Black Sabbath is a British rock band formed in Birmingham in 1968 by Ozzy Osbourne (vocals), Tony Iommi (guitar), grandmother Butler (bass) and Bill Ward (drums). The group underwent several lineup changes, with the presence of Tony Iommi in the band only constant over the years. As nearly 22 musicians at one time a member of Black Sabbath. Originally formed as a blues-rock band named Heavy Earth, the band began incorporating occult and lyrics inspired by horror guitars tuned down, changing its name to Black Sabbath and achieve multi-platinum in the 1970s. Although the association with supernatural and horror themes, Black Sabbath also composes songs about social issues and politics such as drugs and war.
As one of the first groups and most influential heavy metal band of all time, Black Sabbath helped define the genre with albums such as quadruple-platinum Paranoid, which was published in 1970. They were ranked by MTV as the "greatest metal band" of all time, and ranked second in VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock" list, behind Led Zeppelin. They sold over 15 million albums in the U.S. only. Rolling Stone revealed the group as "king of the 70 heavy metals." They have sold over 100 million albums worldwide.
Drinking caused vocalist Ozzy Osbourne himself was fired from the band in 1979. He was replaced by former Rainbow singer Ronnie James Dio. After several albums with Dio's voice and his songwriting collaboration, Black Sabbath has a rotating line-up in the 1980s and 1990s that included vocalists Ian Gillan, Glenn Hughes, Ray Gillen andTony Martin. In 1992, Iommi and Butler joined Dio and drummer Vinny Appice for the recordDehumanizer. The original line-up again with Osbourne in 1997 and released a live album, Reunion. The 1979-1982 and 1991-1992 line-up with Iommi, Butler, Dio, Appice and reform in 2006, with the nickname Heaven & Hell Dio to death on May 16, 2010.
