goes, 'Come here.' I'm like, 'I'm gonna go.' He's like, 'No, you come here.' I go in, and now he's gonna finish. He just starts shitting in the middle of the room. He bends down, picks it up and starts painting the walls with his shit. I'm, like, 'I've gotta go, dude.' And I fucking bailed.”
Last year, Sharon Osbourne refuted the ant-snorting story during an episode of The Osbournes podcast, suggesting that the anecdote may have been made up to promote Motley Crue's 2019 film.
"I was not there, thank God. I used to try and stay away from Mötley (Crüe) when they were with Ozzy", she said. "And I don't know. I honestly don't know.
"All I know is that I think it made their movie and I wanna know why - now we're on the subject - of why when they advertised their movie on Netflix, it's a picture of a guy imitating Ozzy? Why isn't the ad campaign a picture of Mötley Crüe? Why is it a picture of your father?!".
