Black Sabbath might be the pioneering fathers of heavy metal, but when this famously macabre rock band was first starting out, they considered a pop rock band to be their most “massive influence.”
The Birmingham quartet would go on to create a rock ‘n’ roll sound far removed from their earliest influences, but without them, some members of the band don’t think Black Sabbath would have existed at all.
A Fellow Group Of Brits Inspired Black Sabbath
Sonically and aesthetically speaking, Black Sabbath and the Beatles couldn’t be more different. Nevertheless, the Fab Four served as a crucial inspiration to the heavy metal band when they were finding their footing in the late 1960s. As bassist Geezer Butler explained to Michigan radio station WRKR, “They were a massive influence because there was nobody else like them at the time” (via Blabbermouth).
The Birmingham quartet would go on to create a rock ‘n’ roll sound far removed from their earliest influences, but without them, some members of the band don’t think Black Sabbath would have existed at all.
A Fellow Group Of Brits Inspired Black Sabbath
Sonically and aesthetically speaking, Black Sabbath and the Beatles couldn’t be more different. Nevertheless, the Fab Four served as a crucial inspiration to the heavy metal band when they were finding their footing in the late 1960s. As bassist Geezer Butler explained to Michigan radio station WRKR, “They were a massive influence because there was nobody else like them at the time” (via Blabbermouth).
While the Beatles had their fair share of rock ‘n’ roll debauchery, the tales of their time fall short of the wild antics Ozzy Osbourne became famous for, from biting the head off a bat to lapping up urine while touring with Mötley Crüe. Still, Osbourne is of the same mind as Butler: the Beatles changed the world and, in turn, changed the Birmingham natives’ lives forever.
“I knew I wasn’t built to do a 9-to-5 job,” Osbourne said in a 2019 Blabbermouth interview. “When I heard the Beatles, I knew what I wanted to do. I remember it like it was yesterday; I was walking around with a transistor radio on my shoulder, and “She Loves You” came on. And, I don’t know, it just went, ‘Bang!’”
“It was like going to bed in a black and white world and waking up, and it turned to color,” Osbourne recalled a few years later in a 2024 episode of The Osbournes Podcast (via RadioX). “You don’t forget, we came out of World War II and the whole thing. We had strict rules to live by. And it was that [the Beatles] broke the f***ing doors down for so many people, and they gave freedom to the world.”
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