ozzy

Ozzy Osbourne hn Michael Osbourne was born on December 3rd, 1948 in an industrial town in England where he and his five siblings, mother and father, lived in a 2 bedroom house. His family was in poor financial shape, though Ozzy's father worked nights in a steel plant while his mother worked days in a car assembly plant. While in school the other students called 'John' "Ozzy" or "Oz-brain", because of his last name. Ozzy is how he would be known to the world later, and for the rest of his life. Apparently he became so detached from his real name that he would fail to answer to it. Although Ozzy was considered somewhat of a rebel in school, he did take part in many school activities. He participated in school opera-plays such as H.M.S Pinafore, The Mikado, and The Pirates of Penzance, the early signs of his desire to entertain. Ozzy disliked school, and so didn't do very well in it. He dropped out when he was 15. He then became a plumber's assistant. He would hold several jobs over the next few years, from toolmaker's apprentice to killing cows in a slaughterhouse. None of his jobs brought him satisfaction, and eventually he turned to crime. He became involved in some petty theft and breaking and entering, but wasn't very successful at this either, usually getting caught. His first time in jail was for breaking and entering. He was given a fine, but couldn't pay it, and so was sent to Birmingham's Winson Green Prison for three months. He did time there again later for assaulting a police officer. It was in Winson Green Prison where he tattooed the now famous letters O-Z-Z-Y across his left knuckles, using a sewing needle and graphite. He began to look for bands to join once out of jail. and soon found one named "Music Machine" who were in need of a singer, as their regular vocalist was ill. Ozzy filled in, attracted to the traveling and wild sides of the lifestyle. Later he joined a band called "Approach", but quit shortly after, disliking the band. After leaving "Approach" he decided to call himself "Ozzy Zig", placing an ad in the local paper and music shop which read "Ozzy Zig requires gig. Owns own PA." Another 18 year old (Terence 'Geezer' Butler) saw Ozzy's ad on a shop bulletin board looked him up. The two then decided to form a band named "Rare Breed" which did two shows and then disbanded. Ozzy's old schoolmate was teaming up with an 18 year old truck driver named William Ward. They had begun to form a band of their own and recruited a singer named Chris Smith. The band moved north to Carlisle, renamed themselves "Mythology" and gained a large following. They played mainly blues and were inspired much by groups like The Yardbirds, Cream, The Beatles and John Mayal. Mythology eventually split up; Iommi and Ward returned to Birmingham and and

ran across Ozzy's advertisment in the music shop. Iommi hoped strongly that this was not the same 'Ozzy' that he had so disliked in school, but of course it turned out to be the one and the same. They decided that it would not be a good idea to try to start a band together, given their dislike for one another, but Tony did later supply Ozzy and Geezer with a drummer, named Bill Ward. Ward was at Iommi's place when Ozzy and Geezer approached him, and Ward agreed to join as the bands drummer if Iommi could also join. And so the group began to form, with a slide guitar player named Him Phillips and a sax player, they returned to Carlisle where Iommi and Ward had been enjoying some success previously. the group wasn't happy as a six piece band however, and in order to be rid of what were considered to be two unnecessary members, they broke up. Regrouping as a foursome that consisted of Ozzy, Iommi, Ward and Butler. The group learned eighteen songs their first week together as a foursome and Ozzy renamed the band "Polka Tulk Blues" apparently after a can of talcum powder, though some say that the name came from a Pakistani clothing store named 'Polka Tulk Trading Company'. Iommi was now the lead guitar player, and so Geezer Butler switched to playing bass guitar. The group couldn't afford a new bass guitar, so they simply removed two of the strings and re-tuned to. Another name changed occurred, and the group was soon know as "Earth". While waiting to go into rehearsal one day, the group noticed a movie playing called "Black Sabbath" and Geezer said he thought it strange that people would go to a movie to scare themselves silly. They group decided to use the name for the title of their first original song. Until this point they had played other artists music. The name went from that of a song to the groups identity when they realized that there was another band with the name 'Earth'. When they entered Henry's to do a gig, someone mentioned that they liked the bands single. Having never released a single, they immediately realized there was a name problem. That night was disastrous. The crowd was upper-class and expecting a totally different type of music than that which the group gave them. As a result of the incident, Geezer suggested that they change their name to "Black Sabbath' after the Karloff movie. This gave the band a name and title song. It has also been said that the name came from Geezer's interest in occult writer Denis Wheatley. Not having any money, the band relied on Iommi's mother who owned a chocolate shop. They used her van, and she provided them with food and cigarettes. Sometimes the group would land gigs on their own, but more often they would show up at places where other bands were scheduled to play, and if a band failed to show up, Sabbath would take their place. When they played the Star Club in Hamburg in January 1969, they were so popular that they were booked for another five shows. They would play seven shows a day, writing new material as they went. This is evident in their early albums where the songs lyrics differed from the stage to the final album version. Although Sabbath has long been plagued by cries of 'Devil Worshipers' and 'Satanists', the devil had nothing to do with the choice of the name, regardless of how

dark and satanic the name sounded. This point is strengthened by the following incident: As the band began to make news a group of satanists asked them to play at their "Night of Satan" at Stonehenge. They flatly refused, for which they were later informed by the head witch, Alec Sanders, that the group had placed a hex on the band members. Ozzy apparently asked his father to make them up some aluminum crosses, and they wore them 24 hours a day for protection, seeming to take the threat seriously. Tony Hall, an independent producer, paid for the band to record some demo songs at the Regent Sound Studio on Tottenham Court Rd. Roger Bayed produced these songs, and his name appears on many of the albums. One demo cut, 'Evil Woman', was released on the Fontana record label in January 1970 and did quite well. Another demo was called 'The Rebel' and is played as a ten second sample in "The Black Sabbath Story - I" video. Black Sabbath's first completed album was released on Friday February the thirteenth, 1970. It was recorded in only eight hours and cost only 800 British pounds. It was recorded on four tracks on an eight track machine. The band was not very popular at the time of the recording, and they simply wished to do what they liked best - sing about the darker aspects of life. They likely never thought that they would make it big in the music business at this point. In fact Ozzy has said that he was just happy to show his mother that his voice could be recorded on a piece of vinyl. It was not an altogether easy process - it took 14 tries before Jim Simpson finally found a company (Vertigo) that would carry the album. The record company took it upon itself to place an upside down cross on the gatefold of the album, and this immediately caused people to associate the band with Satanism. Sabbath did not want the upside down cross, but bowed to the record companies marketing methods. Inside the inverted cross was a poem that seemed to correspond with the album's cover - a woman standing in a countryside, in a gothic appearing setting. The poem is called "Still falls the rain". Ozzy proudly brought the album home to show his parents, but the reception was not what he had hoped for. The Osbourne's were a family that would sit around the phonograph, listening to music, sipping beer, and singing along. When his parents heard his music, his father remarked "Are you sure you were just drinking alcohol?, this isn't music, this is weird." The first song began with rain falling in the background and a church bell tolling. This was also the first time Ozzy had heard the final product, which would reach #8 on the UK charts, and #23 in the United States. The four unknowns were now beginning to make a name for themselves with the release of an album. The same month that their album came out, Black Sabbath broke the attendance record at Simpson's club - a record set and untouched for over a year by Jethro Tull. http://www.ozzy.com/biography

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozzy_Osbourne http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005285/bio http://www.thebiographychannel.co.uk/biographies/ozzy-osbourne.html