Black Sabbath's Rollercoaster Ride

When Black Sabbath was founded in 1969 by Ozzy Osbourne, Tonny Iommi, Geezer Butler, and Bill Ward, their initial musical style was Heavy Blues-Rock. After struggling to build an audience, the band started to incorporate lyrics that blended occult and horror themes with tuned-down guitars. This is also when their songs started to deal with social and political issues such as drugs and war. This new direction of the band caught the attention of many people across Europe that had never heard anything like Black Sabbath. From that moment on the band decided to stay true to their new sound and to always leave their mark wherever they performed at. Most of the time they did this through their live performance, but sometimes they did it by being the life of the party.

While the band's purpose was never to become the pioneers of Heavy Metal along with Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin, or to be labeled as the most important band in Heavy Music history. The four man sacrificed everything they had in order to make music their lives because they didn't want to have to get a "real" job. Just like any successful band out there, Black Sabbath has faced many obstacles and has gone through numerous lineup changes. The most notorious lineup change was when the great Ronnie James Dio replaced Ozzy Osbourne on vocals, after Ozzy was fired due to his out of control behavior caused by his alcoholism. This obviously changed the sound of the band since Ozzy and Dio have different singing styles. However, this major obstacle was beaten by Black Sabbath without any hiccups and it offered the fans a more dynamic sound.

As far as challenges go, the most notorious one is when guitarist Tony Iommi lost the tip of his fingers while working at a sheet Metal factory when he was 17 years old. After almost giving up his career in music, his boss encouraged him to reinvent his sound when he played him a record by jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt, who had a similar accident and despite limited use of his fretting hand following an injury, became a musical phenomenon. Many say that this accident is what created the unique sound that Tony Iommi possesses and that gave Black Sabbath their signature sound.

Here are some facts about Black Sabbath:

- Black Sabbath was formed in Aston, Birmingham in 1969.
- 22 musicians have at one time been members of Black Sabbath. Tony Iommi is the only member that has been with Black Sabbath consistently.
- They have sold over 15 million records in the US and more than 50 million records worldwide.
- Ranked by MTV as the "Greatest Metal Band" of all time.
- Placed second in VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock" list, behind Led Zeppelin.
- After a few albums with Dio on vocals, the band ehad various line-up changes in the 1980s and 1990s. This changes included vocalists: Ian Gillan, Glenn Hughes, Ray Gillen and Tony Martin.
- In 1992, Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler rejoined Dio and drummer Vinny Appice to record "Dehumanizer".
- The original Black Sabbath line-up reunited with Ozzy Osbourne in 1997 and released a live album, titled "Reunion".
- The 1979–1982 and 1991–1992 line-up: Tonny Iommi, Geezer Butler, Ronnie James Dio, and Vinny Appice, rejoined forces in 2006 under the moniker Heaven & Hell. And were together until Dio's death on 16 May 2010.

After the death of singer Ronnie James Dio, the band went on hiatus and it is unknown if Ozzy will reunite with the rest of the boys and bring the original Black Sabbath back to surface. Right now the focus of the band and specially Wendy Dio (Dio's wife), is to raise money for Cancer treatment through the "Ronnie James Dio Stand Up and Shout Cancer Fund". Right now they are having different musicians in the music scene donate guitars that will be auctioned sometime in October. On the other hand, bassist Geezer Butler is writing a new album for his solo project GZR and writing a book of memoirs.

Here is an EXCLUSIVE "Black carpet" interview we did with Geezer Butler and Wendy Dio, at the 2011 Revolver Golden Gods Awards. \m/

















Related links:
Black Sabbath
Ronnie James Dio Stand Up and Shout Cancer Fund