This year, Birmingham heavy metal legends Black Sabbath have been celebrating the 50th anniversary of their landmark debut record.
In a new interview with Louder Sound, the band have ruminated on their genesis and enduring legacy — reflecting on how guitarist Tony Iommi and Ozzy Osbourne went from schoolyard bullies to bandmates.
So it goes, Iommi and drummer Bill Ward were living in Carlisle in 1968, cutting their teeth playing with heavy blues act Mythology. The band ultimately fell apart after they were found in possession of hash. So Iommi and Ward packed up their things and hot-footed it back to Birmingham, desperate not to give out their shared goal of playing music for a living.
The band were in a local music store when they saw an advert from Osbourne, looking to recruit band members. “We went into a music shop and we saw this advert saying ‘Ozzy Zig requires gig, owns his own PA.’ I said to Bill, ‘I know an Ozzy but it can’t be him,” revealed Iommi.
Geezer Butler went on to detail that Iommi and Ozzy had known each other from school, and that Iommi had bullied Ozzy.
“Ozzy had been to school with Tony, and they hated each other. Tony had bullied him at school,” Butler shared.
Ozzy chimed in, “People say he used to beat me up. He never did.”
Love Classic Rock?
Get the latest Classic Rock news, features, updates and giveaways straight to your inbox Learn more
Iommi went on to reveal that he and Ward decided to follow-up on the advert, and paid Ozzy a visit.
“We drove around to his address, knocked on the door, his mother answered it and we said, ‘Is Ozzy in?’ She said, ‘Yes, just a minute.’ She turned round and said, ‘John, it’s for you.’ And when he came to the door, I said to Bill, ‘Oh no, forget it, I know this guy,’” Iommi mused.
Ozzy went on to detail, “I have no idea what I said to Tony outside my house that night to make him change my mind and give me a chance. I think the fact I had a PA system probably helped.”
In an interview with Gibson earlier this year, Iommi detailed exactly what had happened after he and Ward first left Ozzy’s house
“We talked to him for a bit, and then we left and never made any decisions or anything. And then two days later, Ozzy came around to my house, because I lived not that far from where he lived,” he revealed.
“We all lived in the same sort of area, so he came around with Geezer [Butler, bass] to my house. And we had a shop – my mother and brother’s shop at that point – so they came around and said, ‘Do you know any drummers?’ I said, ‘Yeah, Bill’s a drummer.’
“And Bill said, ‘I’m not doing anything unless we go together.’ I said, ‘We’re sticking together.’ So we decided to get together and give it a go, and what a rally it was.
“I mean, it was absolutely horrible because me and Bill, the band we were playing before, we really got sort of tight and you know, used to everybody.
“Then we got together with Geezer and Ozzy… Geezer’s never played the bass before – he was a guitar player – and it was a shamble. It’s amazing how we stuck with it. It came together really quickly.
“We were virtually living with each other all the time, and it developed into what it did.”
Earlier this week, Black Sabbath announced an expansive reissue of Paranoid, in celebration of the records 50th anniversary. The re-release is set to arrive on October 9th. Paranoid: Super Deluxe Edition will feature a treasure trove of material stretched across five LPs.
Check out ‘Paranoid’ by Black Sabbath:
