John Michael Osbourne was born to John Thomas Osbourne and his wife Lillian on December 3rd, 1948. His residence was located at 14 Lodge Road, Aston, Birmingham, England. John Thomas was a professional tool maker and Lillian worked at the Lucas car factory.

John was one of 3 brothers and 3 sisters. His two brothers were named Paul, and Tony, and his 3 sisters were named Jean, Iris, and Gillian. He was born into a very poor family. He barely had any clothes. In fact, in a recent interview he said he only had one shirt, one pair of pants, and one jacket. His apartment had no indoor plumbing and no indoor bathroom. He slept in one bed with all 5 of his brothers and sisters. John was beaten quite a bit by his father, most of it for stunts like trying to kill his siblings.

In his spare time, John would watch television. He liked shows such as "I love Lucy", "Lassie" and "Roy Rogers". This was the lifestyle of Birmingham, a time where you went to work all day and then to the pub to drink and play darts until deciding to stagger home. For the Osbourne family, life was no different. It was all work and little time to enjoy the finer moments in life. While the Beatles were singing about flower power and loving one another, the people of Birmingham simply had to take a good look around them to see the reality of the world: it was hard. Life was no different for the Osbourne family.

While in school, other students called John, "Ozzie" or "Oz-brain" with respect to his last name. Quite the rebel, John did however take part in various school opera-plays such as H.M.S. Pinafore, The Mikado and The Pirates of Penzance. There was one student at school named Tony Iommi whom he did not get along with. Tony and John were from two different crowds and there was no love lost between the two. Tony and his mates would make fun of John's high voice and compared his singing to that of a girl's. The two of them would later reunite later on, under totally different circumstances.

John did not do particularly well in school and wanted to get out as soon as he could. When asked on a school survey what his ambition was, he wrote that he wanted to become a plumber. John was kicked out from school. His parents argued often, and the main issue was their lack of money. John decided that he could fix this if he could go out and get a job. So at the age of 15, John took his first job as a plumber's assistant. He proceeded to cut the end of his thumb off, and it had to be reattached. He still bears a scar.

His second job was as a toolmaker's apprentice. John then went on to work in a slaughterhouse in Digbeth for two years, killing cows. Other jobs included an auto mechanic, house painter and even two weeks at a mortuary. His first musical job was working in the Lucas electrical plant tuning car horns. He later said, "I liked heavy metal better because it was louder".

Dissatisfied with the low income he is earning, John turned to a life of crime. He began robbing small clothes stores and private homes. The cops kept catching him though. Because he wore gloves who's fingers were cut out, his fingerprints were left all over the place! His longest sentence was 6 weeks in the Winson Green Prison, for burglary. During this 6 week sentence, armed with a needle and a slab of graphite, John placed the now famous tattoos on his body. O-Z-Z-Y across his knuckles, needles on his arms, the word "thanks" on his palm, and a happy face on each knee to cheer him up when he woke up in the morning. One happy face can be seen on his left knee on the "Diary of a Madman" album cover.

He would later be put in jail again for punching a police officer in the mouth. Shortly after his release from prison for burglary, he wound up in the hospital on glucose for 12 hours after being thrown through a glass window while fighting 3 men.

After getting out of jail, John decided he did not want to go end up going back. At this time, The Beatles were becoming increasingly popular and becoming the craze. John thought that this would be the way to go. There was money to be made in singing as opposed to crime. As a child, John loved the Beatles and always was admired by the way they commanded an audience. He made up his mind, he wanted to be just like the Beatles. It is of interest to note that this would not be his first musical experience: earlier at the age of 14 he had already been in a band named "The Black Panthers".

A band by the name of "Music Machine" needed a singer because theirs was sick. John liked the idea of being able to travel to gigs and meeting women so he filled in. Later on he joined a band named "Approach" but didn't like the band so he quit. He then decided to call himself "Ozzy Zig" and placed this ad in the local music paper/shop: "Ozzy zig requires gig". John's father loaned him some money and together they purchased a 50 watt amp. Ozzy placed an ad in a local record store reading, "Ozzy zig requires gig. Owns own P.A.". Another 18 year old Brummie named Terence "Geezer" Butler had been playing guitar for just six months when he saw Ozzy's ad on a shop bulletin board and decided to go look him up. After the two met, they decided to form a band named "Rare Breed". Rare Breed lasted only two shows before disbanding.

Elsewhere Ozzy's old schoolmate, Tony Iommi had teamed up with an 18 year old assistant truck driver named William Ward who had just quit his job. Tony and Bill also decided to form a band, "The Rest", and recruited a singer named Chris Smith. The Rest eventually moved north to a small town named Carlisle where they renamed themselves "Mythology" and gained a large following of fans. They played mainly blues songs inspired by such groups as The Yardbirds, Cream, The Beatles and John Mayal. Mythology eventually split up, and Tony and Bill returned to Birmingham. At the music shop they saw the ad in the paper reading "Ozzy Zig". Tony thought to himself, "This can't be the same Ozzy I used to beat up on the playground when I was younger", he went to the address on the ad, and sure enough, it was the same Ozzy.

They decided it would not be a good idea to form a band together. Tony was also not impressed with Ozzy because he had very short hair (really!). Since Ozzy and Geezer still needed a drummer they later approached Tony to see if he knew of a drummer. Bill was at Tony's place and agreed to join them but only if they'd let Tony join too. So along with a slide guitar player named Jim Phillips and a saxophone player, they formed a new band. The new band returned to Carlisle where Tony and Bill had been a success and played some gigs. Not being pleased with a six piece band, they broke up and then rejoined once the two extras had gone. This was a polite way of getting rid of the two unnecessary members.

The foursome then learned 18 songs in their first week together. Ozzy named the band "Polka Tulk Blues Band" after a tin of talcum powder. It has also been said that the name came from a Pakistani clothing store named the "Polka Tulk Trading Company". Geezer Butler switched to playing bass guitar since Tony was now the lead guitar player. Unable to afford a bass guitar, Geezer simply took two of the guitar strings off his guitar and re-tuned it to make a bass guitar. Another name change ensued and the group was soon known as "Earth".