Black Sabbath
"Make a joke and I will sigh and you wil laugh and I will cry"
Genre-defining pioneers of heavy metal who gave the world Paranoid, Iron Man... and Ozzy
Who-How-When: Tony Iommi (guitar), Ozzy Osbourne (vocals), Geezer Butler (bass) and Bill Ward (drums) got together in Birmingham in 1968 as a blues rock band called Earth. They soon found themselves moving into a darker place with moodier themes and changed the name to something they thought was more appropriate.
Breakthrough:After a self-titled album in 1970, they found themselves short of a track for the followup and created Paranoid in about half an hour. It titled the new album and became their only top-ten hit to date.
Lowest Low: In 1979 the band sacked Ozzy for his acoholism (although they admit the rest of them weren't in much better condition). Then in 1980 they had to sack Bill Ward for the same reason.
Highest High: Ozzy went on to enjoy a massive solo career, and Sabbath continued to do well with Ronnie James Dio - who introduced the horned-hand gesture to rock music.
That was then... After Ian Gillan replaced Dio, Ozzy returned in 1997 and the band have open-ended plans to work together again. Meanwhile, The lineup who recorded 1980's Heaven and Hell album tour under that name to distinguish themselves from Ozzy-era Sabbath.
Encore: In 1973, failing to find inspiration for new material through the drugs and exhaustion of a Hollywood lifestyle, the band relocated to Clearwell Castle in England, began rehearsing in the dungeons - and almost immediately wrote Sabbath Bloody Sabbath.
