The co-founders of Black Sabbath paid tribute to their doomsayer-in-chief following the news of Ozzy Osbourne’s death at age 76 on Tuesday.

A year later, they'd slimmed down, found a new name and invented heavy metal. Few bands are so inextricably linked with a musical genre, but Sabbath set the template for everyone from Motörhead and AC/DC to Metallica and Guns 'n' Roses.

"It's just such heartbreaking news that I can't really find the words, there won't ever be another like him," Iommi said.

Bassist Terence “Geezer” Butler, guitarist Tony Iommi, lead singer Ozzy Osbourne, and drummer Bill Ward were all between the ages of 18 and 20 when they began playing together in Birmingham. Naming themselves after an Italian horror film in early 1969,

Tony Iommi is more riff machine than man these days, but he felt that some of his iconic licks shouldn't be as memorable as they are. Read more here.

Before he was a pioneering reality television star, he was a pioneering heavy metal singer. But Ozzy Osbourne’s music has always felt bigger than his celebrity.

A wide range of rock stars paid tribute to Ozzy Osbourne on Tuesday after learning the former Black Sabbath frontman died at 76, just over two weeks after playing a farewell show in his native England.