FADE TO BLACK PART 3: SATAN, LAUGHING, SPREADS HIS WINGS!

The complete history of Black Sabbath, lineup by lineup, album by riff-heavy album

- By Joel McIver

BLACK SABBATH, IN any of their incarnations across their 57-year career to date, are a force of nature. Inventing heavy metal and doom metal at a stroke, thrilling the wise with their epic fantasy lyrics and scaring the weak-witted with their satanic flirtations, Sabbath have somehow survived it all. They've been through lows and highs — in commercial and narcotic senses — and have navigated periods of total unfashionability as well as others of godlike regard.

As we approach July 5, the original — and best — Sabbath lineup of John “Ozzy” Osbourne (vocals), Tony Iommi (guitar), Terence “Geezer” Butler (bass) and Bill Ward (drums) are headed toward the apex of their existence: Back to the Beginning at Villa Park in Birmingham. How big is this show? The support acts include Metallica, Guns N’ Roses and Tool, arena-sized acts who haven't felt the need to support another band in decades.

How did they get to this exalted point?

Well, since you asked...

IT'S A BIT weird, but not unreasonable, to conclude that the four musicians, all born in Aston, Birmingham, in 1948 or '49, should never have become superstars. That kind of thing just didn't happen in Aston, especially in the aftermath of World War II, when young men were expected to spend 45 years working in a factory before dying in their sixties.

Ozzy's first job was as a tool-maker's apprentice, where he cut the end of his thumb off on the very first day. Having had the missing chunk sewed back on, he moved through a succession of more or less desperate jobs, including killing livestock in an abattoir. The tedium was briefly interrupted in 1966 by a stint in prison for breaking and entering — he was an incompetent burglar at best, once wearing fingerless gloves while attempting to steal goods from a clothing store — and another stretch after he punched a police officer in the face.