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The
Black Sabbath Section (1948-1979)
1948
- 1966
John
Michael Osbourne was born to John Thomas Osbourne and his wife
Lillian
on December 3rd, 1948. His residence was located at 14 Lodge
Road, Aston,
Birmingham, England. John Thomas was a professional tool maker
and Lilian
worked at the Lucas car factory.
John was one of 3 brothers and 3 sisters. His two brothers were
named Paul,
and Tony, and his 3 sisters were named Jean, Iris, and Gillian.
While in grammar school, John Osbourne was nicknamed
"Ozzy", short for
his last name "Osbourne".
Ozzy
was born into a very poor family. He barely had any clothes. In
fact,
in a recent interview he said he only had one shirt, one pair of
pants,
and one jacket. His apartment had no indoor plumbing and no
indoor bathroom.
He slept in one bed with all 5 of his brothers and sisters.
At the
young age of 15, Ozzy quits school and begins work as a plumbers
mate. This job didn't last too long, and Ozzy moved on to a
slaughter
house. This is where Ozzy learned to like killing 250 cattle a
day and
cutting sheep guts out. That lasted a few months, before he got
tired of
that, and he wound up getting a job with his mother, testing car
horns at
the Lucas factory. This is where Ozzy's first musical influence
started.
Disatisfied
with the low income Ozzy is earning, he turns to a life of
crime. He begins robbing small clothes stores and private home.
The cops
keep catching him though, because he wears gloves but the fingers
are cut
out! His fingerprints are left all over the place. Ozzy's longest
sentence
was 6 weeks in the Winson Green Prison, for burglary. During this
6 week
sentence, armed with a needle and a slab of graphite, Ozzy places
the now
famous tattoos on his body. O-Z-Z-Y accross his knuckles, needles
on his
arms, the word "thanks" on his palm, and a happy face
on each knee to cheer
him up when he wakes up in the morning.
1967
- 1968
As a child, Ozzy loved the Beatles and always was admired by the
way
they commanded an audience. He made up his mind, he wanted to be
just
like the Beatles.
Walking the streets in search of something to do, Ozzy meets and
old
friend who had just put a band together named
"Approach". This band
had no singer, so Ozzy said "I'm a singer!" Ozzy ran
home and some how
got his father to buy him a $50 amp and microphone. Approach was
a
rhythm type band and Ozz didn't like it too much, so he quit and
joined
another band named "Music Machine". That band didn't
last long either.
Ozzy and old time friend Terrance Butler (now known as
"Geezer") then
formed a band named "Rare Breed". Rare Breed really
wasn't going any
where so Ozzy put an ad in a local paper which said:
OZZY
ZIG - VOCALIST - REQUIRES BAND - OWNS OWN P.A.
Now,
on the other side of town, two young men by the names of Bill
Ward and Tony Iommi had created a band named "The Rest"
which had later
changed their name to "Mythology". So Tony sees this ad
in the
paper reading "Ozzy Zig", and he thinks to himself,
"This can't be the
same Ozzy I used to beat up on the playground when I was
younger", so
he goes to the address on the ad, and sure enough, it's the same
Ozzy.
They all hook up and create "Polka Tulk". Polka Tulk
was derived from
a can of talcum powder that Ozzy found in a bathroom. The band
now
consists of 6 people: Ozzy Osbourne, Bill Ward, Tony Iommi,
Geezer
Butler, Jimmy Phillips and Clark. It was a blues/jazz type of
music with
a hard edge, but Phillips and Clark didn't like that hard edge so
they both quit. Polka Tulk then became "Earth".
At one
particular Earth gig, the band was asked by mistake to play at
an upscale banquet. They were asked to perform in Tux's. The
people
that had hired them had mistaken them for another band named
Earth.
The show went on, but the richy rich people in the audience were
mortified by this new sound.
1969
The band was getting a little recognition but not much. They were
touring
in a very beat up van making very little money. In fact, in a
recent
interview, Tony recounts a time where Ozzy walked to practice
barefoot
because he couldn't afford new shoes.
One Day an old horror movie was playing at a local theatre by the
name
of "Black Sabbath". Geezer saw this and said to
himself, why would
people pay good money to get the crap scared out of them? He came
back
to the guys and talked it over with them and decided to change
their
image and their name to "Black Sabbath". Black Sabbath
would now be
a doomsey, dark and "new" band.
The band starts playing alot more small clubs and gaining
popularity.
A man by the name of Jim Simpson steps in and becomes the bands
new
manager. Jim had the band record a special demo album, just for
him
named "For Jim". This album contains 5 songs,
consisting of the only
jazz session ever recorded by Black Sabbath. It features Tony
Iommi
playing with the style of Wes Montgomery and Bill Ward backing
him up
with bebop drums. Two of the songs on this album were named
"A Song
For Jim" and "The Rebel". Short samples of them
can be heard on a
video released in the early 90's called "The Black Sabbath
Story, Vol 1".
Now
playing alot of clubs, the band gets very annoyed at the audience
because people are talking to each other and not paying
attention. One
night Ozzy decides to paint himself purple from head to toe to
attract
some attention, and the funny thing is....it didn't work! It took
days
to get off. So finally they decide to crank up the volume so
loud, that
the audience can't even hear themselves think and are force to
listen.
1970
February, Friday the 13th, 1970, Black Sabbath's first album
"Black
Sabbath is released under the Vertigo label. It was recorded in 8
hours
on two four track machines and cost about $1200 to make. Ozzy
couldn't
wait to bring the record home to show his father and say
"Look dad, it's
me on a piece of plastic!" After his dad listened to the
record, he asked
Ozzy "Are you sure you're only smoking cigarettes?" On
the gatefold
of the album, the record company dediced to put an upside down
cross
with a poem in the middle of it. The band had no idea they did
this.
The poem read as follows:
"Still
Falls The Rain"
Still
falls the rain,
The veils of darkness shroud the blackened trees,
Which, contorted by some unseen violence,
Shed their tired leaves, and bend their boughs
Toward a greay earth of severed bird wings.
Among
the grasses, poppies bleed before a gesticulating death,
and young rabbits, born dead in traps,
stand motionless, as through guarding the silence,
that surrounds and threatens to engulf
all those that would listen.
Mute
birds, tired of repeating yesterdays terrors,
huddle together in the recesses of dark corners,
heads turned from the dead,
black swan that floats upturned in a small pool in the hollow.
There
emerges from this pool a faint, sensual mist,
That traces its way upwards to caress the feet
Of the headless martyr's statue
Whose only achievement was to die too soon,
and who couldn't wait to lose.
The
cataract of darkness forms fully,
The long black night begins,
Yet still by the lake, a young girl waits,
Unseeing she believes herself unseen,
she smiles faintly at the distant tolling bell,
and the still rain falling.
With
the release of this first album, the bands audience begins to
grow
rapidly attracting all walks of life, including self proclaimed
witches
and satanists. One night the band was asked by a witch to play at
a
satanic ceromony. The band declined and the witch cast an evil
spell
over the band. Being totally freaked out by this, Ozzy had his
father
make aluminum crosses for all four members of the band to keep
evil
spirits away from them. In a recent interview, Bill Ward said he
is the
only one to still have the original cross. Ozzy now has 14 karat
crosses!
In
October 1970, the band releases their second album,
"Parnoid". This
album was made in 4 days. It was originally supposed to be named
"War Pigs" but at the last minute was changed to
Paranoid by the
record company due to the vietnam war. The very popular song
"Paranoid"
was actually recorded as just a filler song at the last minute in
the studio and was never intended to become such an anthem to the
group. The album hits #1 status. At this same time they decide to
let
Jim Simpson go as their manager. Jim was keeping to much profit.
Patrick
Meehan and Wilf Pine take over.
In
December, Black Sabbath's first album "Black Sabbath"
is released
in the U.S. by Warner Brothers as the band tours colleges. By now
that
album has already hit platinum status.
1971
Ozzy marries a woman by the name of Thelma Mayfair. Thelma
already had a
boy from a previous marriage named Elliot Kingsley who was 5
years old, so
Ozzy decided to adopt him.
In march, the Paranoid album hits the #12 spot on the U.S.
charts. This
album goes on to sell over 4 million copies.
Late
1971, The "Master Of Reality" album is released. This
album featured
a few songs that had a reference to religon in a good way, but
recieved
bad press for putting down religon. In September it went to #5 on
the U.K.
charts and #8 on the U.S. It reached platnium status shortly
thereafter.
1972
- 1973
Black Sabbath's 4th album is released entitle "Volume
4". This album
was originally going to be named "Snowblind" (a
reference to cocaine
usage) but the record company once again stepped in and told them
"No!"
By November it had reached a peak of #8 on the U.K. charts and
#13 in
the U.S.
Ozzy's
first offspring was born this year, a daughter by the name of
Jessica Starshine Osbourne.
1974
The Album "Sabbath Bloody
Sabbath" is released. This album featured the
very first song which Ozzy wrote the lyrics and music to,
"Who Are You?"
(Geezer wrote 95% of lyrics to all Sabbath songs Ozzy sang.) In
February
it hit #4 on U.K. charts and #11 in the U.S. Within a year it had
sold
a million copies.
April
6th, the band performs at the Cal Jam in Ontario, CA. The band
hadn't
performed live for over 6 months and were given 1 days notice of
this concert.
The band gets paid $1000 each, but later learn that they really
earned
$250,000 which their manager screwed them out of.
1975
Once again, Black Sabbath fires their management and try to take
things into
their own hands. Sabbath is managementless!
"Sabotage"
is released. This album featured a song entitle "The
Writ"
which told their tru feelings against past management problems.
It hit
#7 on U.K. charts and #28 in the U.S.
Ozzy's
first son is born, named Louis Jon Osbourne. (He is the little
kid on
Ozzy's solo album "Diary Of A Madman".)
1976
With all the bad management problems and constant touring, Ozzy
took
some time off. He went home and got rid of some of his
frustration
by shooting all the chickens around his house.
In
April, a best of album entitled "We Sold Our Sould For Rock
And Roll"
and hits #35 in the U.K. and #48 in the U.S.
The
band hires new management because they can't handle it all by
themselves. They hire a man by the name of Don Arden. This was
how
Ozzy was introduced to Sharon Arden (now Sharon Osbourne). Don is
Sharon's father.
In
late 1976, the "Technical Ectasy" album is released. It
hits #13 on the
U.K. charts and #51 in the U.S.
1977
Ozzy is fed up with Tony's control over
the band and is also whacked out
of his mind on excessive use of drugs and alcohol. On top of all
of that
his father dies and throws Ozzy into a deep emotional swell. He
announce
that he is quitting Black Sabbath.
1978
Sabbath tries out a new singer by the name of Dave Walker (ex
Fleetwood Mac).
You can hear him singing a different version of "Junior's
Eyes" on a well
known bootleg entitled "The Archangel Rides Again".
Ozzy get's back up on
his feet and rejoins the band. All material written for the new
album with
Walker is destroyed because Ozzy didn't want to sing any of it.
Sabbath's
last album with Ozzy "Never Say Die" is released. Ozzy
dedicated
a song entitled "Junior's Eyes" as a goodbye to his
father.
Constant
usage of narcotics and alcohol force the band to fire Ozzy.
Bill Ward is put up to do the dirty deed. Ronnie James Dio would
be his replacement. This marks the lowest point in Ozzy's life.