Black Sabbath’s Ozzy, Iommi and Geezer recalls how they met each other

Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler recalled in an interview with Metal Hammer stories of the beginning of Black Sabbath and talked about how they met each other.

Black Sabbath’s Ozzy, Geezer and Iommi said about how they met each other:

Tony Iommi: “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.’”

Geezer Butler: “Ozzy had been to school with Tony, and they hated each other. Tony had bullied him at school.”

Ozzy Osbourne: “People say he used to beat me up. He never did.”

Tony Iommi: “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.’”

Ozzy Osbourne: “I have no idea what I said to Tony outside my house that night to make him change mind and give me a chance. I think the fact I had a PA system probably helped.”

Geezer Butler: “My personal ambition was to avoid proper jobs and have fun doing what I wanted to do. Play music, and hopefully make enough money to live on.”

Black Sabbath

Black Sabbath is usually cited as one of the pioneers of Heavy Metal. The group helped define the genre with releases like Paranoid (1970), Master of Reality (1971), Sabotage (1975) and Heaven and Hell (1980 with Ronnie James Dio as the singer). Having sold more than 70 million copies during its career. Rolling Stone magazine placed them at number 85 on their list of the “100 greatest artists of all time“.