Black Sabbath Name's History: Here's How Boris Karloff Contributed to Band Name's Creation

Before Black Sabbath was created, the band was known as Earth.

Tony Iommi, Bill Ward, Geezer Butler, and Ozzy Osbourne started their career as a band in 1968 as The Polka Tulk Blues Band. It soon changed its name to Earth and promoted under that name until 1969.

It took them a year before they settled on Black Sabbath as the band's official name. The change also led them to become the pioneers of heavy metal music as they also started focusing on horror-inspired lyrics.

How Black Sabbath Became Black Sabbath

Soon after renaming the Polka Tulk Blues Band to Earth, the members realized that they were being mistaken for another pop band of the same name. While thinking of the possible name, the band members came across a movie house near their rehearsal space.

At that time, it was showing Boris Karloff's hit 1963 film, "Black Sabbath." Osbourne said at that time that "strange that people spend so much money to see scary movies."

It initially inspired Butler and Osbourne to create the song "Black Sabbath." From there, they decided to promote under the same name.

"When Ozzy sang 'What is this that stands before me,' it became completely different. I knew where I had to go with the tom-toms. I could have played a more straight-ahead beat. It would never have worked," Ward said.

As Black Sabbath, the band formally started releasing hit albums, including "Master of Reality," "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath," "Sabotage," "Technical Ecstasy," "Heaven and Hell," "Born Again," "The Eternal Idol," "Dehumanizer," "Forbidden," and "13," to name a few.

Despite the band's success, they soon decided to hold their final tour, "The End," in 2016. They played their last show on Feb. 4, 2017, in Birmingham. A month later, they announced their disbandment.

Black Sabbath's Reunion Rumors

In the past years, however, they have been sparking reunion rumors. Osbourne and Iommi, still reunited several times. On the other hand, Ward missed the reunion, with the event becoming "one of the most regrettable things" he ever went through in his life.

In an interview with Classic Rock, the drummer said that not attending Black Sabbath's reunion also caused him to suffer a great setback.

"It's not for lack of trying. I think I got a bad rap a few years ago, and people didn't want to touch me. We're within an industry that's very tiny. I walked out on a deal, you know," he said, as quoted by Ultimate Classic Rock & Culture.