John Michael Osbourne was born into a working-class family in Birmingham, England, on December 3, 1948. The fourth of six children, he acquired the nickname Ozzy while in elementary school, where he struggled with his dyslexia. These and other challenges prompted Osbourne to leave school at age 16, at which point he worked a series of menial jobs, including a stint in a slaughterhouse. He soon moved on to more illicit activities by committing a series of petty crimes, culminating with a brief prison sentence for burglary… The band’s steady intake of drugs and alcohol — mostly by Osbourne — also added to the strain, along with the loss of fans to the burgeoning punk rock movement. Following the releases of Technical Ecstasy (1976) and Never Say Die (1978), Osbourne and his bandmates parted ways. Though Black Sabbath would carry on with various frontmen in the decades to come — including Ronnie James Dio, Dave Donato, Ian Gilliam, Glenn Hughes and Tony Martin — the group would never reach the same heights achieved during the Osbourne era, when they wrote and recorded some of heavy metal’s most memorable songs…
Is it Conspiracy, Fact, or both? 