Black Sabbath

About

Black Sabbath were a British heavy metal band from Birmingham, formed in 1968 by guitarist Tony Iommi, drummer Bill Ward, bassist Geezer Butler and vocalist Ozzy Osbourne. With their down-tuned riffs, slow tempos and occult-tinged lyrics, they effectively invented heavy metal as a genre - albums like Paranoid (1970) and Master of Reality (1971) remain foundational texts. Over more than four decades they sold over 75 million records worldwide and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006. The band gave its final performance at the charity festival Back to the Beginning at Villa Park, Birmingham, in July 2025; Osbourne died on 22 July 2025, aged 76.

75M+

albums sold worldwide

1.7B

streams of the track Paranoid (all platforms)

300M+

plays of Paranoid on Spotify

studio albums in the discography

What's new

2025-07-22
Ozzy Osbourne, singer and co-founder of Black Sabbath, died on July 22, 2025, at the age of 76.
2025-07-05
Black Sabbath in their original lineup (Osbourne, Iommi, Butler, Ward) reunited for the first time in twenty years at the Back to the Beginning charity festival at Villa Park in Birmingham in front of 45,000 spectators.
2025-02-05
In February 2025, the farewell performance Back to the Beginning was officially announced, where for the first time since 2005 the entire original quartet reunited, including drummer Bill Ward.
2024-08-04
The song Paranoid surpassed 1.7 billion streams across all platforms.
2006
Black Sabbath were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006; Ozzy Osbourne was inducted into the same hall of fame for the second time, this time as a solo artist, in 2024.