• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • ABOUT US
  • MEDIA
  • PRIVACY
  • TERMS
  • DMCA
  • CONTACT US
  • AUTHORS
do you remember

DoYouRemember?

The Home of Nostalgia

  • Celebrity News
    • Family
    • Obituaries
    • Life Behind the Fame
    • ICONS
    • Celebrity Feuds
  • Entertainment
    • Cast
    • Showbiz Rewind
    • Music
    • Beauty & fashion
  • STORIES
  • Celebrity Buzz!?
  • Sitcoms
    • Bewitched
    • Little Rascals
    • The Partridge Family
    • I Dream of Jeannie
    • All in the Family
    • MASH
    • Happy Days
    • Cheers
  • Celebrity Collections
  • SHOP DYR
    • DYR Book

Stories

A Note From Ozzy Osbourne Started Black Sabbath, Band Member Recalls

by Peace A

Published June 16, 2023

The Black Sabbath band started in 1968 with Ozzy Osbourne, Geezer Butler, Bill Ward, and Tony Iommi in Birmingham, England. According to the group members, a note titled “Ozzy Zig needs a gig” that was left in a music shop birth the iconic band.

Geezer Butler told Wall Street Journal he saw the note while he was looking for a singer after his first band, Rare Breed, broke up. “I left word at his house. The next day, a shoeless, head-shaven Ozzy Osbourne with a chimney brush over his shoulder was at my door,” Geezer recalled.

Related:

  1. Ozzy Osbourne Hopes To Perform With Black Sabbath Again… On One Condition 
  2. Tony Iommi Is Onboard With Ozzy Osbourne On Black Sabbath Reunion

Bill and Tony felt Ozzy could not sing

How Ozzy Osbourne started Black Sabbath
Ozzy Osbourne, singing with Black Sabbath, at the Moscow Music Peace Festival, 1989.

Bill Ward and Tony Iommi also talked about finding the note, but they were reluctant about Ozzy joining them because they knew him in high school and did not consider him a good singer. Geezer also added that “Ozzy promised to grow his hair and said he had a P.A. system, which we didn’t have and needed.”

RELATED: Meet The Original Members of Black Sabbath Who Are Now In Their 70s

The four men started writing their own songs and playing at gigs until 1969 when they branded themselves as Black Sabbath. They initially chose names like Polka Tulk Blues Band and Earth before settling with Black Sabbath, which was inspired by a 1963 Boris Karloff film.

How Ozzy Osbourne started Black Sabbath
(l to r) Tony Iommi, Ozzy Osbourne, 1980s

Ozzy was kicked out of the music group

After a decade, Ozzy had to start his solo career after being kicked out of the band due to substance abuse. In his 2010 autobiography, Ozzy claimed his former bandmates were doing as much drugs as he was and considered their act “hypocritical.”

“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel betrayed by what happened with Black Sabbath. We were four blokes who’d grown up together a few streets apart,” Ozzy wrote. “We were like family, like brothers. And firing me for being f—ed up was hypocritical bull—. We were all f—ed up.”

How Ozzy Osbourne started Black Sabbath
Photo by: gotpap/starmaxinc.com
STAR MAX
Copyright 2017
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Telephone/Fax: (212) 995-1196
10/10/17
Ozzy Osbourne is seen in Los Angeles, CA.

Despite his unfair exit from the group, Ozzy positively reflected on his time with the band during an interview with Rolling Stone in 2020. “They go back to my childhood. It’s more than a friendship with me and them guys; it’s a family,” he told the outlet. “I don’t know any other people as long as I’ve known them.”

Next up: Clint Eastwood Wanted Revenge After Ralph Macchio Landed ‘Karate Kid’ Instead Of His Son
Previous article: Barbara Eden Recalls Lion Sitting In Her Lap, Smashing A Camera, On ‘I Dream of Jeannie’ Set
Next Post: Shannen Doherty Shares Behind-The-Scenes Video Before Brain Tumor Surgery

Primary Sidebar

© 2025 DoYouRemember? Inc.

  • about us
  • media
  • privacy
  • terms
  • DMCA
  • CONTACT US
  • AUTHORS