Ozzy Osbourne had a wild reputation — he urinated on the Alamo, bit the head off of a live bat, and even attempted to strangle his wife once. But the rock legend wasn’t about to have his name tarnished by the police department in Fargo, North Dakota.
Unbeknownst to Osbourne, his name was used in a sting operation to catch various North Dakota residents with outstanding warrants. At the time, Cass County Sheriff Paul D. Laney mailed invitations to local fugitives, inviting them to a preshow concert party said to offer all of the same perks available to fans who purchased VIP tour packages. Invites were mailed to 40 unsuspecting citizens who showed up to the bash, only to get handcuffed and arrested.
“Why did we do this?” Laney told ABC News in 2007. “The criminals are creative, so we had to get creative too. They give us fake addresses, fake phone numbers, sometimes their families cover for them, sometimes their employees cover for them.”
So, authorities thought they would use these “criminals” tricks against them. But Osbourne wasn’t happy about it.
Despite the county’s lawyers’ review of the operation, it wasn’t well-received by the Prince of Darkness himself, who called the ordeal “insulting.”
“Instead of holding a press conference to pat himself on the back, Sheriff Laney should be apologizing to me for using my name in connection with these arrests,” Osbourne said in a statement. “It’s insulting to me and to my audience, and it shows how lazy this particular sheriff is when it comes to doing his job. It’s obvious to me that this sheriff has an agenda and is just trying to make a name for himself on my back.”
In 2020, Ozzy revealed his stage 2 Parkinson’s disease diagnosis. He joined Black Sabbath for his final show in July 2025 in his hometown of Birmingham, England and died a few weeks later on July 22, 2025.
