He quit the first time. It was between Technical Ecstasy and Never Say Die. Sabbath temporarily replaced him with Dave Walker before Ozzy came back to the fold, then they eventually had to fire him. Him quitting first isn’t mentioned a lot, especially when he talks about them firing him. But who knows? He was probably feeling isolated, and they were all consuming a tonne of drugs and rivers of booze, so paranoia, depression, anger etc are all going to bubble to the surface.
The first time, yeah, he was fired. the 2nd time, well, AFAIK, Black Sabbath is done. Released a final album (13), toured, and that’s it, they disbanded. Ozzy back to his solo activities, Tony dealing with health issues, Geezer, uh, um, dunno! Bill Ward/Vinnie Appice/?? weren’t invited to tour, didn’t play on 13, last drummer, Tommy Clufetos, came over with Ozzy. not sure if he’s back with Ozzy, who’s now wrestling with his own health issues. So, short answer is, yes, no (fired/band ended).
Ozzy Osbourne was fired from/left Black Sabbath because of a couple different factors. In 1976, the band released “Technical Ecstasy”, their seventh album. While 1975’s “Sabotage”, had been innovative with progressive flourishes along with their traditional heaviness, “Technical Ecstasy”, was rather boring and uninspired. At the end of the drug fueled recording sessions Ozzy checked in to the Stanford County Asylum in the UK. In 1977 after returning from the “Technical Ecstasy “ tour and days before they were scheduled to be in the recording studio, Ozzy abruptly quit Black Sabbath.
He would begin to work on his “Blizzard of Ozz”, solo project, that would eventually become his first solo album. Black Sabbath hired former Fleetwood Mac, and Savoy Brown frontman Dave Walker to be their new singer.
Eventually with prompting Ozzy did return to the band to record their eighth album, 1978’s “Never Say Die”. It was the hardest recording session in the band’s history, lasting several drug fueled months. This album was met with lackluster reviews from critics and fans. Sabbath then went on tour with a young Van Halen opening for them. Sabbath were reviewed as being tired and boring.
Ozzy was soon fired as his drug and alcohol abuse had become untenable. Ozzy would eventually recover and form his extremely successful solo band and release “Blizzard Of Ozz”, as well as a long series of hit releases. Sabbath would hire Ronnie James Dio of Rainbow to be their new singer and put out two amazing albums with him in “Heaven and Hell”, and “The Mob Rules”.
Tony Iommi never left Black Sabbath. He is the only person to play on EVERY one of Black Sabbaths albums. What’s more he never played with Ozzy as part of either Blizzard of Oz, or Ozzys later solo line ups, although he did make to odd one off guest appearence
Ozzy and Black Sabbath parted ways after the Never Say Die album due to (as they put it) Ozzy mostly not liking the others music when it was done (having to cough up more material), substance abuse all around, and perhaps a cold Canadian studio. Ozzy went on to have solo success for several years starting with Blizzard of Oz before rejoining Black Sabbath.
Black Sabbath hired Ronnie James Dio as Ozzy’s replacement from 1980 to 1982 and had 2 great records with him (Heaven and Hell, Mob Rules) . Dio could sing across riffs according to Tony Iommi and that brought a little something extra to the new Sabbath songs. That said, they weren’t Ozzy but the songs were well received. Dio left due to differences in the recording studio.
Black Sabbath then tried Deep Purple singer Ian Gillum for Born Again (1983), but despite some good sounding music, long time Sabbath fans couldn’t accept him. After some more personnel changes, the band reunited with Ozzy (and sometimes Dio).
In my opinion? Much. Ozzy was not a naturally gifted musician, let alone a songwriter. In Black Sabbath. he was definitely the “weakest link” musically – however well his vocals suited the songs. Geezer wrote the lyrics, Tony wrote the riffs, and Bill did his things on percussion. As a result, Ozzy was never quite as engaged with Black Sabbath as the others were.
When he went solo, he really found his own voice – literally, and figuratively. He developed a vocal style that better suited his (limited) range. He started to write his own songs, and started to write some pretty good ones at that. He has a famous ear for talent, and his band has featured some truly stellar talents at guitar: Randy Rhoads, Jake E. Lee, Zakk Wylde – all heavy metal royalty. And this is to say nothing of the critical and financial success he enjoyed, which was enormous, and well deserved.
There’s no doubt in my mind that Ozzy did far, far better on his own than in Black Sabbath.
Ozzy left briefly in 1977 to be replaced by former Savoy Brown and Fleetwood Mac singer Dave Walker. They appeared on UK TV show Look Hear and performed a proto version of Junior’s Eyes. As far as I know there is only some poor quality audio of this performance in existence. Ozzy returned to complete the Never Say Die album and perform on the 10th anniversary tour in 1978 before being fired in 1979.
Well, Ozzy was part of the original line-up, as you may know. He did leave the band once – briefly – in the mid-seventies and thought to start a new band called Blizzard of Oz with the musician members of a band called Necromandus. That band had formerly been under Black Sabbath’s management, and the two bands knew each other.
Ozzy’s departure from Sabbath was brief, however, and he soon rejoined, and the band continued on with another couple of albums.
Finally, Ozzy’s alcoholism and antics were getting to be too much even for Black Sabbath (who were known to be into heavy drug use, and drummer bill Ward drank a lot).
This time, Ozzy was dumped, and Black Sabbath picked up former Rainbow vocalist, Ronnie James Dio. Bill Ward soon left the band as well and was replaced by drummer Vinny Appice. After two albums, Dio left and Back Sabbath went through an unstable period with singers coming and going, and a couple of non-Black Sabbath albums being released as Black Sabbath albums.
Ozzy reunited with the band for a concert in 1988 I think it was. He finally rejoined late in the band’s career and they recorded one final album together, 13. The band ceased its run with Ozzy as the lead vocalist.
