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Ozzy Osbourne Puts Satin Bat Coat, Devil's Head Up for Auction

By Daniel Taub

Nov. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Ozzy Osbourne came off the rails of the crazy train years ago. Now he's selling memorabilia from his days both as a devil-worshipping, drug-abusing rocker and as a chess-playing, coffee-sipping father entering premature dotage.

The items for sale during the auction on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 at the Gibson Guitar Showroom in Beverly Hills, California, range from a black satin coat with a bat-wing cape, expected to sell for $800 to $1,200, to a hand-painted, floral-design teacup that Osbourne used for coffee during filming of MTV's ``The Osbournes,'' estimated to fetch $200 to $400. Art, furniture, cars and guitars also are up for sale.

``A lot of this stuff is from our `Osbournes' house that we filmed for the TV show,'' Sharon Osbourne, Ozzy's wife of 25 years and a judge on television talent shows in the U.S. and U.K., said in an interview. ``We've moved out of that home and moved into a new home, and a lot of it doesn't fit the style of the new house or just size-wise.''

More than 500 lots will be offered during the sales, being run by West Hollywood, California-based Julien's Auctions. The items are from the Beverly Hills home featured on the MTV show, the couple's Malibu, California, beach house, and their mansion in Buckinghamshire, England. A portion of the sale's proceeds will be donated to the Sharon Osbourne Colon Cancer Program at Los Angeles's Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where Sharon, 55, was treated for cancer five years ago.

Ozzy Osbourne, 58, gained fame as the frontman of proto-metal band Black Sabbath. As a solo artist in the 1980s, he recorded such hits as ``Crazy Train'' and ``Mr. Crowley,'' many of which had lyrics dealing with the occult.

Live Bat, Arrest

During a tour supporting his 1981 album ``Diary of a Madman,'' a concertgoer threw a live bat on stage, and Osbourne, thinking it was a toy, bit into its neck. Osbourne was rushed to a hospital to be checked for rabies. In 1982, in San Antonio, Texas, he was arrested while wearing a dress for urinating on a memorial in front of the Alamo.

Osbourne struggled with drug and alcohol addiction for much of his career. By the time ``The Osbournes,'' a reality show focused on the home life of Osbourne and his family, debuted in 2002, viewers found that rock's Prince of Darkness had mellowed into a loving if befuddled father and husband. The show, which ran for four seasons, was among MTV's most-watched programs.

Many of the items up for sale were featured on the show. The most recognizable item may be a patina-covered bronze plaque of a devil's head that hung on the Osbournes' front door. The plaque is expected to sell for $800 to $1,200.

`Don't Let That Go'

Also for sale is a walnut parquetry games table that appeared in ``The Osbournes'' throughout the series's run. It's expected to sell for $4,000 to $6,000, and is among the items Osbourne and his children Jack and Kelly were most reluctant to part with, Sharon Osbourne said.

``There's a lot that they are, you know, `Oh no, don't let that go, mom. No, no, no,''' she said. ``Ozzy didn't want the chess table to go. Neither did Jack. Because they played chess a lot and that was in our games room too. But I thought, no, that has to go.'' The Osbournes' new home, in Hidden Hills, California, has a library rather than a game room, she said.

Among the priciest items for sale are a 2006 Bentley Continental Flying Spur, expected to sell for $160,000 to $180,000; a 2005 Cadillac CTS-V sedan Jack Osbourne had driven, expected to sell for $30,000 to $40,000; and a 1950 Oldsmobile Futuramic 88 Club Coupe once owned by romance author Danielle Steel, expected to sell for $40,000 to $50,000. The cars will be among the easiest items to give up, Sharon Osbourne said.

``Cars don't really mean a lot to us,'' she said. ``You know, we're not great car people, Ozzy and I. They really don't do a lot for us.''

Not all of the items are so pricey. A bid of $150 to $200 may get a buyer a framed photograph of actor David Hasselhoff autographed to Kelly Osbourne, along with a ``Mr. P'' table lamp that features a phallus-shaped power switch.

To contact the reporter on this story: Daniel Taub in Los Angeles at dtaub@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 26, 2007 02:09 EST

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