Van Halen frontman David Lee Roth recently shared a wild road story involving his longtime friend Ozzy Osbourne. He posted the account in a new video on his Instagram.
The story recalls a chaotic night on tour when Black Sabbath lost track of Ozzy after a long evening of celebrating with Roth. A religious cult-like group had reportedly sent Ozzy death threats during the same period.
“Y’all heard of Ozzy? Ozzy Osbourne? Ozzy Osbourne and I were great, great friends,” Roth said. “Three million summers and a hundred years ago, we did a lot of touring. The Mighty Van Halen was opening for Black Sabbath. You’ve heard of Black Sabbath? Ozzy and I got along like buccaneer pirates. Oh my God.”
“And we were touring. We did, I can’t tell you how many shows. We did 22 cities in England alone. I didn’t even know there were that many cities in England, and we got to love it. Oh man, I miss the UK. Ozzy and I, allegedly, are on a bus just like this, the Disco Submarine. And we’re having a good time. We’re celebrating. The shows are going amazing, and the Mighty Van Halen just sold out 7 million records, and Black Sabbath is kicking it, and we’re in Nashville.”
Roth described how the night stretched well into the early morning hours. The two rock icons carried on at a Marriott hotel bar until road managers eventually tracked them down.
“We’re traveling, and we’re in Nashville. I say about the miles, because maybe I get the city wrong, but I’m in Nashville, and we’re on the bus, and we’re having a good time. Allegedly. And it’s getting late, it’s getting late,” he continued. “Ozzy and I, we learned together when we started in rock and roll, everybody does, that Friday night, usually in school, you learn that Friday night is kind of the beginning of the weekend as a child. Saturday is the beginning of the weekend. In rock and roll, Wednesday is the beginning of the weekend. And just like on the Mickey Mouse Club, Wednesday is anything could happen day.”
“And it was a Wednesday, Ozzy and I were carrying on, and midnight came and went, and one in the morning, and two and five in the morning came. We moved into the hotel, which was a Marriott. We call it an atrium because the balconies circled around.”
After the road managers rounded them up and sent them on their way to the next city, Roth assumed everything was normal — until it wasn’t.
“And they found us downstairs in the hotel bar. They say, hey, you guys, clean it up. Bags in a half, leave in an hour. That’s the mantra,” Roth said. “I get up. I’ll see you at the airport, Oz. I go upstairs. I get my stuff. Oz wanders off in his way. This was long before he met Sharon and, you know, carried on into the television show and everything.”
“The next city is Memphis. We check in. Sabbath is in the same hotel as Van Halen. It’s a Marriott hotel. In fact, it’s identical. It’s eerie. This is Groundhog Day shit.”
The situation took a tense turn backstage when Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and their manager burst in looking for answers.
“We’re sitting backstage with red cups, celebrating another glorious victory, and Tony Iommi, the guitar player, Geezer, and their manager, burst through the door, and they’re a lot less than kindly and gently supportive,” Roth recalled. “And they look at me and go, ‘What did you do to Ozzy?’ Why does it always me? Well, I know why it’s always me. Dave Roth, I’m the devil’s son-in-law, though now my duties are largely ceremonial.”
“I said, ‘What do you mean, what did I do to Ozzy?’ This is a true story. They said, ‘Ozzy has disappeared.’ I asked, ‘He disappeared?’ They don’t have him backstage. ‘We thought he was backstage. We thought he might be on your tour bus.’ He’s not on my tour bus. Last I saw him was in the hotel on the previous city. They said, ‘Yeah, but you guys were carrying on all night. He’s disappeared. He may have wandered off. We have crazy Jesus freak religious nutcase kind of cult people who sent Ozzy death messages. Ozzy may have been kidnapped. He’s being tortured to death. What did you do to Ozzy?'”
Roth left the story on a cliffhanger, promising to reveal what actually happened to Ozzy in a follow-up episode.
“Stay tuned for the next episode, and I’ll tell you what really happened,” he said.
The story dates back to the legendary 1978 Never Say Die! Tour, one of the most storied and turbulent runs in rock history. Black Sabbath brought Van Halen along as their opening act — a decision that would prove to be a turning point for both bands.
Van Halen were still riding the momentum of their self-titled debut album. They tore through 22 dates across the United Kingdom before the tour moved to North America. The pairing of the two acts created an electric atmosphere on the road, but also set the stage for the kind of excess that would define the era. The Never Say Die! Tour ran from May 16, 1978 in Sheffield through December 11, 1978 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It would ultimately go down as the last full tour Ozzy completed with Black Sabbath before being fired from the band.
The night in question has long been part of rock lore. The two frontmen reportedly engaged in a marathon session of drinking and substance use that stretched through the night. The tour crew eventually found them still going strong at the hotel bar come morning. When the bands reconvened at the next city and Ozzy was nowhere to be found, panic set in quickly. Ozzy had simply ended up in the wrong hotel room and slept through the chaos entirely — unaware that an entire tour operation had been turned upside down looking for him.
The 1978 tour also proved to be a complicated chapter for Ozzy within Black Sabbath. His behavior on the road had grown increasingly erratic, fueled by years of heavy drinking and drug use. The Never Say Die! run is widely regarded as the breaking point that led to his dismissal from the band. Ironically, it was that same period that forged his unlikely bond with Roth — a friendship built on shared excess and mutual respect between two of rock’s most flamboyant personalities.
Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler later recalled that the tour had its own internal tensions beyond the partying. As the dates went on, Roth had begun mirroring Ozzy’s stage mannerisms and persona so closely that it was visibly unsettling to Osbourne at the time. Despite those frictions, the friendship between Roth and Ozzy endured well beyond the tour. Roth has spoken warmly about Osbourne on multiple occasions in the years since.
Roth’s decision to share the story now — in episodic form on social media — reflects both his gift for storytelling and the enduring fascination fans have with that era of rock. With the cliffhanger firmly in place, the full resolution of what really happened to Ozzy that night remains, for now, his to tell.
