Biography from RollingStone.com
Mixing equal parts bone-crushing volume, catatonic tempos, and ominous pronouncements of gloom and doom delivered in Ozzy Osbourne's keening voice, Black Sabbath was the heavy-metal king of the '70s. Despised by rock critics and ignored by radio programmers, the group sold over 8 million albums before Osbourne departed for a solo career in 1979 [see entry]. The band's original lineup reunited for a two-year tour in 1997.
The four original members, schoolmates from a working-class district of industrial Birmingham, first joined forces as the Polka Tulk Blues Company, a blues band. They quickly changed their name to Earth, then, in 1969, to Black Sabbath; the name came from the title of a song written by bassist Geezer Butler, a fan of occult novelist Dennis Wheatley. It may also have been an homage to a Boris Karloff film. The quartet’s eponymously titled 1970 debut, recorded in two days, went to #8 in England and #23 in the U.S. A single, “Paranoid,” released in advance of the album of the same name, reached #4 in the U.K. later that year; it was the group’s only Top 20 hit.
The single didn’t make the U.S. Top 40, but the Paranoid LP, issued in early 1971, eventually sold 4 million copies despite virtually no airplay. Beginning in December 1970 Sabbath toured the States relentlessly. Despite the band members’ intense drug and alcohol abuse, the constant road work paid off, and by 1974 Black Sabbath was considered peerless among heavy-metal acts, its first five LPs all having sold at least a million copies apiece in America alone.
In spite of their name, the crosses erected onstage, and songs dealing with apocalypse, death, and destruction, the band members insisted their interest in the black arts was nothing more than innocuous curiosity (the sort that led Ozzy Osbourne to sit through eight showings of The Exorcist), and in time Black Sabbath’s princes-of-darkness image faded. Eventually, so did its record sales. Aside from a platinum best-of, We Sold Our Soul for Rock ’n’ Roll (1976), not one of three LPs from 1975 to 1978 went gold. Osbourne, racked by drug use and excessive drinking, quit the band briefly in late 1977 (ex–Savoy Brown–Fleetwood Mac vocalist Dave Walker filled his shoes for some live dates). In January 1979 he was fired. Ronnie James Dio, formerly of Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow, replaced Osbourne.
Although Dio could belt with the best of them, Sabbath would never be the same. Its first album with Dio, Heaven and Hell (1980), went platinum; its second, Mob Rules (1981), gold. But thereafter, the group’s LPs sold fewer and fewer copies, as Black Sabbath went through one personnel change after another. Ill health forced Bill Ward out of the band in 1980; Carmine Appice’s brother Vinnie took his place. Friction between Iommi and Dio led the singer to quit angrily in 1982; he took Appice with him to start his own band, Dio. Vocalists over the years have included Dave Donato; Deep Purple singer Ian Gillan; Glenn Hughes, another ex-member of Purple; Tony Martin; and Dio again.
By 1986’s Seventh Star, only Iommi remained from the original lineup. He had to wince when Geezer Butler teamed up with the phenomenally successful Osbourne in 1988, though the bassist did return to the fold three years later. Despite bitterness expressed in the press between Osbourne and Iommi, the original foursome reunited in 1985 at the Live Aid concert in Philadelphia, and again in 1992, at the end of what was supposedly Osbourne’s last tour. Throughout 1993 word had it that Osbourne, Iommi, Butler, and Ward would tour, but by year’s end Osbourne had backed out, allegedly over money. The indefatigable Tony Iommi went right back to work with Butler, rehiring vocalist Tony Martin and adding former Rainbow drummer Rob Rondinelli. That lineup proved as unstable as the previous one, with drummers coming, going, and returning over the following years. Despite hiring Body Count’s Ernie C to produce 1995’s Forbidden (and inviting guest vocalist Ice-T to sing on a track), Black Sabbath seemed increasingly out of touch with the times, and at the end of the Forbidden Tour, the band unofficially went on hiatus.
But not for long, as Iommi, Butler, and Osbourne reunited to headline Ozzfest 1997. Ward was not invited (he was replaced by Faith No More’s Mike Bordin), but he did participate in two shows in the band’s hometown of Birmingham, England, in December 1997. The resulting live album, Reunion (#11, 1998), also featured two new studio tracks, including the single “Psycho Man.” The album went platinum in the U.S., and the live version of “Iron Man” earned the band its first Grammy for Best Metal Performance - nearly 30 years after the song was originally released. The ensuing tour lasted two years and ended in December 1999. (Ward, who suffered a heart attack in May 1998 before the European tour kicked off, rejoined the group in December 1998; Appice sat in for him while he recuperated). Tony Iommi released his first solo album in 2000; a prestigious roster of guest singers (Osbourne, Billy Corgan, Henry Rollins, Dave Grohl) handled the vocals. Among metalheads, Iommi is something of a guitar god, due in part to the fact that he plays spectacularly despite having lost the tips of two right fingers in a welding accident at age 17. His hero was the great jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt, who also lost two fingers and yet continued to play. In mid-2001 it was announced that all original members were writing material for a new Black Sabbath album.
from The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll (Simon & Schuster, 2001)
Trivia from Wikipedia
* After repeatedly being passed over by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame since becoming eligible in 1995, Ozzy Osbourne famously demanded that Black Sabbath be removed from consideration for the institution. In 1999, Osbourne said after Black Sabbath was passed over their second year of eligibility, "Just take our name off the list. Save the ink." His basis for this position was that because the fans did not select the members, it was "totally irrelevant". The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame ignored this request and Black Sabbath was finally inducted by Metallica members James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich on March 13, 2006.
* The cover of the 1970 "Paranoid" album was designed for the title "War Pigs" but the band was forced to change the original title as Black Sabbath's record company feared a backlash by supporters of the Vietnam War.
* According to an interview from "Total Rock Review: Black Sabbath", Tony Iommi claimed to be the first musician to use light gauge strings on an electric guitar. At that time, light gauge strings were not available, so Iommi took some strings from a banjo, readjusted them, and put them on his electric guitar. The strings were easy to bend and put less strain on his two tender fingers.
* Sharon Arden (now known as Sharon Osbourne, wife of Ozzy Osbourne) is the one who suggested that Black Sabbath hire Ronnie James Dio from Rainbow to replace Ozzy.
* In 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked Black Sabbath #85 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.[17]
* Black Sabbath songs "Iron Man" and "War Pigs" are featured in the Playstation 2 games Guitar Hero and Guitar Hero II. Also, the song Paranoid will be featured as a playable track in the upcoming games, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock and Rock Band, making them the only band to have songs that are playable in all of the games.
* According to an interview from "Total Rock Review: Black Sabbath", Tony Iommi suggested that the reason for the commercial failure of the Technical Ecstasy album was due to the fact that he was too "over the top" on the production side when recording the record.
* In a Simpsons episode, Nelson has a song he made featuring Black Sabbath's Iron Man in which he sings " I am Iron Man doo doo doo doo doo doo doo vote for me." The rock loving school bus driver Otto has been known to hum Iron Man.
* In a recent interview Osbourne stated that before Black Sabbath stop touring, he would "absolutely love to play in Japan, because in all the years we've been together the original four members have never made it over there".
* Characters based on Vinny Appice, Tony Iommi and Ronnie James Dio (Team Sabbath) appear in the anime Shaman King, episode 48, with allusions to the songs "War Pigs" and "Iron Man".
* In the Futurama episode, Anthology of Interest I, Sabbath's Iron Man is played when the giant Bender flies to earth. Bender is a robot, and claims in episode 30% Iron Chef to be 30% iron. Making the song partially true.
* The band The Cardigans do a jazzy/lounge version of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath and Iron Man.
* Part of the reason for the departure of Ronnie James Dio after the release of the Live Evil album was because neither he nor Toni Iommi and Geezer Butler trusted the other over the mixing of the album. Dio thought that Iommi and Geezer were turning his vocals down too much, so he would go in to the studio himself and tell the music engineer to turn his vocals up. Similarly, Iommi and Geezer thought Dio was turning up his vocals too much, so they would go in and ask the music engineer to turn it down.
* "Seventh Star" was originally a Toni Iommi solo record but the record company convinced him to release it as a Black Sabbath record so he could play at bigger venues on the upcoming tour.
* The day that Tony Iommi had his two finger tips cut off was on his last day of work before turning professional as a guitar player.
Discography from Wikipedia
Studio Albums
1970 Black Sabbath
1971 Paranoid
1971 Master of Reality
1972 Black Sabbath, Vol. 4
1973 Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
1975 Sabotage
1976 Technical Ecstasy
1978 Never Say Die!
1980 Heaven and Hell
1981 Mob Rules
1983 Born Again
1986 Seventh Star
1987 The Eternal Idol
1989 Headless Cross
1990 Tyr
1992 Dehumanizer
1994 Cross Purposes
1995 Forbidden
Live Albums
1982 Live Evil
1995 Cross Purposes Live
1998 Reunion
2002 Past Lives
2007 Live at Hammersmith Odeon
Official Black Sabbath website: http://www.black-sabbath.com/
