Black Sabbath, one of the most influential heavy bands in rock history, has officially signed off after 49 years.
While there is no official statement of explanation, the band posted their logo from the cover of their Master of Reality album with the dates “1968 – 2017” added and, below, the hashtag “#TheEnd”.
When they played their final show on February 4, there was hope that, while permanently off the road, the band would again enter the studio or, perhaps, do one-off shows, fueled by statements by guitarist Tony Iommi; however, this post seems to state something much more final.
Black Sabbath was formed in 1968 as the Polka Turk Blues Band, eventually changing their name to just Polka Turk, Earth and, finally, Black Sabbath. They released their debut album in February 1970 and their second set, Paranoid, just seven months later. It was the second album that cemented their fame with songs like the title track, Iron Man and War Pigs.
The original lineup of Ozzy Osbourne, Toni Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward stayed together through their eighth album, 1978’s Never Say Die! Except for a short reunion in 1985, Black Sabbath went through numerous lineup changes over the next three decades with the only tie to the original band most of the time being Iommi. While Ronnie James Dio may have been the most famous name associated with the post-Ozzy Sabbath name, the band also included Vinny Appice, Ian Gillan, Bev Bevan, Eric Singer, Glenn Hughes, Tony Martin, Cozy Powell and a number of others over the years.
In 2011, the original four members announced their reunion and, even though Iommi was sidelined for a bit battling lymphoma, they eventually released the album 13 in 2013 followed by a tour in support of the album and the The End Tour which ran from early 2016 to early 2017.
