Teenagers Bill Ward (drums), Tony Iommi (guitar) and Terry "Geezer" Butler (bass guitar) met while they were in school in industrial Birmingham. In 1968, they met singer John 'Ozzy' Osbourne and formed 'Earth', a pop-rock, jazz-blues group. The following year, they began playing hard metal-rock and changed their name to 'Black Sabbath'. They became one of the most popular of the early heavy metal outfits, although they had only one hit single -'Paranoid'. Ozzy was fired in 1979, though he returned later for a while, and since then there has been many personnel changes involving nearly 30 band members. Tony Iommi is the only original member to have remained through the entire life of Black Sabbath.
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