Ozzy Osbourne was a wild character. We all know tons of crazy stories about the heavy metal godfather, and now we’ve got one more, thanks to ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons.
The anecdote comes up in If These Walls Could Rock, a documentary film that explores the legendary past of West Hollywood’s Sunset Marquis hotel. According to PEOPLE, Gibbons pops up in the flick and shares a time when Ozzy pulled a prank that left a bunch of broken glass by the pool. It was apparently so bad that no one could leave, and so they all just kept the epic party going.
“Ozzy Osbourne happened to be at the pool at the Marquis. He signaled me over… and he knew about a restaurant called Le Pirate,” Gibbons recalled. “At the end of the night, you would toss a glass, and he said, ‘Maybe we should make that part of the Marquis.’”
Ozzy Osbourne trapped barefoot partygoers in the Sunset Marquis pool area by getting them to smash their drink glasses on the ground
Gibbons says he pointed out to Ozzy that pretty much everyone at this party was barefoot. Ozzy was undeterred, however, and proceeded to smash his glass on the ground. That one smash, Gibbons says, set off a chain reaction.
“And then everybody got in on the action. Within 30 seconds, every glass that had been surrounding the pool was now in shatters. And it became so dangerous that nobody could leave,” Gibbons recalled. He then added, “So the party went on until the wee hours. That’s the kind of s**t that happens at the Marquis.”
The Osbournes would stay at the Sunset Marquis every summer during Ozzy’s touring days
Elsewhere in the documentary, Ozzy’s widow, Sharon Osbourne, shared her experience with the Sunset Marquis. She revealed that, before they had their own L.A. home, the Osbournes would stay there every summer while Ozzy toured America. It met all their needs, but it also perpetuated Ozzy’s “sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll” lifestyle, so it was a complicated situation for them.
“He would love it here because he could wander. He could wander around outside in the garden. In those days he’d smoke,” Sharon reflected. She added that Ozzy liked to wander around and greet all the other guests. “It was like you were in your own home with a lot of friends,” she shared.
Kelly Osbourne says she tried hard drugs for the first time at the Sunset Marquis
Ozzy’s daughter, Kelly Osbourne, also spoke about the Sunset Marquis. She remembers it as “the only hotel that my dad could stay in, at the time, where my dad could be himself.”
“We’d be kicked out of everywhere, but not the Sunset Marquis,” she added. “My dad could misbehave politely here.”
Kelly says she “felt like a little Eloise” exploring the hotel as a child. Her teenage years were a different storybook, however. “I had my first drink in this hotel. I had my first kiss in this hotel.
“I did my first line of cocaine in this hotel,” she confessed. “Which was given to me by one of my dad’s friends in a very, very, very big band, and I could never tell my parents because they would f**king kill him.”
If These Walls Could Rock is currently available to stream on Apple TV and Amazon Prime Video.
Photo by Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images for The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The post Legendary Rocker Recalls Ozzy Osbourne Pulling a Poolside Prank With Shattered Glass With Surprisingly Positive Results appeared first on VICE.
