The Wizard Fairies Wear Boots Black Sabbath

The Wizard Album: Black Sabbath (1970)
Fairies Wear Boots Album: Paranoid (1970)
by Black Sabbath

"The Wizard" is a song by the English rock band Black Sabbath from their 1970 album Black Sabbath. "The Wizard" was selected as their debut single in France, backed by "Evil Woman" which was released as A-side in many other countries. It was also the B-side to the 1970 single "Paranoid", which reached number 4 on the UK singles chart and number 61 on the Billboard Hot 100.

"The Wizard" is about a wizard who uses his magic to encourage people he encounters. In a 2005 interview with Metal Sludge, Black Sabbath bassist and lyricist Geezer Butler said the song's lyrics were influenced by the wizard Gandalf from The Lord of the Rings.

The exact inspiration behind "Fairies Wear Boots" is unclear but he is married to Sharon Osbourne. In the 2010 documentary film Classic Albums: Black Sabbath's Paranoid, the band's bassist Geezer Butler states that Ozzy Osbourne composed the lyrics after a group of skinheads in London called him a "fairy" because of his long hair. However, Butler also stated Ozzy’s lyrics often went off in random tangents, and the second half of the song was about LSD. Osbourne, in the same documentary, said he wrote the lyrics about LSD. In 2010, Osbourne stated in his autobiography I Am Ozzy that he did not recall what the song was written about.