The Traumatic Fatal Incident That Changed the Osbournes’ Lives Forever

Ozzy Osbourne and company have been known for their wild antics since Black Sabbath first got together back in the late 1960s. From biting the head off of a bat to the general drug-fueled debauchery that comes with being a world-famous rock star, Osbourne has endured some crazy stuff. But not all of those incidents have been fondly looked back on. On one fateful day in 1982, tragedy struck. Osbourne, his wife Sharon, and a number of other people in his tour bus narrowly survived a horrific and fatal incident. That incident claimed the lives of several people, including Osbourne’s bandmate, Randy Rhoads.

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A Playful Joyride Turned Into a Horrific Tragedy for the Osbournes and Others in Attendance

In March of 1982, while Osbourne and company were on tour in the United States for one of his successful solo ventures, they made a stop in Leesburg, Florida, for the night. Ozzy and Sharon were asleep in their tour bus. Meanwhile, their tour bus driver and a private pilot named Andrew Aycock decided to take advantage of the number of small planes on a nearby property. Without permission, they decided to take a joyride. Aycock and a number of other people, including Rhoads, climbed aboard. 

During the flight, the pilot flew too close to the tour bus. He clipped the side of it with one of the plane’s wings. Apparently, the pilot did so on purpose to rouse one of the people on the bus. The Osbournes weren’t woken up to see the horrible aftermath of the incident until the plane spun out of control and crashed into a nearby mansion’s garage. There, it burst into flames, killing Rhoads, Aycock, and a makeup artist named Rachel Youngblood. The carnage was so terrible that Rhoads had to be identified by dental records.

“They were all in bits, it was just body parts everywhere,” Sharon Osbourne horrifically recalled.

Rhoads was allegedly afraid of flying and had no intention of boarding the plane. However, he wanted to take a few aerial photos with his camera and decided to board regardless. 

Following the incident, many of Osbourne and Rhoads’ contemporaries recalled feeling overwhelming grief over the loss of Rhoads. Later, Osbourne would admit that the pilot had been using c*caine for hours ahead of the crash. The aftermath has likely haunted the Osbournes for decades.

The horrible irony of the incident is that shortly before they made their stop in Leesburg, Rhoads had been giving Osbourne a stern talking-to about his heavy drinking while on tour. “You’ll kill yourself, you know, one of these days,” said Rhoads. Haunting.

Photo by Fin Costello/Redferns