Written by Samuel Phineas Upham
John Michael Osbourne, the man who would become Ozzy, was born in Birmingham England in 1948. His family was solidly working class, which led Osbourne to leave school at an early age to pursue work. He tried legitimate work for a while, then turned to petty crime. It was his illegal exploits that landed him in jail and gave him time to figure out what he really wanted to do.
When he was released, Osbourne was asked to sing for a new band called “Earth.” The group played very bluesy-rock anthems that garnered them some popularity in the area. Soon, they were experimenting with the sounds we would associate with heavy-metal rock.
When they tried to go mainstream, they realized that there was already a band called “Earth.” They decided to rename their group after a Boris Karloff film: Black Sabbath.
Their debut album came in 1970. The critical community largely dismissed the effort, but it found popularity in Britain never the less. Their next effort contained some of the band’s most well-known songs. Released in 1971, Paranoid became the seminal metal album.
The band’s popularity was further bolstered by its usage of religious symbolism. Constant criticism from rightist groups would help them overcome the almost overwhelmingly negative receptions they got when they first debuted.
Osbourne left the group in ’78 to pursue his own work. During that time, he released several commercial successes and began to cultivate a personality for himself. He was known for biting the head off of a bat live on stage, and for urinating on the Alamo. Though Osbourne almost quit music in ’92, he soldiered on to a 2005 tour with the surviving members of Black Sabbath.
Samuel Phineas Upham is an investor from NYC and SF. You may contact Samuel Phineas Upham on his Samuel Phineas Upham website