30 years ago today, on 20 January 1982, an anonymous fan of Ozzy Osbourne took a live bat to a concert of the then-ex-Black Sabbath frontman in Iowa, Des Moines. He/She threw it onstage, and the rest, as they say, is history. While (thankfully) no footage of Osbourne’s unwitting chiropteracide, it does give us a good excuse to go revisit the album he was promoting on that tour – 1981′s Diary Of A Madman

1982 was a pretty significant year for Ozzy Osbourne – not only was it the year of The Bat Incident, but it was also the year that his friend and guitarist, Randy Rhodes, died in a plane crash. All in all, it was a pretty grim year for the man known to his mother as John Michael Osbourne.

Luckily for Ozzy, things are a bit rosier for him in 2012. As frontman of the reformed Black Sabbath, Ozzy will once again be touring the world’s biggest venues as part of the band’s 2012 world tour – including a headline spot at this year’s Download Festival. However, given that Black Sabbath’s back catalogue is full to it’s black-clad brim with veritable classics, we doubt we’ll be seeing any Ozzy solo-material performed live any time soon – which is all the more reason to break out tracks like ‘Flying High Again’.