Black Sabbath band (plot point one) with the immortal line: 'Give me 500 words on Black Sabbath'. Contemporary music and arts publication "Trebuchet Magazine" has put this to practice by asking all new writers to write a short piece (500 words) on Black Sabbath as a means of proving their creativity and voice on a well documented subject. Last line-up Touring members Black Sabbath Black Sabbath were an English rock band, formed in Birmingham in 1968, by guitarist and main songwriter Tony Iommi, bassist and main lyricist Geezer Butler, drummer Bill Ward, and singer Ozzy Osbourne. Black Sabbath are often cited as
Speak of the Devil (Ozzy Osbourne album) drinks between songs) who suffered from dwarfism and who the vocalist nicknamed "Ronnie", a joke aimed at Ronnie James Dio. Dio had replaced Osbourne as Black Sabbath's lead vocalist and stood only 5' 4" tall. "Speak of the Devil" was released one month before Osbourne's former band, Black Sabbath, released their own live album entitled "Live Evil", a situation which contributed to a growing rivalry between the two camps. In the US, sales of "Speak of the Devil" were much better than those of "Live Evil", while in the UK it was "Live Evil" which attained the higher chart-placing: figures