Sharon Osbourne Faked Mother-in-Law's Death Over Ozzy's Japan No-Show

Sharon Osbourne has revealed she once had to fake her mother-in-law's death in order to get husband Ozzy out of a Japanese tour after the singer was too drunk to board his flight.

The notorious hell-raiser, who was battling alcohol and drug problems at the time, was so incapacitated that wife and manager Sharon had to fabricate the story so concert promoters would accept Ozzy's no-show.

Speaking on her US TV show 'The Talk' (via Contactmusic), Sharon said, "My client, my husband, he was misbehaving. He had this huge tour of Japan, all done, tickets were all sold out, everything. The day he was meant to arrive at the airport, I couldn't get him on the plane because he drank too much."

She continued, "So I'm thinking, 'Japan, they look at it as being really rude if you say you're gonna do something and you don't, and especially for a show'. So I called them up and said, 'I'm sorry, Ozzy won't be coming to Japan.' (They asked), 'Tomorrow?' 'No.' 'In a week?' 'No.' 'Why is he not coming?' 'Er, his mother just died.' So that was fabulous, everybody felt really bad, they excused him."

But the lie almost came back to haunt the Osbourne camp when Ozzy went to Japan a few years later, just after his mother had passed away for real.

"He went back again and he was really sad and they said, 'What's the matter Ozzy?' He went, 'My mother just died' and they said, 'Hold on, but your mother died three years ago.' And he goes, 'Oh no, that was my stepmother!'"

Watch Ozzy Osbourne Play 'Mr Crowley' at the Budokan in 2002