Keyboard player Geoff Nicholls enjoyed a four-decade career in rock, in genres ranging from psychedelic pop to heavy metal -- he is best known in the latter field, as the longtime keyboard player for Black Sabbath (1979-2004). Born in Birmingham, England, in 1948, Nicholls played in several local bands starting in his teens, from the mid-'60s onward. He started out as a guitarist in his early teens, and his idols included Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, and Django Reinhardt -- the first band he ever joined was an early-'60s outfit called Colin Storm & the Whirlwinds, in Birmingham. He also became proficient on the piano and organ, but never entirely forsook the guitar, and he became a serious admirer of Jimi Hendrix's playing from 1966 onward. In 1968, Nicholls was recruited into the short-lived second lineup of the psychedelic pop band the World of Oz, succeeding David Kubinec on keyboards, as well as adding a second guitar to their sound on some songs. Following their split in the spring of 1969, he joined Johnny Neal & the Starliners, a cabaret-type act that was enjoying a good run of success in live performances, and even had a single out ("Put Your Hand in the Hand") at the time on Parlophone. The group was busy enough, and made numerous television appearances, even winning a competition on the showcase Opportunity Knocks, but their brand of soft pop/rock wasn't what Nicholls had in mind for his career, or the music he wanted to be playing.