A special artist can define a genre. To invent one, however - as Ozzy Osbourne did with metal music - is innovation of the highest order. With his band Black Sabbath and ensuing solo career, the pioneering English singer, who passed away today at the age of 76, carved for the masses a sound (and culture) that passionately celebrated the darkest and shadowiest corners of human experience. Born to a blue-collar English family, John Michael Osbourne lived a frenetic youth dotted with criminal stints before linking up with future Sabbath bandmates Bill Ward, Tony Iommi, and Geezer Butler. Public interest in horror films sparked an idea: that the crew could successfully shirk their original British bluesy sound in favor of an identity that leaned into themes of occultism, violence, and death. They grabbed the name Black Sabbath from a Boris Karloff horror anthology and soon began to book shows, anchored by their uninhibited frontman now known as Ozzy Osbourne. Soon he would become known by...