Black Sabbath

Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath on stage on December 16, 1999
Background information
Origin	Birmingham, England
Genres	Heavy metal Hard rock Doom metal
Years active	1968–2006; 2011-
Website	www.blacksabbath.com
Members
Tony Iommi Ozzy Osbourne Geezer Butler Bill Ward

Black Sabbath is an English heavy metal band. They are considered to be an influential heavy metal band which helped start the genre in the late 1960s and early 1970s. They have sold over one hundred million albums worldwide. The original line up was Ozzy Osbourne (vocals), Tony Iommi (guitar), Terence "Geezer" Butler (bass) and Bill Ward (drums).

History

Iommi and Osbourne in 1973

Black Sabbath formed in 1968. The band was originally named Earth and they played blues-rock music. In the band's early days Tony Iommi had a work accident that cut off the tips of his middle and ring finger on his right hand. He began tuning his guitar lower to slacken his strings to make playing easier on his wounded fingers. This result was a darker, deeper tone to his guitar sound which the band felt made their music sound dark and scary. They released their first album Black Sabbath in 1970. Their most successful single titled "Paranoid", produced by Rodger Bain, came off the 1970 album of the same name.

Ozzy Osbourne was fired from the band in 1979 because of his drug and alcohol addiction. American vocalist Ronnie James Dio was hired to replace him. The band recorded 2 studio albums and 1 live album with him. Dio and Black Sabbath parted in 1982 over different musical ideas. Over the next few years Iommi would hired several different singers to front the band. In 1991 Ronnie James James Dio rejoined the band again for one album and tour. In 1997 the original line up reformed and have continued to perform occasionally ever since.

In 2005, Black Sabbath were inducted into the "UK Music Hall of Fame". In 2006 the band were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.