DECEMBER 3, 1948

At the height of his fame, even Ozzy Osbourne didn’t think he’d live to a ripe old age.

So it’s quite incredible that “The Prince Of Darkness”, will celebrate his 70th birthday on December 3.

Ozzy’s wild living ways started as the vocalist with Black Sabbath – as he himself said they started out as a drinking band that occasionally did drugs but became a drug band that occasionally had a drink. The group fired Ozzy for his vast alcohol and narcotics intake in 1979, but he went on to enjoy huge stardom with a string of hit solo albums.

Ozzy’s longevity earned him another nickname “The Godfather Of Heavy Metal”, though he’s tempted fate many times along the way.

Infamously, in 1982 he bit the head off a live bat that was thrown on to the stage during a gig in Des Moines.

Ozzy wrote in his autobiography that the bat managed to bite him, too, resulting in his having to be treated for possible rabies.

After he achieved another kind of fame as a reality TV star, Ozzy had another brush with death when he crashed his quadbike, breaking a neck vertebra.