BLACK SABBATH guitar legend Tony Iommi checks in with the following update:

"This is quite a historic year, Saturday marks the 40th anniversary of Black Sabbath the album and this summer HEAVEN & HELL will have been making music for 30 years! Thank you for your support, continued loyalty and we look forward to seeing you all this summer."

On February 13, 1970 Black Sabbath released their first album - the self-titled Black Sabbath. Tomorrow (Saturday, February 13th), Rock 50 will celebrate with an hour long special featuring this groundbreaking album. The show will include the entire album and interviews with Ozzy Osbourne and Bill Ward. Visit WPMD.org to tune in.

A Wikipedia excerpt on the album that changed heavy music reads as follows:

In August 1969 the band, who were then known as EARTH, decided to change their name to Black Sabbath, because there was another band also known as Earth, and also like homage to a 1963 classic Mario Bava terror film protagonized by Boris Karloff. Around the same time they recorded and distributed a demo version of their eponymous song. In December 1969 they recorded and released their debut single, 'Evil Woman'. In January 1970, the band recorded and mixed the remaining seven songs that would appear on their debut album. According to guitarist Tony Iommi, "We just went in the studio and did it in a day, we played our live set and that was it. We actually thought a whole day was quite a long time, then off we went the next day to play for £20 in Switzerland."

Iommi recalls recording live: "We thought 'We have two days to do it and one of the days is mixing.' So we played live. Ozzy was singing at the same time, we just put him in a separate booth and off we went. We never had a second run of most of the stuff."

Black Sabbath reached number eight on the UK Album Chart. Following its US release in May 1970 by Warner Bros. Records, the album reached number 23 on the Billboard 200, where it remained for over a year, selling a million copies.