Cutline for the photo of Ozzy and the other man:

Bob Quinton of Auburn poses with Ozzy Osbourne outside a Malibu ice cream shop in June 2002. Quinton, 64, couldn’t name one of Osbourne’s songs, but he wanted to grab a photo with the rocker for fan Deb Bradbury. After the first shot, Ozzy said “Take one more,’ and grabbed me by the throat and did that famous open-mouthed whatever it is” pose, Quinton said.

Batty about Ozzy
Deb Bradbury likes the British rocker’s music and message.

LEWISTON – Deb Bradbury’s vehicles over that past 12 years – a Ford Tempo, a mini-van, a GMC Jimmy – have sported an OZZYOZ license plate.

She’s got Ozzy Osbourne concert T-shirts, albums, duplicates of her favorite CDs – one for car, one for home – a drum snare with his autograph and an orange tabby named Ozzy.

When Bradbury was pregnant with her son, Leonard, she hung headphones on her belly so he could listen to the mumbling rocker.

Everyone has their person, she says. Hers is Osbourne.

She saw her first concert in the summer of 1981, a year after graduating from Edward Little High School. The ticket price: $8.50. At a small theater years later she paid $150.

She’s seen him 10 times.

“I just like his music and his meaning,” says Bradbury, 42. “I always stick up for him. He’s not as weird as people think.”

Yes, the former Black Sabbath frontman bit the head off a bat on stage, but he assumed it was plastic, Bradbury says. And yes, he bit the head off a dove too.

“He peed on the Alamo – stupid. What can I say?”

She doesn’t care so much about the public missteps.

Listening to his music is relaxing. It still soothes Leonard, now 2, when he gets fussy.

Bradbury would love to meet Osbourne. She’s never gotten closer than 100 feet.

At least he knows about her.

Two years ago, as a vacationing Bob Quinton sat with his family eating ice cream in a Malibu strip mall, he noticed a commotion outside the door. It was teenage girls, “you know, squealing how they do,” Quinton remembered. They were all eager to pose with a tattooed man.

He stepped outside and found Osbourne.

Quinton owns Quinco Fabrics in the same Main Street complex as Marden’s, where Bradbury had worked. He didn’t know Bradbury, but he’d seen her OZZYOZ in the parking lot for years.

He told the Brit about the custom plate. “That seemed to really intrigue him,” Quinton said. Osbourne gladly mugged for a photo.

“He was as friendly as you can imagine,” said Quinton. And he wore great cologne.

Back home, Quinton tracked down Bradbury and passed along the pic. Now a freelance graphic designer, she has it hanging in her home office.

“It was wild, I couldn’t believe it,” said Bradbury. The encounter made for a great Ozzy story, even if, she jokes, Osbourne wasn’t inspired to track her down.

She doesn’t watch his MTV show – it’s on too late and too over the top. Bradbury did dress as her idol some years ago for a Halloween party: black clothes, cape, wig, sunglasses, subtle red highlights.

It’s a delicate balance being a mom and an Osbourne fan. She hung his calendar in her kitchen last year. Every month a different member of his family waved the middle finger.

So she covered the offending hands with a small piece of paper.