Remembering incident, Ozzy returns to Alamo
SAN ANTONIO — Heavy-metal rocker Ozzy Osbourne — jailed in 1982 after he urinated on the Cenotaph in Alamo Plaza — returned to the shrine Thursday as part of a film project with his son, Jack.
This time the aging rocker, who previously apologized for his behavior, was much more subdued as the Alamo City welcomed him enthusiastically.
“Of course, there’s the connection here that Ozzy Osbourne himself says he’s not very proud of, but he made amends and I told him he’s welcome here,” said Councilman Roberto Treviño, whose district encompasses the scene of Osbourne’s crime.“This city has embraced him, and we can forgive people.”
More than 100 fans swarmed the shell-shocked Prince of Darkness as he made his way to the Texas shrine — surrounded by a History Channel film crew, his own security guards and San Antonio cops. The fans cheered him every step of the way, “We love you, Ozzy.”
After Jack Osbourne pleaded with the throng for silence and space, the crew began filming.
“This is my first time here, not his,” Jack Osbourne told Stephen L. Hardin, an Alamo expert and professor of history at McMurry University in Abilene who served as the Osbourne’s tour guide.
The gist of the History Channel show is Ozzy and Jack Osbourne tour the world, building a father-son relationship that wasn’t fostered when Jack was a boy, Treviño said.
The infamous moment came on Feb. 19, 1982, when an inebriated Osbourne, in the parlance of the times, took a leak on the stone monument honoring Alamo defenders. He was jailed and bailed out for $40 before playing a sold-out show at HemisFair Arena.