Black Sabbath was one of the first heavy metal bands ever, consider them the grandfathers of heavy metal. They influenced generations of music fans, and are still a great band, and considered one of the greatest rock bands ever.
The members of Sabbath didn't live too far away from each other in the blue-collar city of Aston, Birmingham, England, but their relations as kids were not too good. John Osbourne (known as Ozzy Osbourne) was often picked on by "the bully", Tony Iommi, and Terrance Butler was a social outcast. The three grew older and started loving and appreciating music more, they played in rival bands that didn't do too good, but they became friends. They got drummer Bill Ward, in 1967 they formed Polka Tulk;
Ozzy Osbourne - vocals
Tony Iommi - guitar
Terrance Butler - bass
Bill Ward - Drums
Jimmy Phillips - rhythm guitar
Acker - Saxaphone
The band did ok, but Phillips and Acker were kicked out of the band, and the band renamed to Earth Blues Company, known as "Earth". They played blues heavy rock, and got a small fan base playing local clubs.
1969 - man walks on the moon, and Tony Iommi left the band to play with Jethro Tull, but he quit that and returned to Earth shortly, (with a new idea) The popularity of horror films making people scared, Iommi decided, "Let's make scary music", Butler agreed, as he had an obsession in the occult, the band made some "scary tunes", dark and brooding songs. The band later renamed to "Black Sabbath", which was named after a 1930's film, Black Sabbath.
Now, a problem, in 1970, just before the recording of the self titled debut album, Iommi (being a lefty guitarist) in an industrial accident, lost the tips of his right hand fingers. He found it too painful to press down on the strings, but he got make-shift thimbles to wear made out of melted plastic, he also tuned his guitar on lower notes, so he wouldn't have to press down as hard.
1970 - the debut self titles album is released, and the album "Paranoid" came out shortly after in 1971. The songs were great and heavy, but the satanic lyrics and over tones got them into trouble with parents and conservative organizations, mostly people that were Catholic. The band were called Satanists, they were also influenced by drugs and alchohol, which didn't help keeping the complaints away. The third album released was "Master of Reality"
It didn't change Black Sabbath very much.
The band released "Vol. 4" in 1972, the music changed a bit, still complaints coming, and management problems, the fifth album "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath"
came out in 1973, which did very well.
The next album, "Sabotage" came out in 1975, and the next "Technical Ecstasy" in 1976, which weren't doing all the best. For the eighth album, things didn't go so well - Ozzy quit the band in 1977. He would be replaced by Dave Walker. Ozzy returned though - for the album "Never Say Die" which came out in 1978. After that, Ozzy left for good to do a solo career, which did amazingly well throughtout the years.
The band hired singer, Ronnie James Dio, the band promised a new Black Sabbath, "Heaven and Hell" came out in 1980, in 1982, Dio left. So again, a new vocalist was needed, the vocalist position was given as a revolving door to Ian Gillan, Glen Hughes, and Tony Martin. By the 1986 album, "Seventh Star", drummer, Ward, and bassist, Butler had left the band. Tony Iommi was the only remaining original Black Sabbath member, the band continued to release albums.
1997, The band (except Ward) reunited at Ozzfest, Mike Bordin did the drums for the show. In December 4 1997, Ward joined the band for a show in Birmingham. The live album "Reunion" was released in 1998, and then Black Sabbath went on a world tour.
Bio written by: _Destroyer_ |
|
Add to Profile
