Legendary Prince of Darkness Ozzy Osbourne found fame when he teamed up with the likes of Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward to create Black Sabbath. The band has long been touted as the beginning of heavy metal music, all thanks to their rhythmic and aggressive guitar tones. Black Sabbath would not have been so iconic without its incredible name, however, something the band found while out drinking.

Ozzy spoke about getting the band together in a 2019 interview, where he said: “We used to rehearse in a community centre in Aston that was across the road from a movie theatre.

“It was either Geezer or Tony who said: ‘Isn’t it strange that people pay money to see horror films to be scared. Why don’t we write scary songs?’ At that time we used to change our f*****g name every other week.

“I remember being on a ferry and we were all in the bar and we said: ‘We’ve gotta get a better name!’ Geezer was the one that came up with the name Black Sabbath. It came from one of our songs.” (Via GQ)

This story does contradict another version of how the band found their dark name, however.

READ MORE: Ozzy Osbourne was ‘jealous’ of his replacement after he was kicked out of Black Sabbath

The band were originally called Earth – but they soon came under fire from another band with the same name.

They went on to change their name to Black Sabbath, after the 1963 Boris Karloff film of the same name. (Via BBC)

Tony later said: “That’s when it all started to happen. The name sounded mysterious, it gave people something to think about, and it gave us a direction to follow.”

Although the band’s name is now legendary, they almost missed out on having the perfect line-up when a previous member of the group became problematic.

Ozzy continued: “I went to the same school as the guitarist Tony Iommi. He was in a band called Mythology with Bill Ward, the drummer.

“I was in a group called the Rare Breed with Geezer Butler. I didn’t like the band. The f*****g guitar player was a bully; Geezer agreed and we decided to leave.

“I put an ad in a music shop in Birmingham and Tony and Bill turned up. We called ourselves Earth.”

Ozzy later found a lot of success performing as a solo act in the 1970s after being kicked out of Black Sabbath.

After refusing to practice and record new music, Ozzy was removed from the band by Tony.

The band’s drummer, Bill, was the person tasked with delivering the news, however.

He later recalled: “I hope I was professional, I might not have been, actually. When I’m drunk I am horrible, I am horrid.

“Alcohol was definitely one of the most damaging things to Black Sabbath. We were destined to destroy each other. The band were toxic, very toxic.”

Tony said: “At that time, Ozzy had come to an end. We were all doing a lot of drugs, a lot of coke, a lot of everything, and Ozzy was getting drunk so much at the time.

“We were supposed to be rehearsing and nothing was happening. It was like: ‘Rehearse today? No, we’ll do it tomorrow.’

“It really got so bad that we didn’t do anything. It just fizzled out.”

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