Here is the history on Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath (sometimes called Sabbath by fans) is a British heavy metal band, originally comprised of Ozzy Osbourne (vocals), Tony Iommi (guitar), Geezer (Terrance) Butler (bass), and Bill Ward (drums). They are cited by many as the very first true heavy metal band.
Black Sabbath formed in Aston, Birmingham, England in 1969 under the name Polka Tulk Blues Band (soon shortened to "Polka Tulk"), and later Earth. Initially a blues-rock band, Earth moved in a darker direction when their bassist, Geezer Butler, a fan of the black magic novels of Dennis Wheatley, wrote an occult-themed song titled "Black Sabbath" (the song name was apparently inspired by a 1963 Boris Karloff film). (In their reunion concert film, the band stated that the song is based on an experience Geezer had one night when he saw a black object at the end of his bed and noticed the next day that an occult book Ozzy had given him was missing). When the band found themselves being confused with another local band called Earth, they adopted the song title as their new name.
The band originated as a blues-influenced hard rock group, but as they progressed they added more European folk elements and gothic flourishes to their sound, a sound that was not like any other group during their time. Their lyrics dealt with darker issues than most conventional rock as well. During a time, the late 60s, when other bands were into the peace movement and the hippie culture, Sabbath chose to distinguish themselves by dealing with heavier issues. In their music, they also conveyed a sense of anger and anti-establishment, the likes of which had never been heard before. The band also dealt with issues such as drugs (to which they were developing a growing dependence).
The newly-named Black Sabbath adopted darker lyrical themes, and a slower, ominous style - a significant element in the genre that would later be known as heavy metal, often ranked above Deep Purple and Judas Priest in importance and influence in the genre.
Even though Judas Priest, Cream, and Deep Purple may have had a profound influence on the emergence of hard rock and heavy metal music, Black Sabbath is generally considered, along with Led Zeppelin, one of the primary forces of the genre.
The group found its signature sound almost by accident. When the group was rehearsing in a studio which was situated opposite a cinema showing a horror movie, Osbourne recalls that Tony Iommi said to the rest of the band, "If people pay to see scary movies, why wouldn't they pay to listen to scary music?" The band began to purposely write dark, ominous riffs in an attempt to be music's answer to horror movies.
However, much of the group's material featured an acoustic guitar, piano, symphony orchestras, keyboards, and even horns. After the band's first four albums, the group became increasingly experimental and progressive, leaving much of their dark metal roots behind.
They were ranked number 2 in VH1's 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock ( Led Zeppelin was number 1).
1970s
With an extremely gifted rhythm section and the extraordinary on-stage antics of Ozzy Osbourne, the band enjoyed success with memorable songs and brutal riffs beginning with their first album, the eponymous Black Sabbath (1970). Their follow-up album, Paranoid (also 1970), was a tremendous success, bringing them even greater attention in America and the UK. Paranoid was in part a protest against the Vietnam war (particularly British involvment); the song "War Pigs" was originally intended to be the title song.
The content of the songs (both originals and cover versions) from both albums demonstrated a tongue in cheek interest in the occult and black magic. This was a crucial step in establishing the 'darkness' and 'heaviness' of later heavy metal lyrics, and Black Sabbath was the first group to feature such lyrical content, almost to the exclusion of other topics. Led Zeppelin, The Doors and some others might have hinted at magic or the occult, but few contemporaries could match Black Sabbath for directness, such as "My name is Lucifer/Please take my hand" (from Black Sabbaths "N.I.B."). Butler wrote most of the lyrics.
Another innovation was the by-product of an accident: Iommi's fretting fingers were injured in an industrial accident slightly before his early tenure with Earth. He was working in a sheet metal factory at the time and the tops of the two middle fingers on his right hand were sliced off. Initially, he forged himself prosthetics from a melted plastic detergent bottle. The injured fingers were understandably tender, so Iommi downtuned his Gibson guitar from standard E to C#. The resultant slackness of the string allowed him to play with less bother to his fingertips. Butler also downtuned his bass guitar to more easily follow Iommi's playing. The lower pitch often seemed "heavier" or more substantive, and Black Sabbath were perhaps the first popular group to downtune. The practice of downtuning is now common — perhaps even standard — among metal groups.
Black Sabbath released another smash hit in 1971, Master of Reality. This was the first Sabbath album to feature a significant amount of acoustic material ("Solitude" contained a flute solo by Iommi). This was a crucial and often overlooked switch in style by Sabbath, as they are largely known only for their simple, dark riffs from their earlier releases. By the time the band released Black Sabbath, Vol. 4 in (1972), they were a full-fledged progressive rock group. Featuring the hit "Changes" (containing only vocal, bass, piano, and strings) and sonic rock anthems like "Supernaut" and "Snowblind," Black Sabbath, Vol. 4 was the group's most mature record to date.
By this point, the band were one of the most popular bands in the world, and were a major concert attraction. Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (1973) saw the band work with Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman (who remains a close friend of the band today). The album contains some of the best known Black Sabbath material, including the space rock voyage, "Spiral Architect," and the haunting prog-rock workout, "A National Acrobat". which is one of the best songs on the album, the riff is almost identical to the song "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath", but with a slightly stronger and catchier tune to it.
The band was heavily addicted to drugs and for over two years Osbourne and Ward took LSD every day. Towards the end of Osbourne's tenure in 1978, he was so embroiled in drugs that he claims he was "very unhappy and got drunk and stoned every day". Many of the band's songs address drugs, both explicitly and implicitly.
The band was suffering major management problems (the group was managed by Osbourne's future father-in-law, Don Arden). The management problems and then a label change from Vertigo to WWA disrupted the release schedule of the band's new album. Despite the troubles, Sabotage was released in 1975 with continued success. However, drug problems, continued experimentation in their music style (Gregorian chants and a chorale of monks highlighted "Supertzar"), the hard rock scene's changing environment, and some internal issues were affecting the stability and output of the band.
Technical Ecstasy (1976) turned out to be a commercial failure. The album was laden with symphony orchestras, synthesizers, and even drummer Bill Ward singing a Beatles-esque pop song. Some consider it one of the group's most ambitious records, yet fans of the classic Sabbath formula were alienated. After the 1977 tour, Ozzy Osbourne stopped turning up at band rehearsals. The remaining band members even recorded music with singer Dave Walker, formerly of Fleetwood Mac, but Osbourne continued on with Sabbath, releasing the highly controversial Never Say Die! (1978). By far the band's most experimental release, Never Say Die! is widely regarded as an excellent album (some hardcore fans call it their best), but a poor Black Sabbath album ("Breakout" featured a 15-piece horn section). Like the previous album, its sales were poor.
Due to internal conflicts and an evident lack of commitment, Osbourne was asked to leave the band in 1979, leading to a successful solo career - he went on to become one of the most successful solo artists in the history of heavy metal. The definitive tale is told in the book "How Black was our Sabbath". Osbourne was replaced by former Rainbow singer Ronnie James Dio.
1980s
Black Sabbath's next album (and first with singer Ronnie James Dio), Heaven and Hell, proved to be a success, and saw the band's highest charting since 1975's Sabotage. It was on this tour that Dio popularised the "devil horns" hand gesture, which has since become a symbol of heavy metal music in general. The album also marked the inclusion of Quartz's guitarist-turned-keyboardist Geoff Nicholls (Nicholls has not been consistently credited as an official member, and has often been forced to play live shows from backstage for supposed aesthetic purposes, but he has co-written many songs and has stayed with Black Sabbath through all subsequent incarnations). Also during the tour, drummer Bill Ward quit the band for personal reasons (both his parents died within a rather short period, and Ward was struggling with alcoholism and other addictions). Drummer Vinny Appice joined to complete the tour and then record the next album Mob Rules, whose title track appeared in the movie Heavy Metal. Mob Rules is considered to be the last widely respected studio release for the band.
The unauthorised release in 1980 of the live bootleg Live at Last (recorded in the Ozzy Osbourne era during the 1973 Sabbath Bloody Sabbath tour) prompted the band to properly record a live album on the Mob Rules tour, titled Live Evil. However, during the mixing of Live Evil, internal band problems and nasty accusations developed, which led to Dio and Appice quitting the band to form Dio. Bill Ward returned to the drum throne and Ian Gillan of Deep Purple fame became the new singer. This line-up recorded the album Born Again, but Bill Ward dropped out of the band before the tour, being replaced by Bev Bevan of Electric Light Orchestra. Although the album surprisingly ended up being one of their most successful ones to date (hitting #4 in the UK charts), things did not last, as Ian Gillan left to reunite with Deep Purple. Drummer Bill Ward once again returned to the fold, and the hiring of new singer David Donato was officially announced in 1984. However, after six months worth of rehearsals, Donato was discharged by management when Iommi and Butler squabbled over financial issues.
At this point, the band's frequent line-up changes, Ozzy Osbourne's increasing success in his solo career, and side-taking from music critics, combined to put the band under Osbourne's shadow. Founding member Geezer Butler quit out of frustration and formed the Geezer Butler Band, which did not end up releasing any albums. The original line-up of Black Sabbath reunited for one three-song show at Live Aid in 1985. After this, Tony Iommi decided to record a solo album and enlisted the help of longtime Sabbath keyboardist Geoff Nicholls (who was finally made an official member) and vocalist Glenn Hughes, formerly of Deep Purple and Trapeze. Tony Iommi also got engaged to famous female heavy metal star Lita Ford, and enlisted the help of her band's bassist (Dave "The Beast" Spitz) and drummer Eric Singer, (later of KISS and Alice Cooper) to round off the line-up. However, record company pressure caused the album Seventh Star to be released as Black Sabbath featuring Tony Iommi.
Early in the tour for Seventh Star in 1986, Glenn Hughes got into a fist fight, and suffered severe blood clotting in his throat which made him lose his voice. An unknown young American singer by the name of Ray Gillen (no relation to Ian Gillan) was tapped for the job and finished the tour. The morale in the band was very high when they started recording The Eternal Idol (former drummer Bev Bevan had returned as a percussionist, and a second bassist, Bob Daisley, also joined), but the new Black Sabbath hit a devastating series of catastrophes involving mismanagement and financial debt, mainly from poorly planned use of the world's most expensive recording studio. As a result, Ray Gillen left the band during the recording sessions. He later hooked up with ex-Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Jake E. Lee to form the rather successful band Badlands (which would later include Eric Singer).
Singer Tony Martin was brought in to re-record all of Gillen's original vocals on the Eternal Idol tapes, and the album was finally released. Tony Martin proved to be the perfect vocalist for the newly revitalised Black Sabbath. Though he somewhat resembled Dio, Martin clearly had his own style.
After the recording of The Eternal Idol, most of the band quit Sabbath, leaving Iommi, Martin, and Nicholls to recruit bassist Jo Burt and former Clash drummer Terry Chimes for the short-lived 1987 Eternal Idol tour.
In early 1988, Kerrang! magazine ran a story that Vegas-lounge singer Tom Jones had joined Tony Iommi and Bill Ward in Black Sabbath. This later became known as a hoax, possibly due to the fact that it was the April issue of the magazine and during the shifting lineups of the 1980s, the Kerrang! staff seemed to enjoy poking fun at Black Sabbath as it then existed.
