July 22, 2025
Yui Mok/SIPA
Black Sabbath played its first American show at Glassboro State College, now known as Rowan University, on Oct. 30, 1970. The concert's promoter, Rick Green, recalls the band blowing out the power shortly into its set. Above, frontman Ozzy Osbourne in 2005.
Ozzy Osbourne molded heavy metal with his definitive vocals as the legendary frontman of Black Sabbath and later as a solo artist with a career full of hits.
Osbourne, who died Tuesday at age 76, and Black Sabbath got their start in England in the late 1960s, but by late 1970, the band was on its way to the United States for a memorable American debut in South Jersey.
Black Sabbath played its first U.S. concert at Glassboro State College, now known as Rowan University, on Oct. 30, 1970.
It was Mischief Night, Rick Green, the show's promoter, recalled in an interview Wednesday. How fitting of a debut for the band that seemed to dabble in the occult and whose lead singer infamously bit the head off a live bat – or did he?
At the time, Green was a 21-year-old New York University student living in Greenwich Village. A Teaneck, New Jersey native, Green promoted shows at various colleges throughout his home state.
The Black Sabbath show cost $750 to put on after accounting for the costs of its talent, sound and lighting, Green said. Tickets were $1.50 in advance and $2.50 at the door, a pittance of price verified by a concert poster from the show once sold by Christie's auction house.
Upon entering the United States, Black Sabbath had gotten tangled up in customs, Green said, after Osbourne told officials that his religion was "Satan."
In typical rock 'n' roll fashion, Black Sabbath was a little tight on time getting to the show at Glassboro's Esbjornson Gymnasium, which still stands on Rowan's campus today, albeit updated, and is the home to the Prof's basketball, volleyball and swimming and diving programs.
The band was running up against curfew, but Green said the school allowed Black Sabbath to take the stage. The band didn't even do a sound check, and blew out the sound system's power "about 30 seconds" into the show, Green recalled. That was a regular problem for the band during its initial U.S. tour, because the difference in the voltage of American and British electrical circuitry.
The band eventually went back on, played the same first song, "N.I.B.," and, according to Green, blew out the power in all of Glassboro.
If that's not heavy metal, what is?
On Tuesday, Rowan posted an image of the concert flyer and a photo from the show on social media, acknowledging the power outage and Osbourne's death.
Honoring Ozzy Osbourne 🎸 On 10/30/70 Black Sabbath played their first US show at Glassboro State College (now Rowan University). They arrived late and blew the power campus‑wide in 10 mins! pic.twitter.com/VRwY1brh3D
— Rowan University (@RowanUniversity) July 22, 2025
There is some dispute as to whether South Jersey was indeed the site of the band's first American show on that tour. The autobiographies of Osbourne and guitarist Tony Iommi say Black Sabbath appeared at a New York City club called Ungano's, with Iommi recalling the band blew out that club's fuses.
Regardless of whether Glassboro is where Black Sabbath first rocked out in America, it was not the band's final momentous show in the area.
The band's original lineup also reunited for the first time for the Live Aid show at Philadelphia's John F. Kennedy Stadium on July 13, 1985. It had been six years since Osbourne was fired from the band, which included Iommi on guitar, Geezer Butler on bass and drummer Bill Ward.
Live Aid, organized by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise funds for the Ethiopian famine disaster, featured simultaneous concerts in Philly and London.
Playing in front of 100,000 people, the heavy metal legends, billed as "Black Sabbath featuring Ozzy Osbourne" by the public address announcer, took the stage for a three-song performance. The band played "Children of the Grave," "Iron Man" and "Paranoid" to a sea of concertgoers.
"Let's see you going crazy!" Osbourne yelped before the band kicked into "Paranoid," the title track from their gene-defining 1970 album.
It's estimated that 1.9 billion people worldwide watched the televised concert. To say the least, that's a larger audience than the one they performed in front of at the Esby Gym 15 years prior, but, even the Prince of Darkness needed to start somewhere.
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