Black Sabbath

Black Sabbath

Formed in England in 1968 with singer John “Ozzy” Osbourne, bassist Geezer Butler, guitarist Tony lommi and drummer Bill Ward, Black Sabbath took their ominous gloom and doom lyrics, mixed them with equal parts of volume and speed and sold over seven million records, becoming the undisputed heavy metal kings of the 70s.

The original four members were schoolmates from Birmingham, England who took their hometown by storm with their debut album and followed up with a Top 10 single, “War Pigs.” By 1974 the band was considered peerless and had become bigger in the United States than in England. After Masters of Reality, Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath, Sabotage, We Sold Our Soul For Rock ’n’ Roll, Technical Ecstasy and Never Say Die, Ozzy quit the group to form Blizzard Of Oz and Ronnie James Dio (from Richie Blackmore’s Rainbow) took his place. In 1979 Black Sabbath recorded Heaven And Hell, and in early 1981 replaced drummer Bill Ward with Vinnie Appice. Although Sabbath lost much of their English following by the early ’80s due to the second wave of British head-bangers (Judas Priest, Def Leppard, etc.), they didn’t seem to lose their grip on American metal fans.

In 1986 a rejuvenated line-up assembled by founder Tony lommi (drummer Eric Singer, bassist Dave Spitz, keyboardist Geoff Nichols and vocalist Glenn Hughes) recorded Seventh Star, with the thick moody chording and searing guitar leads which have been the Sabbath sound over the course of some 15 years. Although Sabbath is still losing and gaining new lead singers, according to lommi: “The infusion of new blood is important. We want to fight hard to make our mark. We don’t want to ever stagnate!”