Black Sabbath 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 pioneers of heavy metal music. The band helped define the genre with releases such as "Black Sabbath" (1970), "Paranoid" (1970), and "Master of Reality" (1971). The band had multiple line-up changes, with Iommi being the only constant member throughout its history. Formed in 1968 as the Polka Tulk Blues Band, a blues rock band, the group went through line up
Ozzy Osbourne name Black Sabbath in August 1969, based on the film of the same name. The band had noticed how people enjoyed being frightened; inspired, the band decided to play a heavy blues style of music laced with gloomy sounds and lyrics. While recording their first album, Butler read an occult book and woke up to a dark figure at the end of his bed. Butler told Osbourne about it and together they wrote the lyrics to "Black Sabbath", their first song in a darker vein. Despite only a modest investment from their US record label Warner Bros. Records, Black Sabbath