Black Sabbath (often called Sabbath by fans) is a British
heavy metal band, originally comprising Ozzy Osbourne (vocals), Tony Iommi (guitar), Terrance "Geezer" Butler (bass), and Bill Ward (drums).
One of the definitive heavy metal bands, Black Sabbath remain a dominant influence in the genre they helped originate.
"Paranoid" is a song by Black Sabbath that appears on the band's breakthrough album Paranoid. Supposedly, the members of Black Sabbath put together this song in 15 minutes based on a riff by Tony Iommi. This song was only meant to be a "filler", but became one of Black Sabbath's most successful songs. The record company changed
the album's name from "War Pigs", as it was originally intended, to Paranoid out of fear of a backlash from
supporters of the Vietnam War.
"Rat Salad" and "Iron Man" also appeared on the groundbreaking album Paranoid.
Tony Iommi lost the tips of two fingers on his fretting hand while working in a sheet metal factory. 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 reduced tension of the strings allowed
him to play with less pain to his fingertips. Butler lowered his bass tuning to match Iommi's . The lower pitch gave the music
a "heavier" or more substantive tone matching the dark content of the bands lyrics.
Ozzy did drugs every day for two years apparently, this explains alot! He was fired from Sabbath
in 1979 not for his drugs, but because he failed to turn up for gigs. Maybe the two went hand in hand!
Ozzy was born in 1948 as John Michael Osborne. He has six children altogether. He says in
his early years, he was the worst burglar in England. He always wore fingerless gloves when housebreaking!
He was arrested after urinating near the base of the Cenotaph, a monument located in front of The Alamo, while wearing one of his wife's dresses, for which he was banned from San Antonio, Texas for ten years. (the dress was worn due to Sharon's attempt to prevent Ozzy from
going out drinking, by removing all his clothes from the hotel they were staying at).
