Who’s Still Alive From Black Sabbath?

Black Sabbath formed in 1968, when four lads from Birmingham— Tony Iommi, Bill Ward, Geezer Butler and Ozzy Osbourne, who passed away on July 22, 2025, at age 76 —came together to change music forever. With a dark sound and darker lyrics, the group created what we now know as heavy metal.

The band connected with rock fans who craved something harder than the Flower Power of the 1960s. Throughout the following decade, Sabbath would release a run of albums—Black Sabbath, Paranoid, Master of Reality, Vol. 4—that few metal bands would rival. They would strike fear in the hearts of concerned parents, while kids would band their heads and throw up the “horns” in salute to their rock idols.