text:
Black Sabbath FAQ

Copyright © 2011 by Martin Popoff

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, without written permission, except by a newspaper or magazine reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review.

Published in 2011 by Backbeat Books

An Imprint of Hal Leonard Corporation

7777 West Bluemound Road

Milwaukee, WI 53213

Trade Book Division Editorial Offices

33 Plymouth St., Montclair, NJ 07042

All images are from the personal collection of the author unless otherwise noted.

The FAQ series was conceived by Robert Rodriguez and developed with Stuart Shea.

Book design by Snow Creative Services

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Popoff, Martin, 1963–

Black Sabbath FAQ : all that's left to know on the first name in metal / Martin Popoff. — 1st pbk. ed.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-0-87930-957-2 (alk. paper)

1. Black Sabbath (Musical group) 2. Rock musicians—England—Biography. 3. Rock groups—England. I. Title.

ML421.B57P66 2011

782.42166092'2—dc22

[B]

2011015823

www.backbeatbooks.com
For Ronnie...inspiration, encouragement, comfort, and rock giant to me since 1975
Contents

Foreword

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1: "Well, We Can't Tell You That." Black Sabbath Sign with Vertigo Records

2: "Oh My God—What Is That Sound?!": Sabbath's Early Influences

What Is This That Stands Before Me? Important Dates in Sabbath History: The '70s

3: Majors & Minors: Those Who Sang for Black Sabbath

4: "Bonham and Ozzy Used to Be the Loudest Two": A Chat with Norman Hood

5: "I'm the Witchfinder General!" Black Sabbath Inspire a Genre Called Doom Metal

6: "I Don't Hear a Single." The Top 40 Obscure Sabbath Tracks

7: Creepy Competition: Black Sabbath, Black Widow...What's the Difference?

8: Wicked World: Geezer the Peacenik: Geezer Butler on War

9: "The Opening Act on That Show Was Bruce Springsteen": Bands Who Shared Bills with Sabbath Early On

10: Thrilling Billing: Black Sabbath's Tour Mates Through History

11: "Our New Single...This Is Called 'Supertzar.' Everybody Sing Along!" Songs Black Sabbath Have Never Played Live

12: "Oh No, You're NOT Buying That!" The Story Behind the _Sabbath Bloody Sabbath_ Cover Art

13: Runnin' with the Devil: Black Sabbath's Controversial 1978 Tour with Van Halen

14: Black Sabbath's Knob Jobs: The Sabbath Albums Ranked by Sound Quality

15: The Infamous Black and Blue Tour: Black Sabbath Versus Blue Öyster Cult

Turn Up the Night: Important Dates in Sabbath History: The '80s

16: Roomful of Blues: The Studios in Which Sabbath Recorded

17: "Puccini in Chains": Onetime Black Sabbath Manager Sandy Pearlman Genuflects on His Subjects

18: "The Boys Are in the Kitchen Having a Little Chat." Craig Gruber on the Birth of _Heaven and Hell_

19: That's a Wrap! Black Sabbath's Album Covers Ranked

20: Doom Gone Solo: Key Sabbath Members and Their Solo Accomplishments—A Critique

21: "Next on _American Bandstand_ , a Kooky Bunch All the Way from England...": The 20 Most Shockingly Radio-Friendly Black Sabbath Songs

22: Math Pt. 1: Plaque Sabbath: Some Sabbath Sales Figures

23: Math Pt. 2: With a Bullet: Black Sabbath's Chart Positions

24: What I Think Pt. 1: Sabbath's Studio Albums Reviewed and Rated

25: What I Think Pt. 2: Sabbath's Live Albums Reviewed and Rated

"We've All Grown Up." Important Dates in Sabbath History: The '90s

26: Caught in a Heavy Metal Time Machine: Two Soundtrack Stories from the Ronnie Era

27: Slack Babbath: Bands Named After Black Sabbath Songs

28: "They Wrote Every Single Good Riff...Ever." Praise for the Sabs from the _Nativity in Black_ ers

29: Fancy a Blow?: Guest Cameos on Black Sabbath Records

30: "Have You Heard About Vinny?" Producer Thom Panunzio Talks _Reunion_

31: At Cross Purposes: Black Sabbath Songs That Sound Like Other Black Sabbath Songs

32: "No Matter What Name You Get Behind It, the Fans Are Going to Know." The Birth of a Band Called Heaven & Hell

I Must Have the Bible Black: Important Dates in Sabbath History: The '00s and '10s

33: "It Hasn't Been a Very Happy World for a While." Heaven & Hell Unleash _The Devil You Know_

34: "That Was The Whole Journey, Right There." _Neon Nights_ : A Goodbye Gift to Ronnie

35: "Always." Despite Heaven & Hell, Ronnie Never Gives Up on Dio

Appendix 1. "'The Rebel,' Take Million Twelve": Black Sabbath's Early Demos

Appendix 2. The Mob Drools: A Sampling of Black Sabbath's Collectible Records

Appendix 3. I've Got My Own Album to Do: Key Sabbath Members and Their Solo Accomplishments—A Timeline

Selected Bibliography

Photo Credits
Foreword

Black Sabbath was the first! The pioneers, the originators. They were the first heavy metal band and the first metal band to reach #1 in the UK and then also, with _Paranoid_ , #12 in the U.S. They were the first band to record in dropped tuning, and of course everyone would follow in their wake; indeed, it's impossible to exaggerate their influence over the whole metal scene since 1970.

I grew up with Sabbath. My older brother, Dave, introduced me to their groundbreaking first album when I was eleven years old. Listening to that opening track, "Black Sabbath," on their eponymous debut was a life-changing experience. Nothing could prepare me for the unique atmosphere of entering the nightmarish world they conjured. Drama and power were equally, intensely mixed, through a mean and dark riff emphasizing the flattened fifth, accentuated by those moody verses, with a singer who sounded as though Satan himself was on his tail.

Moving forward less than a year, Sabbath's second album, _Paranoid_ , features one of my all-time favorite rock songs, "War Pigs," which helped Sabbath achieve success in the U.S., very rare for a none-too-commercial band. As it turned out, the younger generation of Americans related to what Black Sabbath were saying with their antiwar stance at the time of the Vietnam War.

Stepping back, my brother had been learning to play the acoustic guitar since 1968, but in '71 he went to see Sabbath at the Birmingham Town Hall and later told me, "The minute Tony Iommi hit that first power chord to 'War Pigs' on his cherry red Gibson SG with that incredible sustain and feedback, I knew I had to buy an electric guitar." After this revelation, Dave went out and bought a cheap secondhand SG copy for £14, and this eventually became my first guitar, the guitar I formed Diamond Head with in 1976.

I recall struggling to play along to "Children of the Grave" from my favorite Sabbath album, _Master of Reality_. Unfortunately my guitar was in standard tuning (I did not know of anything else at the time), and that whole pioneering album is detuned a semitone, while, as well, the bottom E string is tuned down another whole tone, to C♯. So I could never find the chords or play along or figure out the secret as to why Sabbath sounded so much heavier than all the other bands.

I mean, there's a riff in the ultraheavy "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath"...it's a crushing song anyway, but when it gets to the 3:19 mark, it goes through the floor, finding a whole next level of heaviness like a punch in the stomach; unbelievable, and again, that section features Tony utilizing the same dropped tuning before anyone else had discovered it.

Advance through the '70s, and the release of every Sabbath album was an event in our household. In 1974, Dave took me, fourteen years of age, to see the mighty Sabbath in the flesh on the _Sabbath Bloody Sabbath_ tour, at the Birmingham Odeon, home turf for us and Sabbath both. I am sure this experience had a big effect on what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. Seeing them live was a huge thrill; it was a wall of sheer power, harnessed by a front man who could work the crowd. When most singers were content to look cool, Ozzy was a good-time guy who wanted everyone to enjoy the evening, shown through his own enthusiasm for the cause. As well, Ozzy had a real talent for adding a melody line on top of a riff, which is something I very much appreciated and used extensively in Diamond Head.

Deep into the years of my Sabbath fandom, in 1978 my favorite riff was the one driving the verse of "Symptom of the Universe," a crushing, relentlessly heavy song from the _Sabotage_ album. I of course wanted to out-heavy it with Diamond Head and came up with the riff for "Am I Evil?" It was my challenge for the title "heaviest riff in the world." Thanks partially to its Sabbath inspiration, that song has become a live favorite and a metal classic in its own right and was the first song Metallica covered as a B side, their version showing up on the band's 12" "Creeping Death" single from '84.

In 1983, Diamond Head were lucky enough to be invited to support Sabbath on a three-week European tour promoting their shockingly grinding _Born Again_ album, although by this time it was no longer the "classic" lineup, featuring instead Ian Gillan on vocals and Bev Bevan on drums. The first date in France was rained out, and so we all set off toward the Toros Monumental, Barcelona, opening to ten thousand crazy Spaniards packed into a huge bullring. I had a terrible gig, as my amp sounded thin and had no sustain; I rushed back to the amp and turned everything up full, including my distortion pedal, but it still sounded weedy—what a nightmare. I found out afterward it was because all the backline power was coming off a generator that was not giving off 240 volts. The people at the front of the stage began throwing chunks of orange shale at us, which they were collecting from the floor of the bullring. One of them hit our bass player full in the face and he shouted down the mic, "Fuck off, you Spanish bastards!" Another went into our keyboard player's brand-new Yamaha DX7. I hated the gig, and it was one of those moments where I wished the ground would open up and swallow me. It did not happen again, thankfully, and the rest of the tour was a noticeable improvement. It's a weird feeling meeting your heroes, but it was awesome to be on the road with the Sabs and getting to know Tony and Geezer, if just a little.

Fast-forward: In 1992 I was asked, "Would you like to write a song with Tony Iommi?" I immediately said, "Oh my God, yes, please." Our record company guy, Pete Winkelman, knew Tony's manager and arranged for me to go meet him. I arrived at his huge house in Solihull, West Midlands; the man in black welcomed me into his palatial home and made us both a cup of tea. I could not help but notice all the gold discs on the walls and asked Tony, "How many albums have Sabbath sold?" to which Tony nonchalantly replied, "Oh, about sixty million." We sat down with our guitars and I began to wonder if I was out of my depth here, but was relieved when, when I produced my cassette with riffs on it, Tony delved into his drawer of cassettes and pulled one out too. We listened to each other's offerings and I was reassured to hear that Tony's tape did not sound any better than mine. After agreeing which riffs we liked best, we set about writing the song "Starcrossed (Lovers of the Night)." Diamond Head vocalist Sean Harris and I had been listening to Soundgarden's _Badmotorfinger_ album from the previous year and we particularly liked their '90s take on Sabbath, so a little of that went into the melting pot. I came up with the intro, verse, and bridge section, while Tony came up with the fast galloping middle eight and the ending ride-out riff. We tried to combine the best bits of Sabbath with a bit of Diamond Head arrangement and mood. It did not take long and, to my relief, Tony was an absolute pleasure to work with.

Once the song had been recorded—this was for the album _Death & Progress_—Tony kindly came down to the studio we were using in Birmingham, called the Music Station. He arrived with his guitar tech and fairly quickly got a sound to suit the track. He then proceeded to lay down a killer guitar solo right in front of my eyes. It was an unforgettable experience, and his help, talent, and time were greatly appreciated. As it turned out, Tony was, and is, easily one of the nicest guys I have ever met.

Black Sabbath forever!

_Brian Tatler_

_Co-founder, Diamond Head_

_March 2011_
Acknowledgments

Thanks to all these folks for making this book and this career possible!

Ted Abel; Eric Alper; Jayne Andrews; Vinny Appice; the Banger Films crew (Sam Dunn, Scot McFadyen, Chappy, Double I, Double T, and all at Banger); Bill Baran; Tracy Barnes; Carl Begai; Mike Bell; Dennis Bergeron; Beth and Trevor; Mike Blackburn; Akim Boldireff; Albert Bouchard; Joe Bouchard; Marc-Andre Boulay; Mary Bourke; Dan Brownell; Chris Bruni; Jessica Burr; Philip Burton; Geezer Butler; Amanda Cagan; Ernie Cefalu; the CGP crew (Rob Godwin, Ric, PG, Matt, and all at CGP); Ian Christe; John Chronis; Monte Conner; Neil Cournoyer; Joe D'Agostino; Bob Daisley; Neil Daniels; Jack David and all the crew at ECW; Jinx Dawson; Neil Deas; Wendy Dio; K. K. Downing; Jeff Dozier; Dennis Dunaway; Rob Dwyer; Dave Ellefson; Jason Elzy; Jennifer Farhood; Rory Fiorito; Jon Freeman; Rich Galbraith; Billy Gibbons; Hugh Gilmour; Bolle Gregmar; Mark Gromen; Allan Grusie; Sammy Hagar; Jeremy "Mob Rules" Hainsworth; Steve Hammonds; Michael Hannon and his couple o' Dogs; John Harnden; Bill Harris; Heather Harris; Dave Harrison; Scott Hefflon; Tim Henderson; Bobby Ingram; Ioannis and Vivid George; Tony Iommi; Mitch Joel; Kevin Julie; Carol Kaye; Dan Kieswetter; King Diamond; Blaise Laflamme; Hugues Laflamme; Mitch Lafon; Trevor Lamas; Michel Langevin; Steve and John Larocque; Robert Lecker; Anna LeCoche, Pegi, and the rest of the crew at Anthem; Bob Lefsetz; Anne Leighton; Matthias Mader; Doug Maher; Bernadette Malavarca; Brandon Marshall; Tony Martin; Paul Mawhinney; Joel McIver; Shannon Mehaffey; John Merikoski; Mom, Dad, and Brad; Kate Moore; Pete Morticelli; Bob Nalbandian; Ted Nugent, Derek, Rob, and Cliff (R.I.P.); Derek Oliver; Ozzy Osbourne; Tim "Ripper" Owens; Sean Palmerston; Thom Panunzio; Pete Pardo; Andy Parker; Brian Perera; Dennis Pernu; David Perri; Bill Peters; Ken Pierce; Alan Poulin; Jim Powell; Randy Pratt; Mike Pritchard; Jarret Rice; Simon Robinson; Robert Rodriguez; Doug Roemer; Henry Rollins; Ronus Ron; Ross the Boss; Chip Ruggieri; Jimmy Santoro; Nancy Sayle; Myke Scavone; Trevor Shaikin; Joe Siegler; Brian Slagel; Aaron Small; Stred; Mark Strigl; David Tedds; Forrest Toop; Eddie Trunk; John Tucker; Joe Lynn Turner; Ben Upham; Loana dP. Valencia; Rob van der Bliek; Jacques van Gool; Tracy Vera; Bill Ward; Rich Ward; Polly Watson; Mike Watt; Ray Wawrzyniak; David Lee Wilson; Josh Wood; Jeb Wright; Tim Yasui.
Introduction

Never fathomed I could write a second book on any band but if there was one possible, that would be Black Sabbath, and if there was a way in and a way out, it would be this buckets-o'-fun FAQ series concept, a lively idea stuffed with elliptical ways to add richness to any tale of the tape. Why this worked, and why my enthusiasm never waned as I wrote rollickingly, is because I quickly found there was so much more to say beyond what is contained in my previous tome ( _Black Sabbath: Doom Let Loose—An Illustrated History_ ), so many nooks and crannies of the band to mine for nuggets of trivia, not to mention the fact that massive developments have occurred since, namely the triumphant worldwide establishment, battle, and victory lap from a new band called Heaven & Hell, followed by the epic death of Ronnie James Dio, king among kings, all-round good guy for miles.

All of that is dealt with and more, through many (and only!) new personal interviews since my last book, plus a massive amount of freedom to pontificate and make lists and spout off and tell side-stories. What follows, then, is a surreptitious telling of the main story, complexly by pieces and by compartmentalized chapters, plus the tales beneath the skin, the goofy stuff us fans want to argue o'er, plus science, math, geography, social sciences, and maybe even a little gym class, given that we find out at the end of our trip about Tony boxing, Geezer skiing, and Ronnie running.

Like I say, it's been a blast, because the band at hand, in all its decades-straddling variety, has always offered much music and a myriad of emotions. If you don't like this singer, here's another one, new era, new sound, solo diversions, the only constant being the crushing weight of Tony's riffs.

Yep, been a Sabbath fan for, man, thirty-six, thirty-seven years, first scared and scarred by I dunno, a quick thrust and parry into _Vol 4_ and maybe _Paranoid_ or _Sabbath Bloody Sabbath_ , debut soon to follow. Weirdly, though, the most intense and egregious indoctrination would have been—I'll never forget this—working on a school project for both days of a weekend, full days, flipping constantly in the background the four sides of _We Sold Our Soul for Rock 'n' Roll_ to the point of the babbling craziness of insane, furtive, scratchy repetition, to the point of the music getting between the muscle fibers of my spindly legs and pointless biceps, thirteen, fourteen at the time, and I'm sure I aced that project 'cos of my first-rate title pages. Sure, it was a "who cares" compilation, but there's just something about the relentlessness of all those crusty yet monumental Sabbath tunes being drilled into me head over and over again that made that expansive rec room with the psychedelic black-and-white-circles wallpaper feel like the sweat lodge of a religious cult.

I was rehooked, or hooked in a more profound way than flashier, more pleasurable and conventional meetings with the records, and was thereafter slavering to buy every record upon release day, moment of delivery into our interior BC town of Trail or wherever, ever since, as moves for university and then work and life took me, it seems, bloody all over Canada.

Just a goofy personal story, that is, and yeah, not much more to say here other than an exhortation to all you headbangers to enjoy the spirit in which this book was written, more from a fanboy point of view, sometimes whimsical, sometimes obsessive, and less so conventionally biographical. Lots to debate, a few laughs, lots of the Sabs, and, most inspiringly, quite a few words direct from Ronnie as we wind down to the final three chapters and the closing of one big medieval door, and the opening, hopefully of another, for the mighty metal legend and energetic host with the most that is Ronnie.

_Martin Popoff_

_November 2010_

_martinp@inforamp.net_
1

"Well, We Can't Tell You That."

Black Sabbath Sign with Vertigo Records

It really was the golden age for British rock, the late '60s were, or at least a bubble had been created that was about to pop, sprinkling creative pixie dust all over a rarified early '70s, from which heavy metal would be born proper, done right. Part of the credit should go to the major labels (when was the last time you heard them congratulated for anything?), for recognizing that their majorness equated to stodginess, and that to fly high with the nation's new breed of precocious music makers, they would have to chew their arm off and create another arm, essentially a concept known as the boutique label.

Harvest, Deram, Neon...that's the ticket yeah, plus there were feisty indies like Island and Transatlantic to deal with. Enter one Olav Wyper, who in the following pages recounts in detail the story of the best of the lot, the heavy, the proggy, the mysterious...Vertigo Records.

"Well, in '69, I was still at CBS. The year before that, CBS had started on a whole thing of contemporary artists, like Blood, Sweat & Tears, Janis Joplin, Sly & the Family Stone, Laura Nyro, all those acts that were taking music in a new direction. I was in New York and went to a presentation and was taken by all of it, brought them back to England, put them out as the States did, as separate albums. Nothing. Nobody was interested. Couldn't get airplay, a little bit of late-night airplay, but we just could not make heads nor tails.

"And when the states did the next launch of those things, they released them together, as a clutch of records. And I took that idea but changed it. I was head of marketing and sales at CBS, and I withdrew them and remarketed them, under _Rock Machine_. And we did a sampler, which nobody did in those days, which we gave away for virtually nothing, in order to get it out there. And all of a sudden those records began to sell, and they began to get picked up by radio, because here was a new thing—Rock Machine: what does that mean?

"And so the following year, '67, I think, we did it again. We did a campaign: 'The Rock Machine Moves On.' And we proved it to ourselves, at least, that the way to market records that were aimed at the same market was to launch them and promote them together, so that people would say, 'I wonder what the next Rock Machine album is?' They don't know who it is, because none of these acts were known when we launched them in the UK. But people were buying them because they liked the sound and they liked the idea, and there was a lot of high-class art that went with it. And I had seen something of that with EMI, because I was with EMI prior to working for CBS, and at EMI, one of the jobs I was given was to launch the Tamla Motown label. Because all the Tamla stuff had been released on Stateside Records, which was an EMI label, that they licensed American repertoire onto. And Berry Gordy came into town and said, 'Our deal is up, EMI,' and they said, 'Well, we'd like to go on with it,' and he said, 'Well, I want a label.' And EMI said, 'No, no, no, we don't give people labels.' And then Berry said, 'Well, that's okay, then I'll do a deal with Decca.' And Len Wood, who was the music director, said, 'Well, perhaps we can work something out.'

"Anyway, they did work something out, and the Motown label came to EMI and I was given the job of launching it and discovered very quickly [that] the way to do it was not to concentrate on the artist, but to concentrate on the label, the name, because people knew that if they bought Motown, they were getting a particular kind of music. So I went to Philips in '69; Philips had been a completely moribund company, for at least a couple of years, and when they advertised for the initial post of general manager, they didn't say who it was. And the minute the first person had applied and been to the interview it went around the business like wildfire that it was Philips. And of course nobody was interested. And so they decided to headhunt people, and I got a call saying, 'We'd like to interview you for a job,' and I said, 'What job, which company?' and they said, 'Well, we can't tell you that.' And I said, 'Well, why would I come then?' 'We'll have to call you back.' So they rang me back and said, 'It's actually Philips,' and I said, 'Well, I wouldn't be interested.' 'Why?' 'Well, because it's Philips' [laughs]. And they said, 'Oh, well, Philips is going to change, and a whole new philosophy and everything.' And I said, 'Well, I wouldn't want to be interviewed in London. I want to be interviewed in Amsterdam' and I wanted to talk to the people who actually ran Philips and hear that from them. Because I would have certain conditions, and one of the conditions was that I had the right to hire and fire over anybody, no matter how long they've been there. I wanted to be given a free hand to reorganize the company. And that might include changing the A&R policy.

"Anyway, I went out, went to the interview, and got the job, and I set up with Philips, and I said to them, 'What are you working on?' 'We've got singles coming out, we've got record albums coming out, but we're not really working on anything. What would you like us to work on?' And I said, 'What the hell is going on here?!' And they said, 'We've been waiting for someone to come in and tell us what to do.' And I said, 'What happened to the David Bowie record? _Space Oddity_?' Because it was supposed to be a hit and it wasn't. And they said, 'We tried, but it didn't happen.' So I said, 'Well, since you've got nothing else to do, here's a thought. The whole company for three weeks is not going to do anything but work on David Bowie.' In those days, salesman didn't sell singles, so, 'Now you're going to go in and sell singles, and you're going to persuade the dealers to take them, and if you can't, you give them half of his order free. The promotion people, the pluggers, only go and do one record.'

"And we had ads in all the papers. So the ads would only promote David Bowie. So it made Bowie, and we went to #5 in the charts, and it established him, and he was on Philips, and it suddenly gave the Philips name a bit of an impetus. I had a plan, because the A&R side of things was in a very dreadful state with the two elderly gentlemen who ran the two A&R labels. And one of the two moved on, or was moved on, and I brought some young people then to head up that label, and I wanted to start a new label that would give a real insight and fresh look at what was going on, because EMI's Harvest label had started to make waves, and a lot of people were interested in the material coming out on it. But I don't think it was quite well enough focused. So I looked at what artists we had, within the group, that I could put on this new label, and the only one we had was a jazz fusion act called Colosseum, which was Jon Hiseman's band. And they were managed by Gerry Bron, and I knew Gerry Bron for years, and I went to Gerry and said, 'The bands on Philips, I would like to put them on this new label, which we're going to call Vertigo.'

"Well me, actually," continues Wyper, asked as to who came up with the name of the new imprint. "I started my working life in an advertising agency, and one of the major clients, one of the clients I was put to work on, because I was the youngest person in the agency, was EMI Records. I was unusual in that I both wrote and designed the ads. Most people do one or the other, but I can do both, and one of my skills, if you like, was coming up with names for things. I had the name Vertigo, but I didn't have any idea about what that would mean. Until I was driving home one night and the car started to steam up. I was waiting at the traffic lights, and I couldn't see out the driver's window, and I just drew a circle with my finger, so I could see out, and all of a sudden that and Vertigo came together.

"So I went into the office the next daya Philips was quite unique, as a record company, in having its own art department, with designers and copywriters and everything, which is very unusual in record companies, but they did, and they were very good. And Mike Stanford was the creative manager, and I got him and his team together and said, 'Look, this isn't what it is,' and I just kind of drew a circle with smaller circles within it and said, 'What I want is, kinetically, for this to move and take you in, so we call it Vertigo, and what I want is for you to come up with something that you could arguably get vertigo from by watching the record go round. So it's going to draw you into it.

"And Linda Glover, who was a young designer there, she actually came up with the design, and the idea was to have it only on the A side, no information—that would all be on the B side. And when I was at CBS, I had made the very first pop promo in England, which was a black-and-white promo for 'Albatross,' the Fleetwood Mac track. Because we had Fleetwood Mac at CBS when I was there. And I had met a young guy on the shoot who was in his final year at the Royal College of Art in London, and he and I struck up a friendship, and he invited me to go to his end-of-term exhibition, when he was leaving. I had no idea he was such a good photographer, and you could look at these pictures and they told the story. He didn't need any words; you knew by looking at what was happening. And I wanted Vertigo to have a very, very strong identity, and you may remember, all the covers were gatefold, and they had brilliant artwork, which is usually spread across the whole thing, and thoughtful. A high percentage of them were done by Keith MacMillan, who is this chap who designed as Keef.

"So we had that all in place and we needed more acts to launch, and Manfred Mann, who had been a Fontana artist at Philips, had left Manfred Mann as a group, and he had now returned to his roots, which were jazz, and he had a jazz group called Manfred Mann Chapter III. So I did a deal with Manfred, so the Chapter Three album came out, and then we had another one from Gerry Bron, which was a rock band called Juicy Lucy, and we didn't launch any of those first albums individually. We launched them together as a package."

Indeed, ads at the time (November 1969) indicate that the first three Vertigo releases were Colosseum— _Valentyne Suite_ (VO 1), Juicy Lucy's self-titled (VO 2), and Manfred Mann Chapter III's self-titled (VO 3). One print piece exhorted, "Watch this label* Vertigo for the sounds to listen for. Cut it out. Put it in your player. And switch on!" And indeed you could, for a full-size version of the optically psychedelic experience Wyper had been seeking. Another ad pictured all three pieces followed by a huge "ARE ON Vertigo."

"So all the advertising," continues Olav, "all the promotion, everything...and we had to launch concerts, and it was in the days when record companies used to do lavish receptions to launch anything. So we had a lavish reception and all the bands performed. And from the point that I came up with the idea of Vertigo until its launch was only three months, which was a bloody nightmare getting it organized. But we did."

Next, a quirk of fate would put Wyper in the path of a freight train called Black Sabbath.

"We were looking at the same time for where this was going to go, in terms of other acts, and I went to Birmingham for a meeting and went on the wrong day, a day early, so I had to spend a day in Birmingham. I was staying in a hotel, and I went downstairs and said, 'Is there any music in Birmingham?' And the chap, the concierge, said, 'Oh, I think there's a classical concert at the City Hall.' And I said, 'No, I wasn't looking for that. I was looking for some rock music.' And there was a young lad who worked in the hotel who said, 'Oh yeah, there's a pub that I pass on the way from the station to here called the Railway Arms, and they have music downstairs.' And I went in, and there was a band playing. And in those days they used to stamp the back of your hand with an ultraviolet stamp, so if you went out and came in again, you could prove that you had already paid. And the bloke stamped my hand and did a double take and did another double take, and I thought, 'Oh shit, I've been recognized.' Which indeed I had been. But I went in, he didn't bother me, and the band wasn't particularly wonderful; they were coming to the end of their set, and then while they went off and the next band was getting itself ready, I suddenly noticed that the hall was filling up, the room was absolutely getting packed. Everybody who'd been at the back of the bar had all gotten fresh drinks and were all going down to the front. So they obviously knew who was coming and wanted to see it.

"And that was Black Sabbath. So within a very short space of time I decided we had to have Black Sabbath. So I went, in the interval, out to the chap who stamped my hand and recognized me, and I said, 'Are you something to do with the band or are you just promoting the gig?' And he goes, 'No, I'm promoting it and I'm their manager as well, Jim Simpson.'"

And as so many A&R types have answered in the past, Olav wasn't concerned about what kind of music he was hearing....

"My judgment, a lot of it, was based on what the audience's reaction was. If the audience loved them, then they had something. And on Vertigo, we didn't sign any band that wasn't a working band and that couldn't deliver live. And the great thing about Sabbath was they had an instant communication. This was their very early days, their first album, and they had an instant communication with the audience. They had very good songs, very good rhythms, Tony Iommi, the guitar player, was absolutely stunning. His solos were just brilliant. Ozzy was obviously a good singer. The whole thing just worked brilliantly.

"And they were very important to the label because we instantly got them off," continues Wyper. "It wasn't a huge, huge hit, but it was a big enough hit, and importantly, Europe absolutely loved them. The two biggest bands we had in terms of international success were certainly Black Sabbath and Uriah Heep. And Uriah Heep, which was another Gerry Bron act, Uriah Heep and Black Sabbath were very much the same sort of market. They were metal, sort of heavy metal stuff, and the Germans absolutely went berserk for them. There was always quite a bit of difference between them. In Uriah's stuff, there was an element of pop music being treated in a progressive rock way, whereas I don't think you could ever say that Sabbath had elements of pop in them. I think they both started out from a slightly different position. But for the first time in a long time, the Philips international company were suddenly very interested in what we were doing in London, because hitherto, their success was international acts, and international acts could only come from the UK or America. And the Philips company in America in those days were Mercury Records, who in those days were completely crap. So the Philips company internationally was suddenly very interested in everything that was coming out of England. It was deemed to be good, only because they put out some records and suddenly they were selling."

Asked as to why Birmingham seemed to have launched a goodly number of heavy metal artists, Wyper expands the territory, saying, "Well, the Midlands of England did. There were a number of heavy metal magazines, curiously, and they were all from the Midlands. There certainly was a very strong heavy metal movement that grew out of the Midlands of the UK. Quite why, I don't know. I mean, you might think it could be deemed to be factory music. The Midlands and England were traditionally where all the heavy engineering went on. And it might have somehow been inspired by that."

Oddly, Black Sabbath's first bit of product, a single featuring the band's cover of Crow's "Evil Woman" (issued a month before the debut album), would emerge on Fontana, not Vertigo.

"We had to put something out quick," contends Wyper, "before we could put out the album, because we didn't have an album and we wanted to create some interest in the marketplace for that. So that's why it came out on Fontana. Fontana was the sort of...there were two labels—there was Philips, which was the sort of establishment acts, and Fontana, which was the pop acts and the more speculative things. But Fontana we very quickly got rid of after that; they became our midprice label."

Olav disagrees that "Evil Woman" came out on Fontana because Philips didn't do singles on Vertigo.

"We did do singles on Vertigo. We absolutely did, and a year later, when _Paranoid_ , which was the second Black Sabbath album, [came out], the album went to #1 and so did the single, and that was on the twelfth-month anniversary of the launch of the label. I left shortly after that, and went to RCA."

On the odd choice of a cover track, "Evil Woman," as a single, Olav figures, "It was just a very...it was one on their live act, that really, really came out. The way the A&R department was then organized, I had Dick Leahy looking after the singles and Mike Everett looking after the albums. Now they were sort of a matched pair, musically. But people had to have responsibility. One was doing one and one was doing the other, but of course this was all one department and they both worked for me, so at the end of the day, it was my decision. But they were the ones that did all the hard graft and got it all together."

The success of the _Paranoid_ album quickly had Vertigo repromoting the self-titled debut, issued earlier the same year.

Further adding to the label muddle was the fact that in the U.S. and Canada, Sabbath albums emerged on Warner Bros. rather than the more likely Mercury. "In those days," explains Olav, "I'm not sure I necessarily would have done it now, but I was so concerned about Mercury Records, and their ability to deliver, that I used to do deals with the act's management where they kept the rights to North America. But they cut us in. We got a percentage of what they got in America, because I felt that we could do better than if it came out on Mercury. Mercury were not interested in hooking up with Vertigo Records. They would pick the individual artist, cherry-pick the individual artist to put them out, if they liked them, and they would come out on Mercury. Everywhere else, the company launched Vertigo, and put out virtually everything we did—if not everything. So I wasn't up for that at all, because I knew that part of the success we had was the look of it, the look of the labels, the way we did the advertising, the sleeves, all the rest of it. And Mercury were not...Mercury wouldn't subscribe to that concept at all. They were only interested in the music. I said to people like David Platz, who in fact, I did the deal with—he was acting on Jim Simpson's behalf—'You keep America but you give me half of it,' which is why it came out on Warners. But they did the deal. He did the deal with Warners."

Underscoring this idea that neither Olav, nor indeed many in the press or the fans, sensed that what they were dealing with here was an entirely new kind of music, heavy metal for real, as it were, Olav remarks, "I don't think that any of us really thought, 'Hey, we're in at the birth of a new era of music here.' What I was interested in doing—and if you look right across the broad spectrum of Vertigo when I was there—what I was after was a cross section of really good music, whether it was rock, whether it was jazz, whether it was jazz rock, whether it was folk—we had some excellent folk stuff on the label as well. I just wanted a label of really good material, performed and written by young people, not by the establishment, but the young new artists, and almost everybody we had was a new band or new artist. Not completely, because I also put out an album by Graham Bond, because Graham was a hero of mine, and when he became available I grabbed him. But most of the bands on Vertigo were new, untested, untried people, and they were all supremely creative and doing fantastic things. And I didn't care whether you could put them in a bag, as long as that that was a damn good bag. But to be honest, I don't think any of us thought that with Sabbath we were in the beginning of something brand-new. It was just one of several things that we were in that was brand-new. They were proggy, but I mean Tony Iommi's guitar playing drew a lot from jazz, I thought. I thought he was a terrific player, really terrific. And the band in the early days, certainly when I first saw them, the band were very much more musical and less formulaic than they probably became."

And true to the Vertigo ethic, Black Sabbath's _Black Sabbath_ (VO 6) would emerge wrapped in a stunning—and creepy—cover graphic, and gatefold, naturally.

"That was Keef," notes Wyper. "But what I used to do was because I always held the view that, and it had been something that I thought about when I was creative, but if you have somebody who is creative and was really good, you drew on that. You didn't tell them what to do. I used to go to Keef and give him the music and say, 'All right, listen to this and come back with some ideas.' Without any precondition or anything else. And he knew that what I was interested in was the picture telling a story. The routine was, he would come back with some ideas, and he would show them to the art department and me, and we would look at them and say, Hmm, I think you can work on that one, don't like that, don't like all of them, like all of them. He would start usually with just some simple pencil sketches or a Polaroid or something like that. But usually it was just sort of sketches and perhaps an odd...His girlfriend was very photogenic, and he used to take pictures of her, in Polaroid, and it would be something like this, but then of course it's going to be treated in a particular way. His ability to come up with something arresting, powerful, that told the story, was indeed quite unique."

And what of the occult image fostered by Black Sabbath? Wyper indicates that it was a nonissue.

"I think we just took it at face value, to be honest. It's very well after the event to read all kinds of things into it. But I have to say, it was the occult connection that really established them in Germany, where there has always been a really strong interest in the occult. Germany really grabbed onto that."

So one wonders how much of the music and the image and the lyrical darkness of the band was pointed and deliberate.

"To be perfectly honest," figures Wyper, "I didn't know them that well, because they lived up in Coventry, which is also where Jim Simpson came from. Of course I knew them and I was at the sessions and we would go out and have a drink and things, but getting to know them the way you're sort of asking the question, I honestly didn't know them that well. Clearly—and singers have to be—Ozzy was very extroverted. Tony, I thought, was probably the most perceptive, musically, of them. They seemed to be just nice guys, young nice guys. Now, I mean, Rodger Bain produced them. And I think Rodger probably had a lot to do with turning what was sometimes live, sometimes sort of the unfocusedness of numbers that can go on too long, and clearly when you record them, you've got to look at them, take them apart, put them together in a way that makes much more commercial sense. And Roger certainly contributed a lot to their sound, and to making the tracks work in a much harder commercial way, than they needed on a gig, where you've got the whole atmosphere and you've got the adrenaline rush and you've got the performance and the spectacle. To capture that and make it work on record is quite a different skill, and Roger clearly had that and he contributed a lot to them."

The story ends with Olav leaving the label he stormed together so quickly and efficiently, an event that coincided with big guns muscling in on Jim Simpson and taking away the bluesy, jazzy band he had got this far from his base in Birmingham.

"Yes, it wasn't too long after they really hit the big time that Jim was elbowed out the way," says Olav in closing, nervous laughter necessarily part of this timeworn tale of the music business and its darker side. "One day some people rang up and wanted to come and see me, and said they were the new managers of Black Sabbath. And I said, 'No, I don't think so; that's Jim Simpson.' And I phoned Jim and Jim said, 'No, I don't have them anymore.' He didn't go into it, and Patrick Meehan, Junior and Senior, and a chap called Wilf Pine came to see me and told me they were the new management. And from that I left, not too long after that. And certainly from that moment on, the group were very isolated from the record company."

With respect to the two Patricks and Wilf, Olav figures, "They'd been around the business for a while. They weren't, I think, experienced managers, but they certainly acquired a lot of skills. Jim...Jim was, and remained, a local promoter. And what he had was the best act in his area. And I think, you know, if you look at big successful bands, they're not generally long-term looked after by a local promoter, no matter how big an industrial area Birmingham and Coventry is. The center of the business ain't there; the center of the business is London. And most big bands are managed by people based in the big city. And he was a promoter. He wasn't a skilled and experienced manager. Really nice chap, and has remained a very nice chap."
2

"Oh My God—What Is That Sound?!"

Sabbath's Early Influences

Many music fans do indeed believe Black Sabbath invented heavy metal, and, arguably more so than with any other band, this sense of invention, of coming up with something completely new...Sabbath is certainly one of the better examples of this in the story of rock, Jimi Hendrix being another crazy example that instantly comes to mind and to some extent Eddie Van Halen. And when something like this happens, the burning question of influence becomes a conflagration. Certainly burns me up, 'cos I've tried to get the answer to this one out of the guys on many occasions over the decades, never quite feeling like I'd gotten the whole picture or even enough satisfying pieces to the puzzle.

With Ozzy, you wind up hearing a lot about the Beatles; with Geezer, it's Jack Bruce for bass, Robert Johnson for devil lyrics, and, on a wider plane, John Mayall, Jack's band Cream, like Ozzy, the Beatles, and fair enough, those make sense. But talk to Tony and Bill, and you wind up hearing a bunch of jazz thrown into the mix. This doesn't make sense but then maybe it does, given the boys' hometown of Birmingham and its rich jazz and blues heritage going back decades.

Big Bear Music's Jim Simpson has been in the Midlands jazz and blues business since the late '60s, managing, running an agency, putting together festivals, releasing music on his highly respected label. What's more, Simpson was Black Sabbath's first manager, becoming so after having the boys back up the touring acts he would bring into Henry's Blues House and noticing the wild response they had been getting.

"Black Sabbath were heavily influenced by jazz things in the very early days," notes Jim, a horn player himself and owner of a bulging record collection that helped form the listening patterns of the long-haired noisemakers in Sabbath. "They were young, and, especially early in their career, they were interested in anything, really. Ozzy and Tony, particularly, seemed to lean toward it. You can't tell with drummers and bass players, who express themselves fairly individually, but certainly if you look at the early Bill Ward stuff, you can hear some Kansas City Jo Jones high-hat rides. And certainly Black Sabbath was the great riff band, and the great riff band in jazz was Basie, and that's where Jo Jones played. As well, Ozzy recorded a couple songs associated with the Basie band, Jimmy Rushing's 'Evenin',' for one. And, going slightly sideways, Tony recorded an instrumental called 'Song for Jim,' funnily enough, which was an absolute Charlie Christian takeoff.

"You won't have heard that, because it's never been released," says Simpson of this legendary, largely unheard Sabbath original from 1969, as Jim indicates, very much outside of the Black Sabbath style we know.

"They never thought of themselves as being a scary band," continues Jim, asked how we get from jazz to "Hand Of Doom." "It was always thought of as being a heavy band, a power band. The need to frighten people actually never actually came into the conversation. And although the name is taken from a horror movie, it's...I don't know, it was doom and gloom, sure, but that's not quite like horror, is it? To talk about 'Paranoid,' and Ozzy's vocal on the 'Black Sabbath' track, those aren't scary so much as doom-laden. It's a different thing. I always think of scary as being sudden shocks, and I don't think Sabbath were a sudden shock band. They were a batter-you-into-submission heavy band, weren't they?

"We were more obsessed with being heavier and tougher than bands like Led Zeppelin," explains Simpson. "That was the target. We carried a strapline saying, 'Black Sabbath makes Led Zeppelin sound like a kindergarten house band.' That was the prime objective. And neither them nor I were political as such. We all felt badly served by society; we all came from the wrong side of the tracks. But there was no conscription. Had we had conscription at the time, ongoing wars and things would have had more places in our consciousness. And in America, the Vietnam War, there was conscription, wasn't there? So any young man growing up, thirteen, fourteen, would start sort of counting down the years until he was going to be called upon. But that wasn't the case over here. The IRA thing always happened to someone else. All these tragedies, they're never your tragedies; they're somebody else's."

Geezer is upfront about the mighty Led Zeppelin making an impression. "One of the biggest influences was Zeppelin because two of them were from the same part of England that we were from, from Birmingham, and we used to see them in clubs and stuff around town. So we sort of associated more with Robert Plant and John Bonham than anybody else, I suppose, 'cos we were doing the same kind of circuit before we made it. There wasn't competition, just friends. We'd see each other out and have a beer or whatever, and just socially, really. Everybody seemed to be doing their own kind of thing. There was like lots of new kinds of music coming out around, and everybody sort of had their own originality.

"Bands lasted like two or three years and then you wouldn't hear from them again," continues Geezer, "When we did _Paranoid_ , the Beatles had only been together for eight years and broken up. So we thought, 'Well, if the Beatles break up after eight years then we'll probably last about two or three years and that'll be it—and never to be heard of again.' Which is a good thing, because if you could get a time machine, you probably would go back and change the music so it's perfect and everything, and it just wouldn't be the same. Our families had sort of thrown us out 'cos we wouldn't get proper jobs, so they didn't believe in it. The friends I had thought I was nuts. They just didn't have the—I don't know what it was; _ambition_ 's the wrong word—I suppose the belief in the music, and we just wanted to do the music more than anything else on earth and luckily it turned out well for us. We were just doing music that we liked writing together. We never thought about it as heavy metal or anything like that. We just thought it was rock, a heavy rock kind of thing. We all loved Hendrix and Cream and John Mayall, that kind of heavy, Zeppelin. And so that was the natural sort of progression when we started writing our own stuff."

Geezer recalls the club scene being vibrant enough in Birmingham that one could watch all this going on live. A bit hazy on the names of these places, Geezer mentions clubs like the Penthouse and the Metro as well as the usual suspects. He harbors good memories of seeing bands such as Free, Chicken Shack, Keef Hartley, the Who, and the Kinks, along with Fleetwood Mac (managed by good friend Norman Hood), Jethro Tull (which Tony would join for a couple of weeks), and Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation (Sabbath covers that band's "Warning" on _Black Sabbath_ ).

"With Sabbath, a lot of people try and read into them more than they actually were," warns Simpson, in tacit agreement with Butler. "They were a blues band that had come to the end of the road with the blues. I mean, British blues was getting really bad press over here, because all the bands were playing the same thing, and they didn't really capture the feeling of...Not Zeppelin, but everybody else didn't really capture the feeling of the blues they were trying to copy. I mean, a few bands did make it on the blues thing, but there were ten million bands all looking the same, playing the same, wearing the same denim jackets and denim trousers, smelling the same—there were a million of them. Promoters did not want to book blues bands. That's why I opened this club in Birmingham one night called Henry's Blues House—to give sanctuary to blues bands. There were some great blues bands being lumped in alongside the boring bands. And everyone tried to get out of it.

"The main thrust behind Sabbath was to create an identity, and not be seen as just another blues band," continues Jim. "And that was the driving force—to be individuals. And that's why we looked at jazz, because nobody else was looking at jazz. There were some elements. They never, ever, wanted to become a jazz act. We thought together, because of my knowledge of jazz, there might be something from jazz that we could call upon and adopt, and we used it to make our sound different to everybody else's. In the end, when things like 'Black Sabbath' were written, that was the turning point, that was the direction, and the word _jazz_ was probably never mentioned again."

"They were originally doing sort of blues covers," explains Norman Hood. An early friend and booker of the band, Hood eventually starting a management agency with Tony called IMA. "I suppose in a way it was their own interpretation of probably Chicago blues, but obviously with a little bit more of the old pyrotechnics. It was probably only about twelve months or so from me knowing them until they evolved into Black Sabbath. We'd booked them at my club, the Pokey Hole, which was the back room of a pub. Again, I'd have to check on the actual times of year, but probably early '69. They went to Hamburg for a little while, came back, and it was Black Sabbath, in my pub. They announced the name change for the first time from the stage, then proceeded to take the roof off the place. Practically closed it down, in fact, because the people in the bar couldn't keep their glasses on the table, they were that loud. So the evolution was pretty quick. They went from doing quite a lot of derivative material to writing their own very, very quickly, and the black magic thing as far as it went was sort of...just icing on the cake, really. Part of the change in name and song."

"I was knocked out by it, totally," continues Norman, on the band's new heaviness. "I'd heard one or two of their own numbers, obviously. They had been playing their own numbers. But I think the mere attitude they got, more than anything else...I mean, Ozzy was always a bit of a nutter, but his attitude had totally changed when he came back. He was even more of a nutter and louder than ever. Bill was just a nice guy. He was withdrawn, slightly. Again, by comparison to Ozzy, everybody was. Bill was quiet. When I used to travel to gigs with him and so on, he was involved, but he was always slightly reserved. I know he had troubles later on, so he may have been under some pressure then, I don't know. They used to take the mickey out of him something terrible, of course.

"I think Ozzy was born that way," says Norman, on his impression of why Ozzy was so out of control. "He took to drink very early on. Probably other substances as well, fairly early. And it began to affect his relationship with the band. I know that they struggled to fulfill recording dates and that sort of thing. He was just a wild card. I'm a little biased because Tony was a good friend, but to me he was sort of the sensible one. He had to keep the rest in order, and I know he struggled quite badly with Ozzy."

With respect to musical inspiration..."I don't know if they actually had influences, as such," reflects Norman. "I mean, everything was happening so fast in those days. Bear in mind, I'd seen Cream on their debut performance a couple years before, and that was basically still blues rock. There was no psychedelic touch or heavy tinge to them, and they were the actual cutting edge then. Then all of a sudden it was like Zeppelin and Sabbath—I suppose maybe the Who were the newest link before Sabbath. But the thing with Sabbath is they did it totally opposite to how bands had gotten noticed before. They didn't bring a record out, they didn't get any press other than some fairly bad press—they just worked. They played clubs, would go down really, really well, get booked back again, they were on the road all the while, and they built up a grassroots following that was just tremendous. It's not something that could be done a few years after that. All the smaller clubs had disappeared and the college circuit was probably preeminent then."

But the fans certainly got it, explains Norman, pretty much straightaway. "Yes. Bear in mind, my club was a very tiny place—we'd get a hundred or so people who'd come whatever we'd got on. We could put anything on and they'd be there. But the mix of people as Sabbath got better known and as they played, they built up their own following, and this is before they recorded. We began to get people from the outlying areas and from Birmingham who traveled across to us. People from out of town, which was unusual at that time. We had one or two other decent bands on, but Sabbath were the big pull, always. But Tony, he developed his sort of twenty-five-minute guitar solos, which were usually—bear in mind this was the back room of a pub—usually played with somebody hanging around his neck with a pint of beer [laughs]. And of course the volume had gone up quite considerably. But once they sort of settled into it, then it was obvious that it was something that was going to be really, really special."

Still, back to the invention of heavy metal, these riffs seemed to come from nowhere, which, in a roundabout way, is what Norman has been trying to tell us. "Yes, well, that's difficult. You know, Tony is heavily into blues and loves jazz. I spent quite a few nights over at his house, I mean later on—this is when they got a reasonable amount of following. He got a studio built at his house. I sat in there listening to him playing jazz guitar, fingerpicking jazz guitar, absolutely wonderfully. So, I mean, the guy is one hell of a musician. He's far from the heavy riff-meister everybody seems to think he is. He's a fine guitarist, and I think his influences go back through the blues and also through some of the better jazz guitarists as well. Certainly...it's difficult speaking for someone else, you know?

"Yet I'm not sure if it was his _background_ ," says Norman, speaking here of jazz. "It's the music he certainly used to listen to. In fact he's given me some blues albums that are very...I mean Sonny Boy Williamson the first, let alone the second; we're going way back to the 1940s and so on, and I know he was a great fan of jazz guitarists like Joe Pass, people like that. I think he's just a damn good musician. Found a formula and developed that formula."

Bill Ward confirms Jim and Norman's shared portrayal of a jazz root to Sabbath. "Jim is a jazz musician [laughs]; he used to play horn. Yeah, he's a horn player and he loved jazz. That's probably why we liked him in the first place [laughs]. For me it was big band, big band American jazz, which would be anybody from Woody Herman to Count Basie, and you know, the bands that the classic drummers played in. So that would be Louie Bellson, and for me, the king, Gene Krupa, and then obviously Buddy Rich. I listened to a lot of the '40s drummers, and the reason why it was so influential for me was because during the Second World War, the GIs had come into Great Britain, for the second front, I guess, and they had brought with them all their records. And my mother and father were incredibly influenced by American music. So that's how it came to be. When I was growing up as a kid, it was played in our house almost daily. So I literally was brought up with it."

With respect to what knowledge he had been able to pick up from these records, Ward figures, "Anything and everything, but if I had to pick, I would say feel, at the top. Because there was a shine on American big bands that was completely not available with any of the other bands. I mean, I used to A/B with the British big bands at the time, and they were good, but American bands...they really knew where to put everything. And so for me I liked the swing, the sounds, I liked Glenn Miller sounds. I was like four or five years old at the time. But the Glenn Miller band, and the way that he had his particular sound put together, that was very attractive to me. 'Moonlight Serenade'...there was a sadness and a mood that was reflected through the music, so I was already feeling all that, in my early childhood."

As regards Tony, Bill says, "He's got his own taste and what have you in jazz, but the biggest influence, if you like, or the biggest most-played person would have been Django Reinhardt. I know that Tony really liked Django, as I did as well. Mine was more like, as a child, until Presley, would have been Gene Krupa. But Gene Krupa all the way through my life, you know? Right up until today. And with Tony, yeah, Django was somebody that we listened to together. And I know that Tony listened to him as a kid."

And yet again, there's Tony inventing metal, for example, the rat-a-tat-tat machine gun–style riffing of "Paranoid," which one supposes has its origins in "Communication Breakdown."

"I don't know!" exclaims Jim, asked about how we get from traditional old-timer music to tearing it up for a new generation of headbangers. "You know, someone brings something to the table, and it fits in with something that's happening musically, and you don't question it. You go, 'That's great, let's do that.' I mean, we were all looking around for ideas, mainly for a name for the band—that's what we were really looking around for: musical direction. Ozzy would come around and listen to other music. I think Iommi already had some sort of...he already knew about Charlie Christian before I introduced him to him. I'm sure he had. Django—not really, because that's a very European music. That's the only forward jazz that's worthwhile that did not originate in America. That's the Reinhardt legacy. He listened to Charlie Christian, and Christian really came out of the Eddie Lang school. Joe Pass was years later. Well, Pass was okay; he was a fragile talent, made two great albums, and the rest just filled in."

Asked what Tony might have picked up from Charlie Christian, Simpson quips, "Well, I've got three minutes and twenty-two seconds that says he got something from him" (and by this he confirms that he's referring to "Song for Jim").

In terms of then-present-day rock, figures Simpson, "Cream would have been big. Yeah, we were all aware of Clapton; I think Clapton was the benchmark to strive for. But classical, I can pretty much say, unequivocally, no."

But it's pretty much "Yes please, I'll have some of that" for Bill Ward, as pertains to classical. "It's difficult for me to talk for the others," explains Ward, "but for me, well, I thought that the first metal was actually classical music, in the sense of, well there was some Tchaikovsky that I really liked, some Beethoven that I really liked. We didn't hear much of Richard Wagner in my early childhood; I think I first started listening to Wagner when I was ten or eleven years old. And the darkness of Wagner was very appealing; I liked the sadness and the almost monsterlike chords that would evoke so much to the imagination. So yeah, classical music has always been there.

"But a lot of things that we were influenced by was blues and some jazz, and just some really standard-type blues things that everybody was kind of playing. So we were still very much embedded in that. We were doing versions of some John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers. Eric did...oh man, I'm trying to think of the tracks. There was one, 'Hideaway,' that we did. I've forgotten the other ones. They were both instrumentals but Clapton played lead guitar. My turn toward Eric Clapton came with the Yardbirds, but when the Yardbirds were playing at the Marquee Club—that's when I first noticed Clapton and what he was doing. So we were still actually quite young. We were only like just coming onto eighteen years old, nineteen years old. But our first initial, really big influences were from the British blues scene, if you like, and also from what was coming from America. We had already learned all the basic rock 'n' roll stuff from America when we were kids. I mean, when I was fourteen, I learned 'Johnny B. Goode'—we learned all the Chuck Berry stuff. Every band back then.

"And when I first heard Elvis Presley, I was bought and sold. I was completely grounded. I was just stumped. I got it immediately. It's like, I got it straightaway. I didn't have to be talked to about it or convinced about it. The first song I think I ever heard was 'Jailhouse Rock.' And then I heard 'Heartbreak Hotel' and all the rest of it, and I was so gung ho on Elvis, I just thought it was brilliant.

"First of all, his singing to me was outrageous; he was singing stuff that was completely different. I had never heard such ferocity, like in 'Jailhouse Rock,' or the way that he would lay something down, 'Heartbreak Hotel,' the way he laid that down, and then the lightness of him in 'Teddy Bear.' I still prefer Carl Perkins, 'Blue Suede Shoes,' but I love Elvis's version as well. So yeah, Elvis was just so different. There was just something about him, and I'm not talking about his gyrations or anything. It wasn't that, for me. There was a force and a different way of playing. His drummer, I think his drummer at the time was Larrie Londin? I'm not sure about that. You might know that better than I would, but the Jordanaires and his backing band, and the guitar solos, they were all different. It was all being played differently. And the drumming didn't seem to give a fuck about what was the normal type of drumming, how you have to play, blah blah blah, all that strict tightness or whatever. It was just loose and it just fitted and it brought freedom to me. That's all it was—freedom."

But like most British musicians of the era, there was also a grounding in the quieter form of original rock 'n' roll called skiffle—footage exists of both Jimmy Page and Ritchie Blackmore partaking of this music as mere lads. I'd always associated skiffle with the UK, perhaps because of that, but not so, says Bill...."Well, I think skiffle actually originated...for me, I mean, the first skiffle I heard was Nancy Whiskey, who is actually an American artist. And I really liked what Nancy Whiskey was doing. I bought a couple of her records when I was young. But there was a crossover in Great Britain, and it was headed by a guy called Lonnie Donegan, who had just seemed to charm...or have this complete ability to play skiffle in a very, very good way; so skillful. I think all of us were in skiffle bands when we were kids. I was only like nine or ten, where I had my washboard, and all you had to get was a washboard and somebody would get a guitar, and nobody could afford a stand-up bass, so we made those big cardboard boxes with a stick on it, pretending to it was a bass."

I inquired of Bill whether it would be accurate to call skiffle the British response to rock 'n' roll.

"I think in some ways. I think it might've been the British response to someone like Nancy Whiskey, or American folk. I think that might be more of the case, because in rock 'n' roll, we started to have our own rock 'n' roll heroes. It was Cliff Richard and Billy Fury, and everyone wore their collar up, and everyone wore their hair back, slicked back, and everybody looked cool—it was a great look. And of course Elvis was looking exactly like that as well."

"I believe it came from Sabbath," continues Jim, asked to take another crack at where the band's particularly heavy rock roots originate from (Bill's touch upon the Yardbirds seems to be a bit of a clue, in particular his allusions to Clapton). "I believe that somehow, the members of the band dreamt it up themselves. There's no influence that I can see, before that, that goes in that direction. I think they made the leap. And as I saw it develop—although I was very much involved in everything they did, and had very close relationships, and we'd make use of regular meetings and thrash things out verbally all the time—but the music, as far as I was concerned, seemed to have its own life. Once we'd imported my jazz thoughts and ideas, which may have gone into their psyche at one time, once the Black Sabbath direction emerged, that was all theirs. And they weren't listening to other people. They weren't nicking things off of other bands. It was what they were doing. In Earth, they had songs like 'Song for Jim,' which was a jazz thing, which was produced under the Earth name. But I think 'Black Sabbath,' the song itself, that was the huge step—that song. After that, the rest sort of fell into place."

Insistent, I wondered how Jim thought it "fell into place" as the new original compositions started to pile up, as the invention of heavy metal became to be fleshed out over the course of the first three albums.

"Well, to be honest with you, I like _Black Sabbath_ best and I like _Paranoid_ second best, and I like _Master of Reality_ third best. You've got to remember, we...well, let's get it right. We spent a long time on the material that went into the _Black Sabbath_ album. There's probably two years' worth of work there, and then Philips wanted the second album six months later. Also, I think when you establish something new, and you create something new like that, the first step is the greatest, and it's also the song collection of all your thoughts and ideas. _Paranoid_ itself, the album, was slicker, and I was going to say less honest—I don't mean less honest—but less from the heart. I think the _Black Sabbath_ album was a real emotional creation; they did it because they'd all reached a point where they were thinking exactly along the same lines musically, and this was their first child. I think by the time it came to the second birth, they'd done it all before a little bit, nattily enough, but it didn't have the same sort of innocence of the first. I think any musician, anyway, as he gets better, you become more guileful and find ways of doing things and it's not quite as much from the heart—anyone.

"The kids always liked them from beginning," muses Jim. "From the very first date they played for me, for an intermission slot, the crowd responded. Not ecstatically to start with, but there was a response, which is more than you get from most intermission bands. The press were deafening in their silence, because we didn't fit any mold. You couldn't say they were like so-and-so or better or like so-and-so but worse—there was no ticket to put on them. And we really battled with the media. The media was very cruel to us to start with, because they didn't understand what was happening. And I was constantly having to make excuses for them, the media, and explain why it was good. Maybe I wasn't aware of other bands around at the time as much as I maybe should have been. But I mean, facts will prove me right or wrong, but my feeling was that Sabbath were in front of the bands, timewise. The Purps, and who was the other one? Uriah Heep were later, weren't they? In fact, I lost a drummer from my other band, the Bakerloo Blues Band—he went to Uriah Heep. And the Purps, they were a bit pompous, weren't they? I mean it wasn't real people's music. It was stadium rock in its infancy."

One would have to say that, in retrospect, Vertigo's teaming with Warner Bros. rather than Mercury for North America was a good decision. The promotional copy used for the band was inventive right out of the gate, and over the years, a series of stunning print visuals would ensue.

This would lead one to believe that Sabbath seemed very much like a pronounced workingman's band by comparison.

"Oh yeah, no sweat, absolutely," agrees Jim. "There's no pretension there at all. I mean, Ozzy's honesty showed through his vocals. That's what carried it. From the soul. Also, like some of the great jazz things like Jimmy Rushing, it comes from deep in the stomach in some way. It isn't conjured up from the back of the mouth. It comes from deep inside. And Ozzy did holler really well. That's a trademark of the blues."

So in a way the blues heritage shines through, but in an abstract way...."Oh yeah, the blues were absolutely there. They were a blues band—you must remember that. They were a blues band."

And a Birmingham band as well, at the core, adds Jim. "Well, Birmingham...every city produces all styles of music, obviously. But the main thrust of Birmingham's bands was always pretty tough. We're pretty good at sort of rhythm and blues; some of the blues players out of the city were great. We've always had...it sounds like they were all playing the same thing, but they weren't, but there was a predominance of really tough rhythm sections, guys who could drive; in jazz terms, guys who could swing. And that's not a huge step to Sabbath. In fact, many of the bands were jazz-oriented, and we used to put several bands together, at a thing called Big Bear Folly, and we used to put Sabbath on the same bill, as jazz players. So they were playing along with very skilled jazz players, and that included Pete York, who was the drummer with Spencer Davis at the time, who'd been in my band for many years beforehand, although he's more famous for his rhythm and blues playing with the Spencer Davis Group with Steve Winwood. But he was actually a jazz player at heart."

Ward remembers Winwood as well. "Yes, well, the first success that came out of Birmingham was obviously the Moody Blues and Steve Winwood, who lived in Kingstanding, right in the heart of Birmingham. So already you could see from the Moody Blues and Steve Winwood, the kind of difference that was happening—and that was in 1965. I can remember the Moody Blues coming down our street in their blue van with 'the Moody Blues 5' written on it. And then there was Denny Laine and the Diplomats, before Denny joined the Moody Blues. All these bands...the place was so busy with bands. It was just an absolute pleasure of life, if you like. But the music that came out of Birmingham and around Birmingham would include Robert Plant and John Bonham, obviously, and then Judas Priest, who came a bit later."

But being out of Birmingham always had its stigma, as evidenced by the way Simpson has come to view the band's signing to Vertigo and his subsequent dealings with the label, from the album covers all the way down.

"We didn't pick the album sleeves—they were given to us," laughs Simpson. "Olav Wyper, who ran the record label, they got a designer named Keef, and he had done stuff for him, I think, in the earlier days, with CBS, and he was doing the whole Vertigo series, as I recall. And then he came up with the _Black Sabbath_ photograph. Frankly, Philips and Olav Wyper didn't really think much of the album at all. They didn't really want it. They only took it because another title had fallen out, and the catalog number of VO 6 was empty, and they needed product to fill that gap. They already turned it down once. But without ever talking to Keef, the designer, I think he got it straightaway. Olav didn't, Tony Hall didn't, none of the people who...even Essex Music didn't get it. But I think the designer did. I only say that because he created the perfect album sleeve, and I think the second album is certainly not so good, and neither is the third.

"What happened was, Olav worked for CBS, and maybe I've not got this in the right sequence, but it was something like this. EMI had their underground label, which was Harvest; I think Pye [Records] might have done Dawn, or they were in the throes of doing Dawn—I'm sure there were two out there. And then Philips decided on Vertigo as their underground label, and they headhunted Olav Wyper for that from CBS, because there was nobody at Vertigo because there wasn't a Vertigo. So I hadn't been to there, but I'd been to CBS, and Olav Wyper had turned me down at CBS; rejected it. He heard half of one track and a few seconds of the third track and that was it. But he remembered it. When he had the first wave of releases, VOs 1, 2, and 3, I think Manfred Mann, Rod Stewart's 'Old Raincoat' and 'Won't Ever Let Me Down,' and he might have Jon Hiseman's Colosseum, and the second tranche we got another three releases, which was their policy, and VO 6 had failed to deliver a master. And Olav came to me and said, 'Listen, that band, great band, we'll do a deal,' and that's how he got involved, and that was it. So he didn't understand it.

"And the fact that the band had a substantial fan base in the north of England and in the Midlands didn't resonate with them at all. Because they were so London-centric. And in most instances they still are. And this fan base in the Midland and the north is of no value, because when they went to London, the band was already happening, because the record was out by then, and we got a huge audience at the Marquee, queuing around the block. So the kids were into it, but the record company was, well, clueless, like most major record companies."

Geezer tends to corroborate Simpson's story of struggle rather than the rosy picture of the band's signing put forth by Wyper. Geezer talks of being turned down by seven record companies, literally having to play in their offices for them with horrified executives turning tail for the door. Come Vertigo, says Geezer, the band had to submit three demos, all covers, including "Evil Woman," before the label would consider taking them seriously.

Back to the Sabs and satanism: Even though Simpson is adamant that the band's dark image wasn't a key part of Black Sabbath psyche at the beginning, that they were somewhat just learning as they went like Birmingham's other '60s bands, he does qualify. "I'm not saying it didn't develop; I'm not saying they didn't get on this particular gravy train, in years later. When I lost them, the _Paranoid_ album was #1 on the charts, and the 'Paranoid' single was #2 on the charts, and _Black Sabbath_ had come in at #16. It hadn't been off the charts since it was released, and it had come back into the Top 20. That was looking back at pretty early days. What they got into later, I don't know. We had a few sort of satanic run-ins. People came to us thinking the satanic thing might've been from the heart, but we soon disabused people of that fact."

Not even from Geezer's end of things? "It never came to the surface [laughs], if it was ever there. They were four kids who wanted to get themselves...they were four kids that wanted to play in a band. And to play in a band they had to come up with something different. There's no...nothing satanic, nothing religious. The crucifix was there because they liked the shape of it [laughs]. Ozzy wore a crucifix from early on, for no reason. When you'd ask Oz, 'Oh, I like it.'"

"It was a joke, really," agrees Norman Hood. "It was never, ever taken seriously by the band or by us. Not at all. When it became obvious that was the way the publicity people were going to take it—Jim Simpson and the other record companies when they eventually got to record—it was just a peg to hang it on. I know Geezer was probably the one, because he wrote the lyrics; he was probably the most spaced-out of the lot. But at that stage it was just a joke. Again, you must remember my involvement was very early on. Like probably from about late '68 through '69 and then they started taking off then. I mean Geezer was just a really nice lad. Used to get on with football; an Aston Villa supporter, which was fine by me. He's a really nice lad, and still is, no doubt. At that stage, and indeed all the while I was involved with Tony, which was probably to about '74 or something like that, they were just normal lads. Actually I take that back. You can't actually ever call Ozzy normal. But the other three were just normal lads; they were nice guys. There was never anything overtly weird about Geezer. He was the best bass player I'd ever seen in my life! I'd never seen anybody groove like him, and I think in the initial days—Tony is obviously a terrific musician—but in the initial days, I think the power came from Geezer."

"Well, I'm sure it's all true," muses Bill, addressing the same topic, whether Geezer was into the occult and, for that matter, whether he had actually painted his bedroom back home entirely black and orange. "I don't remember going to his black room, but you know, I mean, he's got no reason to lie or anything. He's a weirdo anyway. They're all weirdos. We have to establish that from the very beginning. But that's where all the love is. We love each other because we're all not quite there, you know? So yeah, there are all kinds of things, all kinds of idiosyncrasies and strange things, that makeup of whatever it is."

Explore this more with Bill, and you figure there's a pretty good chance that the evil stuff literally began with no more than the name of the band (or the song) and then blossomed from there. "Well, the name, Black Sabbath, Terry...that's Geezer, Terry got that from the movie by Boris Karloff. So when we had written 'Black Sabbath,' we were still the band Earth. And when we were showing up to play 'Black Sabbath' as the band Earth, there was another band called Earth that was showing up as well, and they were playing popular songs and they were I guess putting on a very professional show [laughs], and they were nothing like these scruffy people from Aston. So we had to change our name from Earth, and Geezer had suggested using the name Black Sabbath for the band's name, and I think that happened when we were crossing from Dover to Dunkirk on the English Channel—he came up with that idea and we went, 'Yeah, that's it, good, we've got it.' We had made the song 'Black Sabbath' first, and then Geezer suggested, 'Let's just call it Black Sabbath.' We had already named the song after the movie.

"All of us were interested. Just like a lot of people when they're growing up, they become interested in all that and Black Sabbath was no exception to that," continues Ward. "So we were interested in scary movies, and it was observant. I mean Tony and Geezer in particular, they were very observant of and aware that people liked scary stuff. So I don't know how much went into a contrived effort to make scary music. What was actually real in those first few songs that we did...in other words, the difference between organic and commercial. I always like to feel that those things came out of it naturally and exactly as they were supposed to be. But I know that those ideas of making something scary, I know that was something that was bantered around. But at the same time, we were all looking into other aspects of the supernatural or God or religion or anything else for that matter. We were kicking the tires on everything, checking everything out."

Adds Ozzy, "Why we got to be called Black Sabbath and why it was very dark, we used to rehearse early in the morning in a civic center. And across the street was a movie theater and it was Geezer or Tony that said, 'Don't you find it strange that there's a horror film and people are paying money to get scared? Why don't we start writing scary music?' And we poor kids thought that was great. We didn't realize that there were people that practiced black magic and all that. But Black Sabbath was not all about Satan. We wrote about things that people were thinking but not really talking about. Now they are talking about global warming. We were talking about wars and its effect on mankind. Geezer was a phenomenal lyricist—he still is."

And then came the music side of it: heavy metal. "Right, well, it's that place inside," says Bill, searching. "It's called primal scream. And all of us wanted to go there. As a drummer, there's nothing better than playing drums in Black Sabbath, as far as I'm concerned. And in every song I could go to the primal scream inside me. I had to go to that place where you let go of everything, all your anger, all your frustration, everything of the day, and you place it on your cymbals, you place it on your snare, you put it in your bass drum. It's actually the best, for me, it was the best way of staying well. You know, they called me the quiet guy in the band [laughs], but that's because I was kicking the crap out of a drum kit every night, and after that I was just real mellow. So that's how that one kind of works. But yeah, with the way that we were playing, and the things we liked to go to, which again were all of the dark notes, you know, the flat fifths, all of the other discordant-sounding notes. When Tony would go there, it would be...to me, that was like Valhalla. It was like, oh my God, that's great. And to Geezer and Ozzy as well. I mean, we all loved it. So that would be us kind of steering away a little bit from jazz? Because we wanted to go to that primal scream place, that place where we go, 'Yeah, you bastards!' You wanted to go there, but you're just at that point of absolute laying in. That's the only way I could describe it. Pure anger."

Asked how the works of Deep Purple or Uriah Heep at time compared to what Sabbath were doing, Bill figures, "Well, everybody had heavy bits of music. However, if you look at the whole picture with Sabbath lyrically as well, then it becomes completely different. And there were no other bands at the time that were sounding, or were putting the lyrical content into the songs that we were. And we were on our own. I mean, the big hit was friends of ours, Led Zeppelin. They hit enormously and are such a great band, a phenomenal-sounding band. But—and this is no disrespect to Robert Plant; I've known Robert for years and years and years and I have no intention of saying something now that would upset him—but the bottom line was that Robert's lyrics were a little more about, oh, you know, more about falling in love or boy/girl lyrics, type of thing. Which I think he did it his own way, in a very unique way, whereas the lyrics that Black Sabbath performed to were, 'Figure in black,' 'What is this that stands before me?,' 'My name is Lucifer,' you know, so we had very poignant attitudes and were bringing in a very definitive statement about what we really liked and what we liked to play to."

Same question I asked Jim was now put to Bill: where does that specific heavy metal cliché, the staccato machine-gun riffing of "Paranoid" and "Communication Breakdown" come from in Tony's past axe education?

"I've got no idea," answers Bill. "With 'Symptom of the Universe,' he literally made that famous, that idea. Most of the bands that you hear today will use that same machine-gun feel, and that's how he saw it and that's how he heard it, and so he wanted to open up 'Symptom of the Universe' with that. And it's like, 'Fucking 'ell, let's go, guys.' I mean, Terry and I had no problem in tucking into that. We were on top of that literally within a shadow's breath. Just opened it up, played it, and it's like, we're on it."

And on the subject of heavy metal characteristics, there's also this idea of quiet/loud whisper to roar, darkness needing light to be defined as the opposite thereof...."Well, we liked to play soft things. Tony is a very accomplished classical player as well. So you know, it was nothing that was pre–worked out. I'm looking for the word but I can't find it, but we always loved that. Originally some of those spots came about because when you're doing a live show and you're kicking ass for two hours or two and a half hours onstage, as it was in the early days, you need to take a break. And somebody has to do something when you're getting your breath back and you're drinking water. You've got to get your energy restored. And so Tony would often come up and play a little bit of classic stuff, and so it came in as a useful piece like that.

"Also, it was really nice to hear Tony show off. And I don't mean show off in a bigheaded way, but it was to show off that part of him, and to us that was a completely natural way of really developing things. I think there were other lead guitar players at the time. I know Jimmy Page would do a lot of that stuff. But Jimmy and Tony were not in the same boat. Nobody was stealing from each other; it was nothing like that. I think what you've got is two very individual lead guitar players who just like to play those things. Also there's Ritchie Blackmore, there's a lot of guys, even Hendrix himself—it was just a natural part of being able to play that. I think you brought up a really good point there, because when I listen today, to a lot of the bands that I enjoy, a lot of them start out with a lot of the slow melodic things. And when I listen to just the arpeggio of it all, when I'm listening, I'm reminded, I go right back to '69 or '68, and it's a great feeling, because a swell of good memories comes up. And it reminds me of October and November and December in those early years, '68, '69, of these wonderful guitar parts, crescendos, that were so part of heavy metal. And it's a wonderful feeling. It's a good point that you would notice that and bring that up. I think going back to that rat-a-tat-tat, we better give Jimi Hendrix some credit as well.

Housed within Tony's extended solo spots over the years were the seeds of many a potential riff on which to hang a potential new Sabbath song.

Photo by Ben Upham

"And definitely Cream," adds Bill, "but also the Kinks, which Ozzy points out very, very well. When Dave Davies played 'You Really Got Me' on that burnt-out amp, and man, I tell you what, that sound, it was like, 'Oh my God—what is that sound?!' That sound was great, and it just lands...it just puts itself to that really rough edge. Plus the things that the Who were doing, and yes, Cream—when they got together, my God, plus Jack Bruce allowed every other bass player to go wherever they wanted. Jack, you know, I know Jack and I worked with Jack, and he's just like...he's just such a lovely man, and he's totally righteous as a bass player. So, you know, you have a lot of people to thank here. In Hendrix, Mitch Mitchell was playing jazz as well as hard rock. He played everything, but wherever Jimi went, Mitch went. And Noel Redding, he played that kind of free bass thing, which we hear so often in hard-core music. But of course, I know that [John] Entwistle was, to me, the ultimate bass player, and the only exception for me would've been Jack—these were great bass players. And so when Geezer showed up, he started playing rhythm guitar [laughs], but then he changed to bass. And when he played bass, he was just like all over the place. He was just everywhere, and when we listen to Sabs, everybody is playing whatever they want to play, really [laughs]. Everybody is playing a lead instrument.

"I don't know," reflects Bill, closing on a sociocultural note. "I think the way that music was going, in this almost kind of, 'Everything is going to be okay; all you need is to have love,' and things like that, and again I have to say, categorically, that is not a slam on the Beatles. They're one of my favorite all-time bands. I love them; I love 'All You Need Is Love.' But when the songs were coming out, it wasn't like that for us in Birmingham. And I think the songs were coming out...they were very good songs, but even the Beatles weren't living in Liverpool anymore. A lot of bands had moved to London, but poverty still existed, and crime still existed, and verbal abuse still existed. And not only Liverpool, but in a lot of the cities, Newcastle, Manchester, tough cities, you know? It was nice, the idea of peace, man, and wearing flowers in your hair, but the reality was, if you looked the wrong way on the streets where I came from, you'd get beaten to a pulp. That's the reality. So that's where all the emotional stuff comes in. That's where it's like the 'Fuck you' comes in. And there was a lot of 'Fuck you.' And why there was a desire for us to play loud in Birmingham and why we just made these, almost like violent gestures in our music and in our live appearances, that was us. I think that was literally just reflecting where we were brought up. There may be more from a psychological point of view, but on the surface, I think that's what you're seeing—that's what we're getting at here."
Timeline

What Is This That Stands Before Me?

Important Dates in Sabbath History: The '70s

1970

**Jan. 9, 1970.** Black Sabbath release first single, "Evil Woman," a quite heavy metal cover of a Crow song.

**Feb. 5, 1970.** Black Sabbath officially begin touring in support of their debut album. _Paranoid_ songs such as "Paranoid," "Iron Man," "Walpurgis" ("War Pigs"), "Hand of Doom," "Fairies Wear Boots," and "Rat Salad" are played at some point on this tour, strengthening the case for Sabbath against Deep Purple or Uriah Heep as heavy metal's "most first."

**Feb. 13, 1970.** UK release date for Black Sabbath's debut, _Black Sabbath_ (Cat. # VO 6). Contains seminal metal track "Black Sabbath," plus "The Wizard," and "N.I.B.," compositions of note due to their modern, innovative heavy metal construction. Fittingly, this particular Feb. 13 was a Friday.

**June 1970.** Uriah Heep issue their quite heavy and modern _Very 'Eavy, Very 'Umble_. The UK pressing's "Lucy Blues" was replaced by "Bird of Prey," an incredibly flash, pioneering heavy metal classic. As discussed earlier, this is the other non–Black Sabbath album I thought deserved special mention within Sabbath's personal history.

**June 1, 1970.** U.S. release date for Black Sabbath— _Black Sabbath_ (Cat. # 1871). Contains heavy metal track "Wicked World" in place of UK cover track "Evil Woman."

**June 3, 1970.** Deep Purple release _In Rock_ , which was recorded Aug. '69 to May '70. This is one of two non-Sabbath album releases I've left in this timeline, given that _In Rock_ is actually a huge improvement in heavy metal flash and modernity over Black Sabbath's debut and, for that matter, over Black Sabbath's second album, _Paranoid_ , which comes after _In Rock_. Essentially, I have a hard time debating the first heavy metal album(s) without mentioning _Black Sabbath_ , _Paranoid_ , _In Rock_ , and Uriah Heep's _Very 'Eavy, Very 'Umble_ (self-titled in North America), and _In Rock_ is the "best" or "most impressive" of the lot.

**June 16, 1970.** The recording sessions for Black Sabbath's _Paranoid_ album take place.

**July 17, 1970.** Black Sabbath's "Paranoid" released as a single.

**Aug. 31, 1970.** End of tour for Black Sabbath— _Black Sabbath_.

**Sept. 4, 1970.** Jim Simpson is pushed aside as Black Sabbath's manager (enter Patrick Meehan Sr. and Jr.). A week later, Sept. 11, 1970, Black Sabbath begin their tour for the _Paranoid_ album.

**Sept. 18, 1970.** UK release date for the band's second album of 1970, _Paranoid_ , on Vertigo Records (Cat. # 6360 011). Almost all of it is what one might call heavy metal—that is, as heavy as music ever got at that time _and_ bereft of the blues.

**Sept. 24, 1970.** Sabbath perform "Paranoid" on _Top of the Pops_. Two days later, they film a performance of "Iron Man" and "Paranoid" for the German _Beat Club_ TV show. On Sept. 29, they perform "Paranoid" for Dutch TV.

**Oct. 23, 1970.** Tony is injured during a riot at a gig at the Mayfair Ballroom in Newcastle.

**Oct. 28, 1970.** Black Sabbath arrive in the U.S. to begin their first ever set of dates there. Oct. 30, 1970, marks Black Sabbath's first U.S. gig ever, at Glassboro State College, Glassboro, NJ. Roughly 15 U.S. dates are logged, rooted by Fillmore West and Whisky A Go Go multiday stops on the West Coast which featured two shows per day.

**Nov. 12, 1970.** Mike Saunders, later known as Metal Mike Saunders, in _Rolling Stone_ , commenting on an album from a year earlier, Humble Pie's _Safe as Yesterday Is_ , says, " _Safe as Yesterday Is_ , their first American release, proved that Humble Pie could be boring in a lot of different ways. Here they were a noisy, unmelodic, heavy metal–leaden shit-rock band with the loud and noisy beyond doubt." He called the band's current album "more of the same 27-th rate heavy metal crap."

1971

**1971.** South African hard rock band Suck issue their one and only album, _Time to Suck_ , which includes "War Pigs," the earliest known cover of a Black Sabbath song on an album.

**Jan. 1, 1971.** U.S. release date for _Paranoid_ , through the band's deal with Warner Bros (Cat. # 3104).

**Jan. 29, 1971.** Press conference in Australia, followed by festival show on Jan. 31.

**Feb. 5, 1971.** Black Sabbath begin studio work on _Master of Reality_ , finishing on Apr. 5, amidst U.S. tour dates.

**Apr. 26, 1971.** End of the _Paranoid_ tour.

**May 7, 1971.** _Paranoid_ is certified gold (all certification stats cited are for the U.S. only), with _Black Sabbath_ also receiving its gold certification a month hence, on June 14.

**July 1, 1971.** First date of the _Master of Reality_ tour, St. Paul, MN.

**July 21, 1971.** Simultaneous UK and U.S. release of Black Sabbath's third album, _Master of Reality_ (U.S. Cat. # BS 2562; UK Cat. # 6360 050).

**Sept. 10–11, 1971.** Black Sabbath's only shows ever with Led Zeppelin, in Syracuse, NY, and Rochester, NY, respectively. Two weeks later, _Master of Reality_ is certified gold.

**Oct. 12, 1971.** The U.S. production of _Jesus Christ Superstar_ opens on Broadway. Jeff Fenholt stars as Jesus. Fenholt later tried out for Sabbath in the '80s, long after Ian Gillan had left the Sabs. Ian, of course, portrays Jesus on the soundtrack album!

1972

**June 1, 1972.** Recording begins for _Vol 4_.

**Aug. 1972.** Elf issue their self-titled debut. It is the first album for Ronnie James Dio, and the first of three Elf albums in total until the majority of the band, Ronnie included, joins Ritchie Blackmore in Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow.

**Sept. 15, 1972.** Tony collapses at a gig at the Hollywood Bowl, causing a show in Hawaii to be canceled on Sept. 17.

**Sept. 25, 1972.** Release date for _Vol 4_ (UK Cat. # 6360 071; U.S. Cat. # 2602). It is certified gold on Nov. 6.

1973

**Mar. 11 & 16, 1973.** These shows are represented on the semi-official _Live at Last_ album, Mar. 11 being Manchester, Mar. 16 in London. Backup acts were Badger and Necromandus, the heavy act under contract to Tony's management company, IMA.

**Dec. 1, 1973.** Release date for _Sabbath Bloody Sabbath_ (UK Cat. # WWA 005; U.S. Cat. # 2695). The album is delayed due to the vinyl shortage plaguing the business at the time (note: Geezer once joked to me that, specific to Warner Bros., the vinyl shortage was because the company was using its allotted supply to keep churning out hit Alice Cooper records).

**Dec. 1973.** UK WWA reissue of _Black Sabbath_ (Cat. # WWA 006), _Paranoid_ (Cat. # WWA 007), _Master of Reality_ (Cat. # WWA 008), and _Vol 4_ (Cat. # WWA 009).

**Dec. 9, 1973.** Start of the _Sabbath Bloody Sabbath_ tour, in Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

This crudely composed print ad for the band's double LP greatest hits pack of 1976 wisely features the album's horrific gatefold image.

1974

**Jan. 1974.** Sabbath begin a world tour. As well, after months of trying to extricate themselves from manager Patrick Meehan Sr., Sabbath sign on with Don Arden, although transitionally, accountant Mark Foster.

**Mar. 20, 1974.** _Sabbath Bloody Sabbath_ is certified gold. Each of Sabbath's first five albums, up to this point, had rapidly reached gold status. However, none had been certified platinum.

**Apr. 6, 1974.** Sabbath play California Jam, which attracts 200,000 fans. Also on the bill: Earth Wind & Fire, the Eagles, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Rare Earth, Black Oak Arkansas, Seals & Croft, and Deep Purple. Recalls Don Branker, promoter and mastermind behind both Cal Jams, "When I watched Sabbath go out and play they had no lights, they had no tricks, they had no pyro, they had no anything, and I probably watched the greatest rock show I've ever seen in my life. Ozzy just took the quarter million people and took them on a trip. Still, to this day, I get twenty, thirty e-mails talking about that particular show, loving Ozzy. But then Ozzy became...Ozzy unfortunately was self-destructive. Sabbath was around for another two to three years maximum, I think. But I saw the audience's reaction and I saw Ozzy, and of course afterward Ozzy came up to me and said it was the greatest show he'd ever done in his whole life. He'd never seen anything so...And there is a quote. A girl interviews him and he says, 'This is what it's all about. This is what outdoor shows should be. This is perfection.' And that's what I always strive for. Deep Purple didn't allow it. They went on late and then they blew up their amps later on. That was a shame because I had to deal with the fire marshal afterward and convince him that I did not know about it. Also Ritchie Blackmore put one of his guitars through one of the cameras, the ABC cameras, and he had to pay for that. To be honest with you, it goes back to the early club days in England when these bands were coming up. You know, it's a fight for who's better, who's going to do this and who's going to do that. They knew that they followed probably the greatest live show that they'd ever seen with a festival audience, which was Sabbath's show. So they had all these little things to try and make up for it. But you can't make up for the rawness of what Ozzy did, just their music and his personality."

**Nov. 5, 1974.** Sabbath play eight dates in Australia; AC/DC are the main backup band. It is Sabbath's second trip down under. The _Sabbath Bloody Sabbath_ tour ends on Nov. 16.

1975

**1975.** U.S. reissue of _Paranoid_ (Cat. # WS4).

**Feb. 1, 1975.** The band begins work on _Sabotage_. In May, Jezz Woodroffe joins Black Sabbath, but not as an official member. He is not part of the _Sabotage_ sessions but has a big hand in the construction of _Technical Ecstasy_.

**July 14, 1975.** First date of _Sabotage_ tour, backup being the Leslie West Band, inverting the bill with respect to select 1971 dates, when Sabbath backed up Mountain.

**July 28, 1975.** U.S. release date for _Sabotage_ (Cat. # 2822). Aug. 22, 1975 is picked as the UK release date (Cat. # 9119 001).

**Aug. 4, 1975.** Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow issue their debut album. It is Ronnie James Dio's fourth official album appearance and his first in a true hard rock or proto–heavy metal band.

**Oct. 9, 1975.** Sabbath play Liverpool, backed up by Bandy Legs, the band that became Quartz, featuring Geoff Nicholls, future and longtime Black Sabbath keyboardist.

**Oct. 25, 1975.** Broadcast date for Black Sabbath's appearance on _Don Kirshner's Rock Concert_.

**Nov. 7, 1975.** Sabbath issue "Am I Going Insane (Radio)" as a single—no one gets it. Meanwhile, the band cut their _Sabotage_ tour short (support was Kiss) after Ozzy hurts his back in a motorcycle accident.

**Dec. 1, 1975.** UK release date for two-LP compilation _We Sold Our Soul for Rock 'n' Roll_ (Cat. # 6641 335).

1976

**Jan. 13, 1976.** End of the _Sabotage_ tour, at the Hammersmith Odeon in London.

**Jan./Feb. 1976.** UK NEMS reissue of _Black Sabbath_ (Cat. # NEL 6002), _Paranoid_ (Cat. # NEL 6003; also as picture disc, Cat. # NEP 6003), _Master of Reality_ (Cat. # NEL 6004), and _Vol 4_ (Cat. # NEL 6005).

**Feb. 1976.** U.S. release date for _We Sold Our Soul for Rock 'n' Roll_ (Cat. # 2923).

**May 17, 1976.** Rainbow issue their classic _Rising_ album, featuring two future Black Sabbath members in Ronnie and Cozy Powell.

**Sept. 25, 1976.** U.S. release date for _Technical Ecstasy_ (Cat. # 2969). UK release is slated for Oct. 8 (Cat. # 9102 750).

**Oct. 22, 1976.** First date of the _Technical Ecstasy_ tour, main opener being Boston, their transformation into headline act occurring rapidly over the course of the tour as their self-titled debut shoots up the charts. Bill and Boston drummer Sib Hashian become fast friends, Bill traveling often on the Boston bus instead of his own.

**Dec. 3, 1976.** More _Technical Ecstasy_ tour dates, but now with Ted Nugent—like Boston, another act quickly on its way to headliner status.

1977

**1977.** Quartz issue their self-titled debut. The album is produced by Tony Iommi and features keyboardist Geoff Nicholls, who would play on many Sabbath albums and tours in the ensuing years. Also in 1977, Derringer issue their second studio album, and third overall, called _Sweet Evil_ , an accomplished, well-regarded record and quite heavy for its day. Its significance is that arguably it houses the most impressive Vinny Appice performance prior to Vinny joining Black Sabbath in time for the _Heaven and Hell_ tour. Vinny's other significant credits include the Derringer catalogue prior to and including _Sweet Evil_ , plus one-off albums by Axis and Bruzer.

**Apr. 5, 1977.** First of a series of European _Technical Ecstasy_ dates with AC/DC, a third act Sabbath played with on this tour that was soon to be a headline act. The Ian Gillan Band also hops on for a few of these shows, Gillan joining Sabbath as lead vocalist six years later. The tour ends Apr. 22, 1977.

**July 7, 1977.** Rainbow issue their double live _On Stage_ album.

**Sept. 1977.** Ozzy leaves Black Sabbath, for the first time, for a short time. By October, vocalist Dave Walker and keyboardist Don Airey briefly join the band.

**Nov. 1977.** On the plane from San Francisco to London, Dave Walker writes new lyrics for the music Sabbath was to use for _Never Say Die_.

1978

**Jan. 6, 1978.** Dave Walker is documented as Sabbath vocalist when the band performs "Junior's Eyes" on BBC's _Look Hear_.

**Jan. 20, 1978.** Ozzy's dear dad, Jack, passes away due to cancer. By this point, Ozzy is back in the band.

**Winter/Spring 1978.** Sabbath spend five months at Sounds Interchange Studios in Toronto recording _Never Say Die_.

**Apr. 9, 1978.** Rainbow issue their third studio album, fourth overall, called _Long Live Rock 'n' Roll_. It would be the last Rainbow album for Ronnie James Dio, whose next recorded work will be _Heaven and Hell_ two years later.

**May 16, 1978.** First date of the _Never Say Die_ tour, famous for Van Halen apparently "blowing the band off the stage," as well as stealing a lot of Sabbath's moves and tricks (see chapter 13). Van Halen supported the band in the spring of 1978 in the UK and then again solid from mid-Aug. 1978 through the beginning of Dec., all across America. On May 25, Black Sabbath mime to " _Never Say Die_ " for _Top of the Pops_.

**June 3, 1978.** "Never Say Die" issued in the UK as an advance single.

**Sept. 28, 1978.** U.S. release date for the band's last album with Ozzy, _Never Say Die_ (Cat. # 3186).

**Oct. 1, 1978.** UK release date of _Never Say Die_ (Cat. # 9102 751). On Oct. 14, "A Hard Road" is launched as a follow-up single to "Never Say Die."

**Dec. 11, 1978.** Last live gig with Ozzy on vocals until Live Aid in 1985.

1979

**Spring 1979.** Ozzy's status in the band is tenuous, as is Geezer's, the former, more in a state of near firing, Geezer, definitely thinking of quitting. In May, Ozzy leaves Black Sabbath (or is pushed), this time for real. Manager Don Arden, who can't get his head around Ronnie James Dio as the new vocalist, sells Sabbath's management contract to Sandy Pearlman, longtime manager of Blue Öyster Cult.

**July 17, 1979.** Geoff Nicholls quietly joins Black Sabbath as unofficial member but vital utility man.

**Oct. 1, 1979.** Recording sessions begin for _Heaven and Hell_ , at Criteria in Miami.
3

Majors & Minors

Those Who Sang for Black Sabbath

Sure there's Ronnie and the Oz-man, but in the creases, on the margins, and during bouts of desperation, the Riff-meister of Doom turned to a ragtag gaggle of historical footnotes to fill the bill. Here's a list of all the singers for Black Sabbath and what they got up to, however fleeting.

Whitfield Crane—Crane was the lead singer for Ugly Kid Joe. He sang for thirty-two minutes at sound check at the NEC in Birmingham for the _Reunion_ tour, December 4, 1997, doing "Electric Funeral," "Hand of Doom," "Heaven and Hell," "Symptom of the Universe," "Snowblind," and "Hole in the Sky." Technically, however, he didn't sing for Sabbath, because Shannon Larkin (also Ugly Kid Joe but then Godsmack) was on drums.

Ronnie James Dio—Dio was in the band during three distinct eras, separated by many years. He was the vocalist on _Heaven and Hell_ , _Mob Rules_ , and _Live Evil_ in the low'80s, then _Dehumanizer_ in the early '90s, and then _The Dio Years_ , _Live at Hammersmith Odeon_ , _Live from Radio City Music Hall_ , and _The Devil You Know_ in the late 2000s. In 2010, another archival release was added, _Neon Nights: 30 Years of Heaven & Hell—Live in Europe_.

David Donato—Donato was an L.A. guy kicking about town, auditioning for the legendary Armageddon, associated with players like Neil Citron, Mark St. John (with whom he did the self-titled White Tiger album), and Glenn Hughes, who helped Donato get an audition with Tony. Donato's main claim to Sabbath fame is a feature article in _Kerrang!_ with photos, quotes etc....it all seemed like a done deal (or donut deal—that was Bill Ward's nickname for the moonlighting male model, became Dave liked to eat donuts in rehearsal). A good half dozen demos were cut over a period Donato pegs as about six months. Apparently Bob Ezrin was called in to take a listen and was noncommittal about their merits. The band dissolved, seemingly partly because of Donato's unsuitability to the Sabbath sound as well as some business problems between Geezer and Tony. Donato never played live with the band. Of note, there's the whole Jeff Fenholt dispute shortly thereafter, which basically comes down to this: If Fenholt did any work with Tony at all, some demo vocals at most, it was essentially during a period when Tony was considered to be working on solo material, and not Black Sabbath proper.

The lone LP from L.A. hair metal band White Tiger, domain of Kiss guitarist Mark St. John and of David Donato, Black Sabbath singer for five minutes.

Ian Gillan—The legendary Deep Purple yowler was in the band from November 1982 until February 1984, hatching the controversial _Born Again_ album and the equally controversial _Born Again_ tour, on which he seemed at times to have only a casual relationship with the lyrics. Additionally, Ian failed to wear enough black in his Black Sabbath uniform.

Ray Gillen—Gillen was in the band from March 1986 into the summer of 1987. He played live with the guys on part of the _Seventh Star_ tour and is the vocalist on a shelved version of _The Eternal Idol_ , but he was replaced by Tony Martin. Gillen is best loved for the two classic Badlands albums issued by Atlantic. He died of AIDS on December 3, 1993. "Nightmare" from _The Eternal Idol_ is the only trace of Ray on a Sabbath recording, where a snippet of a laugh is included.

Glenn Hughes's _Play Me Out_ solo album was anything but heavy metal, underscoring the ill fit of Glenn's soulful voice to Tony's somber riffery.

Rob Halford—The operatic Judas Priest vocalist sang with the band live in Costa Mesa, California, November 1992, on two occasions, after a headliner/backup dispute with Ronnie James Dio and again in August of 2004 in Camden, New Jersey, when Ozzy got hit with bronchitis and couldn't do the show.

Glenn Hughes—Hughes is the vocalist on _Seventh Star_ and performed on a few disastrous and snow-blind tour dates for it.

Ice-T—Ice-T performs a quick, ill-advised rap on "The Illusion of Power" from 1995's also ill-advised _Forbidden_ album. Note: _The Illusion of Power_ was the working title for the album, an album that Ice-T was supposed to be producing; he handed it down to his Body Count cohort Ernie C. instead (reminds me of the Damned and the production of _Music for Pleasure_ , with cries of "We wanted Syd Barrett but we got Nick Mason instead!").

Ozzy Osbourne—The first name in Black Sabbath singers is the man at the mic on the first eight Sabbath albums as well as the _Reunion_ live album from 1998. Plus, tucked in there, Ozzy sang with the boys at Live Aid on June 13, 1985, and if you want to get technical about it, besides _Reunion_ , Ozzy is the singer on a bunch of live stuff he figures has no business being released.

Tony Martin—Martin is the Dioesque singer on every Sabbath album from 1987's _The Eternal Idol_ through 1995's _Forbidden_ , save for 1992's _Dehumanizer_ , on which Ronnie plays the role of himself.

Tony Martin will perennially be considered to have been an odd choice to front Sabbath, Dioesque chops notwithstanding.

Dave Walker—In the band from October 1977 through the January 1978, Walker was very much documented as such through an eternally amusing BBC _Look Hear_ appearance, where he mumbled his way through an early-days version of "Junior's Eyes."

Bill Ward—The lovable Sabbath skin basher is the lead singer on Sabbath's most Beatle-esque song, "It's Alright," and on Sabbath's least Beatle-esque song, "Swinging the Chain." I do believe as well, he's providing backup vocals hither and thither on _Never Say Die_ , and possibly performed ghost or scratch leads that might have been kept had Ozzy not been coaxed back to work.
4

"Bonham and Ozzy Used to Be the Loudest Two"

A Chat with Norman Hood

Norman Hood is an industry legend around Birmingham, having booked every fledgling band through his Pokey Hole pub on the outskirts of Birmingham through the late '60s and the very early part of the '70s, including Earth and Black Sabbath, the latter announcing their name change from the former, on Norman's small stage. Norman also worked a bit with the boys on the side, as well as with Jim Simpson; he eventually went into business with Tony Iommi and Ten Years After drummer Ric Lee.

What's perhaps more interesting than the mere fact that Tony was one of three gents in a management stable with Norman is that the small gathering of bands under the IMA domain, quaint businesses that they were, did as much for Birmingham's reputation as a hard rock town than the bigger flash evidence we all know about, namely Sabbath, maybe Trapeze (not even a Birmingham act per se), and a couple of future Led Zeppelin guys (one of them, Planty, not even heavy yet!).

"IMA evolved from an agency I used to run called Tramp," explains Norman, "which originally handled Judas Priest, quite a way back. My first involvement, really, was back in 1967, or '66, really. I was barely out of nappies then, but I got in the blues rock, as it was then, by following Cream and John Mayall and people like that. Then I was on my own again, probably be about '67, which sort of evolved into Fleetwood Mac. I had a dabble with the music business with what eventually became the formation of Fleetwood Mac, so I'd met a few reasonably well-known musicians before then and got the urge to open a little club with a couple friends. I was booking the bands in from Jim Simpson; his agency in Birmingham, Big Bear, was providing people like Sabbath and Indian Summer, Tea & Symphony, that sort of thing. Right from the early parts of my involvement with Sabbath as Earth, I was booking them through Jim Simpson.

"Mother's was slightly later," Hood continues, painting a picture of the Birmingham music scene as it existed at the time of Sabbath's birth. "Henry's Blues House was Jim Simpson's own club, and it was really _the_ club in the center of Birmingham. Jim's place was originally a blues and blues rock venue. Mother's was slightly more...I was going to say poppy but that's the wrong word—it wasn't quite as blues-based. It was a terrific club, a great big space above a carpet shop, if I remember. And it became probably the better known of the two. But Henry's was always the basic club. As mine was, it was just a room over a pub, and I mean, there had been clubs in Birmingham before that, but they mainly dealt with touring American blues artists and that sort of thing."

Henry's was above a pub called the Crown. Pokey Hole was on Frog Lane in Lichfield, above Robin Hood Public House, in Lichfield, north of Birmingham.

"Yeah, we were about fifteen miles, I suppose, from central Birmingham," says Norman. "So we did get a certain amount of the Birmingham crowd as well. And of course a lot of our people went into Birmingham quite often. We were Friday night, just a weekly thing on Friday night, which is the worst possible night to run a club because everybody's got gigs on a Friday night. But Earth, and then Sabbath, used to play for us when they weren't working. They'd get sort of fifteen pounds at that time. So I used to get them really cheap, but they always filled the club and they always got a good reception.

"There's a lot of theories," laughs Norman, asked why Birmingham spawned so much hard-hitting rock music. "Birmingham is a very industrial area, and heavy industry at that—a lot of metalworking. It's the Black Country, so by its very name, there's a lot of foundries there, a lot of heavy industry. And I think people immediately thought that it was a reflection of the area. But I think a lot of the bands that came up in the Birmingham area were copycat Sabbath, really. I think Sabbath and Zeppelin were the two headliners, and I think so many bands saw them locally that their music was influenced more by Sabbath and Zep than by their surroundings. So it's difficult to explain. Birmingham was a sort of doom-laden, smoke-covered, soot-blackened place, but it's not that bad, really [laughs]."

Sometimes, as outsiders, we're guilty of pushing the Zeppelin connection too far. After all, Robert and the Band of Joy material...it was fairly folk, blues, and psych-y, not exactly proto-metal. Plus, of course, the seed heaviness of Zeppelin comes from Jimmy Page and a London band called the Yardbirds. Still, John Bonham had a reputation as a loud drummer (according to Glenn Hughes and Carmine Appice), helping to promote bashing by wanting his drums closer to the front of the stage, and even requesting that his name be added to notices of his band's live gigs.

"Not to my knowledge," reflects Norman, on that last crumpet of trivia. "I must say, I only met him socially. Saw him onstage a few times obviously, but I didn't get any impression of that at all. The only rifts that I ever came across were of course in Sabbath, because really, Ozzy was getting a bit too hard to control, but otherwise, you know, it was all very placid. Bonham was in the Keith Moon mold, and having met both of them, I'm not sure which was the crazier. When we got offices in Birmingham, we used to get the Zeppelin lads in there quite a lot, as well as Sabbath. It was always...Bonham and Ozzy used to usually be the loudest two, probably within sort of ten miles. Yeah, he was unfailingly polite, a really nice guy. Didn't have a speck of trouble with him. Never worked with him, obviously, because by then they were a major band. But yeah, he was loud. Definitely loud."

Further underscoring Birmingham's reputation for new flash rock music were Slade and Trapeze. Slade were soon to be classed as more of a British glitter band, but nonetheless were heavy rockers for the day. Trapeze, featuring future Sabbath singer and Iommi collaborator Glenn Hughes, started out folky, perhaps reflecting their signing with Moody Blues offshoot imprint Threshold. But by the second album, _Medusa_ , issued in November of 1970, Trapeze were rocking quite hard.

"Met the Trapeze guys quite early," notes Norman. "They were run out of Wolverhampton, which, I suppose, you can put as a suburb of Birmingham. They were run by an agency who, in a sense, were rivals. They were probably bigger than my little agency, and better, more than likely, so really they were run by a rival agency. Slade, obviously, I love Noddy [Holder] to pieces [laughs], but again, they were just slightly out of town. They weren't classed as a Birmingham band, if you like; they were Wolverhampton, as were Trapeze. So they didn't really come into our radar."

And before all this hard rock business, Birmingham had a rich legacy of blues and jazz, did it not? "Absolutely, yes. The Birmingham International Jazz Festival was actually started by Jim Simpson, and I worked with him on it for quite a few years, and it's still going. Not quite as star-studded as it was. I mean, we used to have people like Basie and Buddy Rich and some real big names at the festival. But there's always been a lot of jazz clubs—still are. There was even a Ronnie Scott's in Birmingham for a while, which I think now is a pole-dancing club. So yeah, it's quite a legacy of music.

"A lot of the British blues bands got into a heavier sound themselves," says Hood, asked if this new music was emerging because the British blues boom was burning itself out on predictability and way too many bands on the bandwagon. "I think a lot of bands did get heavier. Not as far as being classed as metal, that heavy, but eventually yeah, they definitely got louder and a little heavier with their music."

I asked Norman what Birmingham's relationship was to the bands, fans, and industry people in London.

Double-page print spread for the band's spring 1973 tour of the UK. Cumbria-based backup act Necromandus (managed by Tony Iommi) never managed to get a record out, despite substantive initial buzz.

"I don't know that there was any sort of bad feeling. For example, Sabbath...I don't think that London knew quite what was going on for a while because of the underground nature in which Sabbath rose to prominence. In other words, the fact that they worked right the way around the country and built up a following...I think the London press, certainly, seemed to think that they had suddenly just popped up overnight, but the actual music fans knew all about them. So when the first Sabbath album was released and then went to whatever it was, #2 or #4 or something, that was on the back of working every night of the week, all around the country. So it was a surprise to the London press but not to music fans."

It was in this environment that Norman, Ric, and Tony put together IMA, first conceived given Tony's interest in the band that eventually became Necromandus.

"Sabbath had stayed up in Cumbria for a while, Whitehaven," explains Norman, "working from that area before, I think, the formation of Earth. Tony and the band had got links to that area, and one of the bands that they knew, or that had been formed after Sabbath had been formed, got in touch with me from Whitehaven and sent me some tapes. And Tony was really enthusiastic about managing them himself and taking them on as far as he could. Sabbath were going pretty well, and I think he thought that it would be just a nice thing to do, a hobby, maybe, to look after this band. They had got some horrible name at the time, Hot Spring Water or something. Tony and I agreed that we'd form a little management company, a little agency. IMA was what resulted from it. Although a lot of accounts I've seen have thought the _I_ stood for 'Iommi', it never did. I think it was International Management Agency or something, something very flash for those days. The holding company was called Pactmoor, and Pactmoor were the ones who signed Judas Priest. That sounds very involved—I hope you can piece it together [laughs]. Anyway, when that band first got in touch with me by letter, it was called Hot Spring Water. Yeah, exactly [laughs]. Well, that didn't last long. I think for a small period of time they were called Taurus. Again, that was a bit anonymous, so eventually they came up with Necromandus, and they were one of the main bands we were handling at that time."

And why didn't IMA figure in the management of Black Sabbath itself?

Along with the infamy of being the heaviest band on the planet come endorsement deals.

"We were never in a position to do that," says Norman. "And for the same sort of reasons that Jim probably couldn't have taken them much further. They needed to be handled by the big boys, if you like, or at least the London people who knew, really, how to take them on to that next level. I think even Jim came to realize that eventually. I know he was quite bitter about it for quite a while, and probably still is. It's difficult and I can see both sides. At that stage, I was getting pretty friendly with Tony. We used to knock around together for a few years around that time, and it was acrimonious. I knew Jim pretty well, obviously. I was pretty good mates with Tony, so basically I sat on my fence. As I say, I could see both sides of it. I could appreciate Jim put a lot of work, a lot of effort, into the band, and probably without him they would never have built up the grassroots following that eventually took them onto fame, if you like. I could also see from the band's point of view that he'd probably taken them as far as he could. At that time the music business was very London-centric. We were out in Birmingham—although the distance from over your side of the pond is like next to nothing, 120 miles over here in the '60s was a long way, and everything tended to be centered on London. And the band obviously soon started making waves and making money and making records and they were a prime target for the sharks in London. And to be fair, I wouldn't have tried to get on the inside because I just couldn't be helpful. They needed professional management and I was far from that. I was quite happy just to sort of tag along and go into the studio with them and do the odd gig with them. It was nice.

"Again, not really qualified to comment on that," continues Norman, asked to assess the strengths and weaknesses of Sabbath's new manager, Patrick Meehan Sr. "I met him, Patrick Meehan, and Wilf Pine. I probably know Wilf better; he was really friendly to me. They knew that I was in a slightly strange position, but because I was a friend of Tony's they were always unfailingly polite. But as far as the business goes, I just turned around and right glad I did because those were quite big boys to play with. Wilf was a nice chap. I knew his reputation, but the couple of times I met him, he was unfailingly pleasant. A lot more so than one or two of the other agents around at that time who I was always very careful to keep well away from.

"He was generally happy," opines Norman, asked if Tony had at all been letting on that things weren't as financially square in the Sabbath camp as appearances might have portrayed. "I mean, there are always gripes, obviously, and the grass is always greener. Again, as an outsider, I wasn't privy to any of the dealings with the band. I met the guys at Worldwide, I met David Hemmings and people like that, and they were all really nice fellows, but I was very much on the outside. From listening to it, Tony and Geezer probably were the ones who were more business-orientated. They weren't particularly happy at the cut they were paying. I mean, it's all the same, isn't it? You go to somebody new and they seem terrific for a while, but after a while you start begrudging them the money. When you're making a lot of money, the cut that they're getting seems to be a lot as well. So I don't know."

A band with an almost comically fluid lineup called Judas Priest turned out to be the anchor of IMA's modest stable. "I think we signed them formally with the agency in '73," recalls Hood. "They had been under my wing for a while earlier on, probably I would think from about '69, '70, something like that. I used to work with a guy called Dave Corke who was really the driving force behind Judas. We worked together for quite a while. But Priest, we had a friendship that stayed right through until they got big and I decided I was never going to make any money off it. But Priest were far enough behind Sabbath to be influenced by them. I suppose when I first got into them, or they first got into it through me, rather, they'd only got two of the members, obviously, just Ken Downing and Ian Hill."

It's interesting, though, that Priest actually had roots back to 1969. It becomes lost in translation that by the time Priest issued their debut album, _Rocka Rolla_ , in 1974, sure, Sabbath had fully five albums out, but the roots of both bands are essentially a year apart, meaning that original metal was being forged at essentially the same time. Still, Sabbath bulldozes o'er any influence of Priest, really, with respect to the invention of metal, through those first five albums, while Priest fussed about with lineup switches and a mere handful of originals, as good and modern and metallic as these early compositions were.

Norman was around to witness that switch in the vocalist position from Al Atkins to Rob Halford. "Al swears that I sacked him, but that's not true at all," reflects Hood. "I wouldn't ever do anything like that. It was a band decision, really. I'd had very little dealing with Rob Halford. I knew of him; he was in a band called Athens Wood that had been in touch with me and I'd seen them a couple times. But it was a band choice—definitely not me. I have told Al that, but I think he likes telling people I sacked him. Again, the chronology of it...everything happens so quickly. I mean, I was only involved from Fleetwood Mac through to deciding that doing a brewery is what I was cut out for—that was about eight or nine years. So it all happened very, very quickly. IMA, as you know, was three people: myself, Tony, and Ric Lee, who, again, was the drummer for Ten Years After, who obviously, they stormed at Woodstock, so they were also pretty well known as well. And because of that and because of the fact we were based in Birmingham, we pretty much had our pick of the local bands. But eventually it came down to Necromandus and to Judas Priest. I was really responsible for Necromandus, and Dave Corke, who again was working for me at this stage, he was Judas Priest through and through; so he looked after them. But really, he was the one that believed in them.

"For a start, they were never my favorite band," continues Hood, with respect to the Priest. "When we first took them on I was very, very doubtful about whether they would actually be able to make it. Maybe they were trying to be a little too close to Sabbath, I don't know. But there was no doubt that Ken was an amazing guitarist. I think when they took Glenn Tipton in, that was really what actually made them different, took them apart, lifted them out of the sort of support band role. I think the twin guitar thing, although it had been done before, obviously with people like Wishbone Ash, what have you, I think Ken was a heavy rock guitarist and Glenn was a rock 'n' roller. The Flying Hat Band, which were also one of the agency bands at that time, they were great rock 'n' roll, but I think Priest just jelled; they really did. They still owe me seven hundred quid, by the way [laughs].

"Probably not that close, honestly," is Norman's assessment of how near the Flying Hat Band were to getting a record deal. "Flying Hat Band was Glenn. As I say, in live performances they could actually get a room up and bombing about. They had no trouble packing them out. They were a very popular club band. Whether they could have actually made a successful career on the back of that, I don't know. I'm not entirely sure. I think they would have probably been an average rock 'n' roll band, which is probably what the record company thought as well."

Black Sabbath: Part of a complete and hearty English breakfast.

As to Necromandus ultimately fizzling, "I think it was timing. While Tony was their manager, he was attracting a lot of attention to them because people thought that if they booked Necromandus then next week they could have Sabbath, but of course that wasn't the case at all. Sabbath by this time were taking off really, really big. They recorded the album and everything was all set to go; it was all sorts of systems go. And then I think, basically, Sabbath hit big in the States, just at the wrong time. Tony disappeared; there was delay after delay with the album. I think Baz Dunnery got a little bit fed up and he wanted things to move faster than they were. They were stuck on a level of gigs that weren't actually paying them enough. I mean, they were struggling, and I don't think they were quite able to get out of that. They weren't able to move up without the impetus of Tony behind them. At this stage, Tony had got other things on his mind.

"It was getting to the stage where my involvement started getting less and less with them," says Norman, in closing. "I packed it in in '76, I suppose, but by then I'd gone back with Jim, because of Tony and going across to the States. Ric Lee had fallen out of the company quite early because he was about the only person that managed to lose money in the property boom going on around at that time, and decided that he wanted to concentrate on his property. Tony then disappeared to the States, and gradually the whole thing sort of wound down. So by about '74, I was back working with Jim and bringing American blues artists over to tour over here, which was rather close to my heart—the old blues [laughs]."
5

"I'm the Witchfinder General!"

Black Sabbath Inspire a Genre Called Doom Metal

Black Sabbath is one of a hallowed few bands in rock 'n' roll history that could be said to have invented a whole subgenre of music. You might call it two genres, in fact, if we're putting a finer point on 'er: namely doom metal and stoner rock. Rather than get into the characteristics of each, we're going to take a different approach and look at specific bands that, despite being categorizable as one or the other, sound most like disciples of the Sabs.

As we get in our burnt orange van and drive on back to the '70s, it's interesting to notice that there are really no pronounced Sabbath clones for the entire decade. Sure, vestiges of Sabbath can be heard on the first couple of Priest albums, in Sir Lord Baltimore, Bang, black-and-white-period Blue Öyster Cult, Captain Beyond's self-titled first, in Australian Vertigo signing Buffalo, but no, it's a stretch full of huge qualifications for all of those, certainly nothing to hang our hat on. If there's any band that warms closer, it would be the legendary yet elusive Pentagram, who through singles and later to surface demos, exhibit doom root beyond the casual. Still, given that I've always placed proof on the idea of commercially released albums, we'd have to set Pentagram aside because they didn't make any.

Trouble's fire-and-brimstone lyrics built upon the foundation Geezer had established with songs like "After Forever."

Doom starts with Witchfinder General. Right in the punted thick of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, here was a band of barely-talenteds willing to downtune, slow the pace, and warble on about Satan and witches in a distinctly thin twang from Oz. They only made two albums— _Death Penalty_ and _Friends of Hell_ —but the doom cast was, er, cast, the vocals of the mysterious Zeeb Parkes sounding hurt and young and unsure like Ozzy's distinctly thin grin, his backing band rumbling along like the cart's about to tip and dump plague-ridden bodies. Elsewhere within the NWOBHM, most bands were busy being Priesty, but one could arguably draw Angel Witch into the fray, given the huge gothic satanism of it all, the psychological weight, plus the pure doom of early compositions such as "Baphomet."

As we move and groove through the low '80s, there are two bands slower than all comers, thicker of riff and artistically ancient and gothic and religious in twisted braid. Chicago's Trouble, issuing their _Psalm 9_ debut in 1984, were actually defined as "white metal" due to the fire-and-brimstone Christian message portrayed, set to raw, Sabbatherian chugs that refused to be rushed, refused to sound anything other than underground. Meanwhile, long-running Pentagram had finally got it together after four singles in the '70s to issue their self-titled debut in 1984 and then _Day of Reckoning_ in 1987.

Over to Sweden, and Sabbath fanatic Leif Edling was brewing up his own slow sonic drip with a trip of a band called Candlemass, who featured the monk-robed Messiah Marcolin on castle-black Oz vox. Their _Epicus Doomicus Metallicus_ debut of 1986 (Messiah would join for the next album, _Nightfall_ ) is a classic of simplistic, raw, repetitive doomfoolery in no hurry to impress, with no ambition or desire to hold one's interest. In the mid-'90s, Messiah Marcolin and Mike Wead would be responsible for crushing Candlemass offshoot Memento Mori, who recorded four albums between '93 and '97.

And if you wanna look way underground, there was L.A.'s Saint Vitus, on esteemed punk label SST, issuing their self-titled debut in '84, building on the odd case of the label's flagship band, Black Flag, and that band's recent conversion to doom, often in instrumental form, no less. Although only a member later, Scott "Wino" Weinrich is the most famous piece of the Saint Vitus puzzle, Wino also being associated with doom or doomish constructs such as the Obsessed, Spirit Caravan, and the Hidden Hand.

From here you'd have to look forward to 1991, and Coventry, England's Cathedral, who issue a debut called _Forest of Equilibrium_ and really hit their stride with _The Carnival Bizarre_. Vocalist Lee Dorrian loved doom so much, he eventually built himself a record label called Rise Above that signed many of the bands of the genre, then shifting to include something called stoner rock, which, if we may generalize, is a happier form of doom, one that includes other early '70s hard rock influences that might be described as more American, bluesy, or boogie rockin'. Rise Above staples would include Orange Goblin and Electric Wizard, both prolific, both from the UK, and the excellent Grand Magus, from Stockholm, Sweden. Count Raven is another of many solid doom acts from Sweden, although their label wasn't Rise Above, but rather Hellhound Records.

Besides stoner rock, a whole different branch or style of doom emerged, represented by bands such as Paradise Lost and My Dying Bride, both from Halifax, England. These bands took doom to the extreme, incorporating death, gothic rock, and sludge into their sounds; My Dying Bride further distinguished themselves by being the slowest of the slow. Anathema, early on, were somewhat in this category as well, as were Chicago's Novembers Doom.

Swing back stateside, and you've got the "desert metal" of Kyuss, who could be classed as proto- or pioneering stoner metal, although the thickness and bassiness and rumbling low velocities of the band really grind and ground into doom. And what about Alice in Chains? Though the band are blindingly considered grunge, still, a look at them purely on riffery (glossing over vocal style and drug lyrics) would call up from the smoke-choked dust lots of doomy, downtuned guitar sludge.

There's also a Nola, or New Orleans section of the doom shop, the extreme end including Eyehategod and Soilent Green, the (slow) hardcore version being Crowbar, the Metallica-esque-to-punk version being Corrosion of Conformity (actually from Raleigh, North Carolina), the most famous and actually most Sabbath-like version being supergroup Down, and the version that had album covers painted by real serial killers being Acid Bath.

Other scattered midyears doom came from bands such as Sleep, debuting with _Volume One_ in 1991, and Solitude Aeternus, from Arlington, Texas, who debuted with 1990's _Into the Depths of Sorrow_. And mention of Solitude Aeturnus always makes me think of Finland's Amorphis, who created their own doomy slowed-down death metal, their second album, _Tales from the Thousand Lakes_ , being regarded as the classic of their early, pre-proggy death style. Back to the states, specifically Pittsburgh, and you have Penance, whose Century Media–issued second album, _Parallel Corners_ (1994), is considered a lost doom classic. O'er to more peripheral but also more famed, there's Fu Manchu (closer to stoner), Monster Magnet (psychedelic doom), Type O Negative (goth metal) and even Black Label Society (doomy quite often, but also shred, acoustic etc.).

And that's only less than half the story, but it's also where I want to stop. Why? Well, now you got the copycats, or the cliché bands of doom, all of your stoner rockers, occasionally something novel like the crushing noise rock sludge bands such as Boris, Earth, Sunn O)))), and Isis, building upon the anti-musics of the aforementioned Eyehategod and Soilent Green, but not unraveling to the point of Merzbow. My point is that there are now dozens upon dozens of very good doom and stoner rock bands (a shocking number of the best being Swedish), but that the laudable invention days of the genre are well over, mapped and blueprinted by the above bands into the kind of staid and efficient genres and subgenres that exist today.

And we have Sabbath to thank or blame, depending on your take, and really, no band besides them within a country mile in terms of establishing all of the trademarks set upon by the next generation of mopey music makers that had been wholly transformed by the Sabs' pessimistic worldview and their soundtrack to it.

The doomsters speak....

Phil Cope, Witchfinder General, 2007

"When we started the band, we didn't really have a direction toward doom. In fact, it was like, well, all the rock bands mixed together. But we just seemed to drift that way, into the doom, because we were playing slow music and nobody else was doing it at that time. I think when we were playing live, the slow music just wasn't going down that well. People just didn't want it. At the start of the '80s the whole big rock music came along—Iron Maiden, Motörhead, and all that—and people just didn't want this slow music. And I don't think we really did it justice at that moment in time."

Eric Wagner, Trouble, 1995

"Me and Bruce [Franklin] were together in a band, and we listened to all that New Wave of British Heavy Metal stuff, and Sabbath of course, Priest, Deep Purple, and even earlier stuff like Beatles and the Doors. And there was an ad in the paper from Rick [Wartell] and the guys needing a guitar player and singer. This was back in '79, and it was the only band listing like UFO, Sabbath, Priest as influences, and we went, 'Wow, somebody else that listens to what we like.' And I knew as soon as we went there and played that we were going to be a band. It was just finding five guys that clicked, five guys who liked the same thing and leave the egos at home. Personally my favorite time in music was about '67 to '72–73. I think music reflects what's going on, the melodies, the lyrics, the attitudes. The '80s, man, that was the worst, and the late '70s, with all that dance music. I think the music of the last year, especially the summer, it reminds me of the music back in the late '60s. Weed is big again. In the '80s it was coke—whether you like it or not, the drugs have a big influence. So if everybody's kicking back, smoking pot, the music's going to be mellow and cool and peace and love. When you do coke it's like, 'Fuck you, leave me alone!' 'Got another line? No? Then get the fuck out of my face!' The music was aggressive like that. The pop music in the '80s was just like terrible, bubblegum shit. 'Let's see how much money we can make and do another video and look real good.'"

Leif Edling, Candlemass, 1999

"We were there in the '80s with Cathedral and stuff, and we pretty much did our thing. I think Lee Dorrian and myself, what we have in common is that we listen to the same things. We both listen to Black Sabbath, we have the same references. We started that doom thing with _Epicus_ , and kept playing doom metal on _Nightfall_ and _Ancient Dreams_ —at that point we were in the middle of it. When we started out, we listened to all the current metal. I mean, we were young when we started, seventeen, eighteen years old; of course we were huge Black Sabbath fans. We also loved Venom, the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, mainly Angel Witch. And with Trouble, we were pretty crushed when that record came out because they were the only band doing what we were doing, in Nemesis. I mean when the first Trouble record came out, we had played with Nemesis for two years or something, and we thought we were the only heavy band on the planet [laughs]. So we thought, 'Wow, here we've got some guys in Chicago that are doing exactly the same thing that we're doing, but they did it before us.' So we were just thrilled that somebody was doing it, because nobody was doing it at that point. And then in the beginning of the '90s, the stoner rock scene developed, and I kind of like some of it. I really like Kyuss; I think they are fantastic. But I find most of them pretty boring actually. Not much has happened in that genre, and it's the same as in the doom scene or the goth scene. If I'm going to dig something I need to see some progress. And the stoner rock scene has stagnated totally. All the bands sound the same—period—and I think I can say that."

Of all the so-called doom metal acts, Cathedral were clearly the best at capturing Sabbath's massive shuffle groove, as demonstrated on songs such as "Hole in the Sky."

Scott "Wino" Weinrich, the Obsessed, 1997

"Saint Vitus was a whole different animal. That was the brainchild of Dave Chandler. And Dave Chandler was a visionary, no doubt. The thing about David was that he was a little bit boxed in and it's unfortunate because I didn't see Vitus really growing musically, and that's one of the reasons I left. The Obsessed was always sort of like my vehicle. I wrote most of the songs in that band and did all the singing and stuff, and the difference between Spirit Caravan and the Obsessed is that everybody writes. Even our drummer is writing. With the Obsessed, though, I really like _The Church Within_ , but those days were weird and troubling; I equate that album with the way that I was feeling at the time. It's kind of hard to get beyond. But I think it's a powerful record. There are always things you wish you could have done differently. I wasn't in the state of mind that I am right now, so it's hard to say. I like that record, and I also really like the first Obsessed record, the purple record—that was a real crowning achievement for me."

Mike Smail, Penance/Under the Sun, 2010

"I've always been from the Sabbath side of town. I don't think anyone playing hard rock, and definitely heavy metal, is not directly derivative from the Sabs. In my mind, you can't hear that stuff for the first time and not be affected. It's like if you're making wine, you have to start with the grape. Hearing those riffs and songs made a connection to my heart. Such bombastic, over-the-top, distinctive heavy riffs that when you hear them make you think, 'Man, I wish I could have come up with that," things like 'Into the Void,' 'Symptom of the Universe,' etc. It's amazing stuff that is instinctively implanted in you, so much so that when I'm trying to come up with my own riffs, that style just comes pouring out as well. Definite emulation coupled with honest homage."

Aaron Stainthorpe, My Dying Bride, 1999

"We understand that it's kind of necessary to label a band because you have to tell people what they're about, what sort of sound they have. But it's really difficult for us. Obviously you could mention doom metal, but the violin kind of blows all that out of proportion. I mean, we've read reviews in magazines, and they've called us gothic, horror, classical rock [laughs]. People come up with longer and longer descriptions, and we're quite happy to accept any of these. I mean, we have no set label that we call ourselves. To us it's metal, simple as that. But you're not going to take our CD to a party and sort of get on down. I think a lot of people, judging from the mail we've received over the lifetime of My Dying Bride, listen to this stuff in the evening. I mean, they listen to the Pantera and stuff like that during the day. Our music...it's not relaxing, but it's sort of slower, and definitely more relaxing than the aggressive stuff. But most people just listen to it at night, throw it on, make mad, passionate love, possibly [laughs]. I don't know, it would be nice or good to think that people might be doing lovely things to each other. But when you think about it, it's still a rock record. If you're going to have a passionate night with your woman, you're going to put something a thousand times more romantic on."

Ben Ward, Orange Goblin, 1999

"It's an honor for us to be considered one of the bands sort of leading the way within what people call the stoner rock scene. I mean, stoner rock can be anything you listen to. Drugs have always been in music. I mean, Pink Floyd are stoner rock as far as I'm concerned. Pop bands, I'm sure they smoke pot—does that make them stoner rock? It's a really bad phrase, and what's happening now is it's sort of cool to be called that. It's got this California image with surfing and girls. There are bands in this country who are coming out of the woodwork and jumping on the bandwagon, and they're not actually keeping in touch with where this music originated from, which is Black Sabbath, Saint Vitus, Witchfinder General, Pentagram...all the great doom stuff. And I think Orange Goblin are striving to keep the heavy metal element dominant, and not turn it into some sort of circus."

Ren Squires, Sheavy, 2000

"I really don't know how we belong in stoner rock because there are two people in the band who have never even been drunk, let alone stoned [laughs]. We fit in better with straight edge. But I consider stoner rock just party music—you get stoned, you go to a party. But we're just groovy, upbeat happy music. It used to be called doom, but I guess too many bands sounded too upbeat so they needed a new name. We are just Sabbath-style rock 'n' roll. It's not much different from Black Sabbath or Deep Purple or Led Zeppelin."

Tommy Southard, Solace, 2000

"The person that I can say specifically made me want to play lead guitar, but I don't sound anything like the man, would be Jimi Hendrix. Because I remember the first time I ever heard 'The Star Spangled Banner': A friend of mine had the _Woodstock_ album. His parents were hippies; it must have been the fourth grade or something, and he played 'The Star Spangled Banner' for me, and I couldn't even believe it was a guitar. I was like, 'Oh my God, that is insane.' But I guess the person I sound a more like, or the person that influenced me more after that fact, would be Tony Iommi, because Black Sabbath is in my opinion _the_ metal band. They started it all, as far as I'm concerned. The bass player and I were in a band called Godspeed before this band, and we toured Europe with Cathedral and Black Sabbath. We definitely got to meet them—they were awesome guys. Geezer was the best. He would make a point to come around and say 'What's up?' to us in the dressing room. I got to talk guitars a little bit with Iommi; it was really cool. The first time we met them it was like culture shock. It was awe-inspiring but they were pretty subdued. You can tell they are seasoned veterans. We were young and wild kids and it was our first record deal. We were off the hook, just going nuts, and couldn't believe we were there—and our behavior showed it [laughs]."
6

"I Don't Hear a Single."

The Top 40 Obscure Sabbath Tracks

Black Sabbath is not a band known for its vaults stuffed to the brim with unreleased studio tracks left off the album 'cos they've picked these nine from a slew of twenty-two. In fact, like Rush, like Aerosmith, like Foghat (!), there's very little. But tally all the bits and pieces through a long winding road of a career, and an engaging box set of curios could be assembled—that is, if Tony Iommi had any affinity at all for such an exercise, which he emphatically doesn't. In any event, that doesn't stop us from imagining, so here, for your archival enjoyment, is a tidy potential double CD pack of Sabbath at the fringes—and ranked, 'cos that's always more fun.

1—"Weevil Woman '71"

This is a newly discovered complete Black Sabbath demo tune worked up during the _Master of Reality_ sessions, and had first been circulated via the eight-CD set used to create the expanded reissues (see chapter 35), and is now available to all on the expanded _Master of Reality_ , unsurprisingly as track one on the bonus disc. It's a catchy, tribal, very heavy rocker with a claustrophobic stutter beat that collapses into a typical Sabbath groove before returning. As stated in the related chapter, it's a bit weak compared to what made _Master of Reality_ masterful, but nonetheless, say, on the debut, it would have been one of the top two to three heaviest tracks. A very interesting construction. Note—on the text provided with the demos, it's "Weevil Women," but on the official reissue, it's "Weevil Woman."

2—"When I Came Down"

Black Sabbath covering the obscure Norman Haines (ex-Locomotive keyboardist) and sounding funky, bluesy, doomy in the process. In other words, this track could have fit adequately on the band's debut album, much like the other cover there, "Warning" by Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation. This demo was recorded at Birmingham Arts Lab/Zella Studios, on October 7, 1969, five days before the guys would begin work on their first album. The production is fine, Oz is in fine form, and yes, that murky, cynical doom rock mood is achieved, despite the song being more of a '60s construct.

3—"The Fallen"

On music merit alone, this is the most enjoyable and accomplished Sabbath rarity, "The Fallen" being a fast and complicated headbanger not used for _Born Again_ , the one Sabbath album fronted, intriguingly, by Ian Gillan. Note the very punk rock chorus. There's a whole subtext of songs written by Saskatchewan rockers Kick Axe being submitted for possible use as well as the possibility that Ron Keel would wind up vocalist for Sabbath. Both situations arise from the fact that for a spell there, hot Quiet Riot producer Spencer Proffer was going to produce this next Sabbath record (Spencer was working with Kick Axe and Keel at the time).

4—"The Next Time"

This _Dehumanizer_ demo from 1991 features the second-most classic version of the band firing on all sixes. Had this made the album, it would have been one of the highlights, given its grinding riff rife with pregnant pauses, adequate melody, impassioned Dio vocal, and squarely midpaced critical mass, a potentially welcome addition to the sluggish sum total of the album's final composition. Features the since-deceased Cozy Powell on brutish, bashing drums, Cozy briefly part of the band until Ronnie couldn't take it anymore.

5—"The Rebel"

A second Norman Haines cover suggested by then-manager Jim Simpson, this track was recorded in August '69 at Trident Studios, if the box is to be believed. It's a nice, Beatle-esque, almost pastoral ditty—amusingly not Sabbath-like. Features Ozzy in his early days low register, and Iommi wedging in grungy guitar where it doesn't quite fit (but God love 'im). Choice lead licks as well, not to mention breaks and proggy bits that raise it beyond its mostly copacetic psych rock vibe. Significant in that the band at this point was definitely called Earth and not Black Sabbath. When the band recorded "When I Came Down," they were a couple weeks into their scary new name.

6—"What's the Use"

Japanese bonus track for the _Cross Purposes_ album from 1994. Hot clockin' and hot rockin' at 3:03, had this made the official release, it would have been the best track amongst a raft of easy-to-vanquish stinkers. Rivals "The Fallen" actually, as best Sabbath song not to make an album.

7—"Junior's Eyes"

A version that features short-lived Sabbath vocalist Dave Walker (ex–Savoy Brown) on vocals. Ozzy had abruptly left the band, making way for this throaty, gravelly, largely indecipherable take that nonetheless grooves hugely. Different lyrics too, of course, as Dave had been given the task of writing the lyrics for what would become the _Never Say Die_ album. This early version of "Junior's Eyes" was performed, along with "War Pigs," on BBC Midlands' _Look Hear_ on January 6, 1978.

8—"Scary Dreams"

Sabbath stuck two new studio songs on _Reunion_ , but here's a third, cooked up as part of the sessions leading, with hope, to a reunion studio album featuring the classic lineup. I happened to catch a playing of this song live at Ozzfest 2001's Toronto stop. Unfortunately, it's no great shakes, being an underwritten, doomy blues, slow, repetitive, lengthy, something that would have been called filler on the debut from thirty years earlier. Live, it's got a whacked solo from Tony, though, plus there a brief wake -up riff that might have had headbangers scurrying back from hot dog break, only to be returned to the downer rock slumber invoked by much of the rest of this song's melancholy mantra.

9—Untitled

"Sometimes I'm happy, sometimes I'm sad..." So begins this untitled song Sabbath would collapse into live in the mid '70s, captured for all to hear buried within the lengthy medley from March '73 that closes the _Live at Last_ album. Versewise, it's a dated and unremarkable bluesy loper, like "Scary Dream," reminiscent of the "Warning" cover on the first album. However there's a majestic, clanging chord progression that gives way to a frenetic fast part, this bracing sequence of doom events efficiently moving the song away from mere blues jam.

10—"Rock 'n' Roll Doctor"

Sure, it's only a bootleg, but hearing Ian Gillan belt out this rare chestnut with the band in Stockholm, August 19, 1983, is a kick in the pants. Still, it makes perfect sense, because it's the song from the back catalogue lyrically closest to Ian's worldview, only if Gillan had his druthers, the doctor would be delivering whiskey and crossword puzzles instead of the colored pills usually on offer from these creepy backstage hangers-on.

11—"Take My Heart"

Another short-lived singer, the enigmatic and religious Jeff Fenholt does a passionate, stadium rock job on this (long at 7:09) early demo of what would become _Seventh Star_ power ballad "No Stranger to Love."

12—"Master of Insanity"

Muscular, swaggering, and accomplished 1986 version of the _Dehumanizer_ track by the aborted expensive hair band project known dimly as the Geezer Butler Band, featuring Carl Sentance on vocals. The band would also do Geezer's "Computer God," but this resembles the _Dehumanizer_ song pretty much in title only.

13—"Early One Morning"

Black Sabbath covering an up-tempo Elmore James blues track, November 16, 1969, in Dumfries, Scotland. Gives a glimpse into what an Earth gig (or period Quo rave) must have been like. Lots of rollicking blues soloing from Tony, which makes sense, given that Sabbath at this early stage were a dime-a-dozen baby band addition to the waning British blues boom.

14—"Song for Jim"

A third demo track, this time not provided by Jim Simpson, but backhandedly dedicated to him. Again, not very Sabbathy. A snippet can be heard on the video release _Black Sabbath Story—Volume 1_.

15—"All Your Love"

There's a bootleg recording of Mythology doing this John Mayall song live, as well as "Spoonful" (less impressive, perhaps, due to the song's pervasiveness). Mythology consisted of Tony Iommi and three non-Sabbath guys. Silloth, UK, July 13, 1968, a little more than a month before Polka Tulk and then Earth.

16—"Loser Gets It All"

Again, astonishingly, late-years Sabbath reserve pretty much the best song from the sessions to use as a Japanese bonus track. This one's an epic stormer left oriental-only for 1995's underwhelming _Forbidden_. Short at 2:57, but packed with action.

17—"Computer God"

Rob Halford's surprise set as vocalist for the band in Costa Mesa, California, in November '92 includes some clunker performances, the Metal God's witch cackle just not working hither and thither, some of these songs not calling for high shrieks, bum notes occasionally causing distraction. But it's most amusing to hear him tackle this Dehumanizer track and nail it with razor-sharp articulation. Part of our pleasure of course comes from hearing him work hard enough to help with a song he's not expected to know and that he's picked up mostly from memory. In other words, what a trooper.

18—"Bad Blood"

Another unreleased _Dehumanizer_ track (there's also a groover called "Caught in the Middle" and an instrumental called "Raising Hell"). Again, like "The Next Time," this one shakes it up but feels a little more stadium-bound, stacked up against the downwound tunes that made this frustratingly lethargic record.

19—"Heat in the Street"

A wicked, party rockin' Geezer Butler Band song from 1986, available in fairly decent live promo video format.

20—"Supernaut"

On the widely traded August 23, 1983, performance in Lund, Sweden, Gillan offers an, ahem, interesting interpretation of the vocal. That aside, again, it's cool to hear these odd chestnuts bashed out by the oddball lineup.

21—"Blue Suede Shoes"

Properly recorded on video for the Bremen, Germany, TV show _Beat Club_ , broadcast September 26, 1970. Other tracks performed are as follows: "Paranoid," "Iron Man," and "Black Sabbath." Available officially on the _Black Box_ box set.

22—"Straws"

This magnificent Bill Ward solo track was issued as a CD single in a limited, hand-numbered edition of 1200, signed by Bill, proceeds to charity. The song itself is a masterpiece of passionate, intelligent antiwar lyrics set to a musical bed of genius that one could only describe as Roger Waters solo blessed by the production wiles of Queen's best '70s work, say _Jazz_ or the debut. How Bill manages to create such a cathedral of crafted sound and searing emotion in a mere 3:08 is beyond the intellectual reach of this writer's headbanging head.

23—"Killing Yourself to Live"

Bootlegs exists of the song live in early road-test version, featuring different lyrics, but there's also the more widely available _Live at Last_ / _Past Lives_ version from March '73.

24—"Walpurgis"

An early version of "War Pigs" with totally different lyrics. One take on this is officially available on Ozzy's _The Ozzman Cometh_ hits pack, but situated up the "rarities" scale would be the demo version from the eight CDs gathered to create the expanded reissues (see chapter 35).

25—"Neon Knights"

Again, Ian Gillan howls, bays, and growls way more than usual on this Dio-era classic, circa February 25, 1984, in Dayton, Ohio. Somewhere Ronnie is wincing and then breaking out in a demonic chortle.

26—"Blow on a Jug"

Quiet, twenty-second-long jug band joke tune by Nitty Gritty Dirt Band tucked at the end of "The Writ" on some copies of _Sabotage_. That's Ozzy singing and Bill Ward singing and playing piano. The story goes that the guys were goofing around with this song remembering a festival gig they played in 1970, at which Mungo Jerry stole the show with his blowing-on-a-jug routine.

27—"Stonehenge"

This bit of spooky effects used on the _Born Again_ album exists in much longer demo form, at 5:18. The rest of the album has been leaked in demo form as well, but frankly, it's pretty darn similar to the album, even in the all-important production and mix department, despite Gillan's promises that way-better-sounding versions of the album exist somewhere, perhaps in his possession.

28—"No Way Out"

Momentary Black Sabbath member David Donato is known more for showing up in a big _Kerrang!_ feature on the band. Here he is histrionic and rawk goddish on a 1984 version of what would become "The Shining."

29—"The Shining"

And to somewhat complete the circuit, there's the 1986 version of this panoramic best cut from _The Eternal Idol_ featuring the legendary Ray Gillen, since-deceased vocalist best known for his two killer Badlands albums a few years hence.

30—"Letters from Earth"

This sludgy _Dehumanizer_ track is displayed with a less extreme recording and, most notably, with Ronnie trying a variety of thespian licks, tricks, and inflections not used on the final version. Plus the up-tempo musical section is different and more forgivingly melodic versus the Middle Eastern–y one offered on the album, extra lyrics and soloing from Tony thrown in as bonus.

31—"Cloak and Dagger"

This _Headless Cross_ outtake, available on a CD maxi-single, is a big, brooding, bluesy number with a slow stripper -pole metal backbeat pounded out unsympathetically by Cozy. Keyboard washes help sweeten it melodically, as does Tony Martin's quite soulful vocal.

32—"Some Kind of Woman"

This non-LP party rocker was offered up on a 12" version of "The Shining," and represents a side of the band that knocks the world off its axis, Tony butt-shaking like Steve Vai or Eddie Van Halen to Tony Martin's Diamond Dave, over a thumping rapid-fire shuffle that is all "Shy Boy" who is "Hot for Teacher."

33—"Paranoid"/"Heaven and Hell"

Queen's Brian May fires off some guitar solos during the encores of the band's two gigs at the Hammersmith Odeon, September 9 and 10, 1989. Tony Martin is in fine form, thanking the crowd "for their loyalty and support over the last twenty-one years," and then the band breaks into a groovy, booming version of "Heaven and Hell" with "Paranoid" inserted near the end.

34—"Tall Stories"

Bill visits _Metal Shop_ on October 10, 1986, does a bit of an interview, and then plays a weird post-metal original of his called "Tall Stories," loaded up with lots of electronics but propelled by a booming double bass pattern. Bill provides the ambitious lead vocal, and his band includes Jack Bruce and Vinnie Vincent, recently exiled from Kiss. The song would be vastly overhauled, slowed down, and highly polished for inclusion on his _Ward One: Along the Way_ solo album, issued January 1990.

35—Untitled

There's a jam on which Tony and love interest Lita Ford perform, at the Guitar Greats Festival, Capitol Theatre, Passaic, New Jersey, circa 1984. What's cool about this (other than the romance at 120 db), is that both of them turn in inspired performances, Lita a little more conventional L.A. shred, Tony also fast and musical, but still adding his almost abstract 6–11.5 percent blues to the thing. Final note: Fans call this a blues jam, but the melodic and rhythmic bed laid down behind Tony and Lita is more of a big, swinging metal thing.

36—"Changes"

There's a gorgeous live version of this featuring Tony Martin really selling the song, Iommi on electric piano, and presumably Geoff Nichols on supporting synth washes. The chemistry of the guys here subtly moves the song from novelty into the realm of full, valid piece of music, the wobble of early versions with Ozzy dispensed with, soul on display.

37—"Die Young"

Another one featuring Rob Halford on vocals in Costa Mesa. Not the greatest performance, but it lays clear a trend that Halford is more suited to Ronnie songs rather than Ozzy songs. This one's also interesting in that it's presented in truncated form, the guys wrapping it up in about two minutes, after which Geoff Nicholls lays a synth bed o'er which Tony does an extended axe solo.

38—"Paranoid"

Ozzy, Geezer, Tony, and, on drums, Phil Collins play "Paranoid" at a concert called Party at the Palace, which took place at Buckingham Palace, June 3, 2002, in celebration of the Queen's Golden Jubilee. Ozzy's vocal performance is solid as is Tony's solo, but the best part for us trivia-mad classic rock fanboys is seeing Phil play Sabbath, on Roger Taylor's kit, no less.

The cover design for _Paranoid_ was meant to coincide with the originally requested title for the album, namely _War Pigs_ , yet frankly, the strange image works just as well with the concept of paranoia.

39—"Heaven and Hell"

What I'm drawing attention to here is something that happens on the extended live version widely available on _Live Evil_. Yes, I know, nothing rare or obscure about _Live Evil_ , but buried deep within the (quite insufferable) heft of this playing, up into the closing guitar solo, is an ungodly chord sequence from Tony that always points me back to the actual song buried on _Live at Last_ (see #9). Sure, this black hole of sound isn't a song per se, but what an apocalyptic premise for a song, Tony unleashing the power of distortion at _Rust Never Sleeps_ levels and then killing us with a Luciferian mangling of music. And maybe, just maybe, this brief truncheon attack sits somewhere on one of Tony's tapes with some band behind or around it.

40—"Black Moon"

This _Headless Cross_ track was originally recorded during the sessions for _The Eternal Idol_ and issued as a B side during that time. Given the annoying sound of the _Headless Cross_ album, I find this raw and bassy and distorted take on what is actually a fairly decent song a mite more enjoyable than the one that is supposedly more realized.
7

Creepy Competition

Black Sabbath, Black Widow...What's the Difference?

Back in 1970, Black Sabbath did enough to garner attention as a satanic rock act. There was the witch on the first album cover and the inverted cross in the gatefold, not to mention the lyrics therein enclosed and no less than the name of the band. Protest as much as they like that it was more about being scary, spooky, like horror movies, but the devil is in the details.

Still, they got more piled on that they personally didn't have a crook'd hand in, and that came from the Sabs getting confused with a much more wicked act of the day, namely Black Widow, who, oddly, were also managed by Patrick Meehan. O'er stateside, and actually a year or so earlier, there was a band called Coven doing just as much dastardly as Black Widow (and, as you'll see shortly, more dastardly than anything Sabbath would do onstage). Essentially, both bands performed black masses live as part of their shows, but neither was a heavy rock band per se. But with the Manson murders and the release of _Rosemary's Baby_ thrown into the mix, a narrative was being formed from which Sabbath were implicated and then were beneficiaries, exactly the way the guys and the label would have wanted it.

In any event, as Black Widow's Clive Jones explains, Black Sabbath indeed weren't alone in playing up this devilish angle for what it was worth and worthy.

"Well, we started off as a soul band, and then the whole scene changed to psychedelic, so we went along that route," says Jones. "But we were just one of the bands, so we actually came up with the idea of doing black magic, but not just singing songs and every so often putting the word _hell_ or _devil_ in. We decided to take it a lot further than that, and met up with a guy named Alex Sanders, who was at the time the king of the witches, and his wife Maxine, and we learned as much as we could about it and then had a little story, and then based the whole first album _Sacrifice_ all around this black magic act. And of course the sacrifice that we used had to be naked, and of course in 1970 that was quite shocking, and we were sort of billed as, 'Don't let your kids see this act!' And they flocked in like mad, and we had lots of publicity. I mean yes, it just happened to be a publicity thing, but we were doing it correctly, and the important thing for Black Widow was that we were the first.

"It was quite a big time for horror movies," continues Jones, underscoring the influence schlock cinema would have had on the Sabbath youth—both the band and the fans, for that matter. "Sort of the black-and-white things with Vincent Price and things like that. In fact, Vincent Price gave me...because he was on CBS, whenever he released an album, he gave me an album, which I still use to this day, of him talking about black magic and the war, and how black magic was used for good causes, as well as worshiping the devil type stuff.

"Yes, it was a good time, because we were the first to do it. It did bounce back against us. I mean, Black Widow had the most bad luck that any band could ever have. First of all, the BBC wouldn't play our records, because preaching the occult to the kids is not a good thing. And 'Come to the Sabbat' would've gone to #1, but if you don't hear the song—that's the end of the story. And we were also going to tour the states, and then Charles Manson did the black magic murders over there, and they stopped us going to the states, and, as you know, we were sort of rivals—or in the press anyway—with Black Sabbath. And our management also took on Black Sabbath, which got very confusing. And when we couldn't go to the states, who did they send? Who didn't have anything to do with black magic! [laughs] So they actually went on our tour, with our road crew, would you believe! Which was a bit naughty, but fair enough. We always got on well enough with them."

Interesting historical point there. Even though Black Sabbath were notorious, figures Clive, they weren't notorious enough to get nixed from a visit stateside.

"And the other thing that happened to us," continues Jones, "we recorded a live album. I'm sure you know Deep Purple's 'Smoke on the Water' was about Montreux, Switzerland, burning down, and the smoke going over the lake, which inspired them to make 'Smoke on the Water.' Well, half of that smoke was our live album, because we played there before, and we had done the most fantastic show we'd ever done in the Black Widow career. So there it was, going up in smoke on the water. As I said, we had an awful lot of bad luck [laughs].

"Everyone got us mixed up," confirms Clive, on a phenomenon underscored all too ridiculously over here by a _Rolling Stone_ reviewer who couldn't even get the two lead singers straight, calling Sabbath's lead singer Kip Trevor. This did much to cement fans' low opinion of _Rolling Stone_ 's lack of hard rock know-how, a bitter divide between the mag and the headbanging masses that's lasted since the inception of the rag to this day. "Because Black Sabbath had the upside-down cross on their cover, and their music was in a slightly heavy and evil direction and sounded evil, and because we both have 'black' in the name, everyone got us mixed up. And when _Sacrifice_ was released, we were on CBS; it came out the same week as 'Bridge over Troubled Water' by Simon and Garfunkel, which was such a phenomenal seller that CBS didn't press anything else for week afterward. So our album went from #76 to #32, and I thought, 'It's going to be Top 30 next week, at least,' and the week after it was something like #77, because nobody could buy it. They were going into the shops and asking for the music by the black magic band, and people were giving them Black Sabbath. And I'm not saying that Black Sabbath wouldn't have sold—I'm sure it would [laughs]—but people were getting it mixed up.

"And the press was just unbelievable," says Clive. "Even at gigs, people were shouting out, 'Play "Paranoid!"' And actually, occasionally, for a laugh, we did. I have no recollection that Black Sabbath ever played 'Come to the Sabbat,' but they were asked for it in early days. You have to remember, nobody recognized Black Sabbath the way they do now, and the only time we played on the same bill, on the second day, was the New Festival in 1970; we were on different days, and we had driven up in a car, got out of the car, and there were these four guys meeting us. And we didn't realize they were Black Sabbath. We thought they had come to take our bags [laughs], 'Okay, see you guys, thank you very much.' 'No, no, we're Black Sabbath!' So we always have a laugh about that. But we didn't recognize them, because their pictures weren't so much in the paper back then. So that was a funny little story I've told. We thought they were people just hired to like open the door, you know what I mean? Let us into the festival. Because you always had guys telling you where to go and stuff like that."

As mentioned, less tied to this situation (but, as we'll learn, somewhat linked) is the story of a band called Coven, keepers of three albums, one of them called _Witchcraft Destroys Minds and Reaps Souls_ , which sounds amusingly like a warning, something akin to Geezer's "Christian" song "After Forever" or indeed the intended vibe of anything Geezer wrote that was supposedly satanic.

"Some people say doom, but it's hard, because the genres came after," explains an enigmatic Jinx Dawson, leader of Coven, when asked to articulate what Coven was doing musically. "An occult sound, maybe. But I don't like that word _psychedelic_ , because psychedelic, to me—I was there—was the Airplane with flowers and little kids running naked in the forest [laughs]. That isn't really what we were.

"I think it was a little more not known about," continues Jinx, on whether the climate seemed more open to the occult in 1970. "I think at that point it was more like curiosity. That's how we did manage to even get the first album made [laughs]. Because a lot of people were like, 'What the hell is that?' So it really wasn't out there. Arthur Brown was more like a show person, too, more like shock rock, but I think we were a little more on the serious side."

Jinx Dawson doesn't get the credit she deserves for bravely pioneering the idea of rock combined with Satanic content.

Whereas Black Sabbath's label practically drove the occult slant, through unilaterally coming up with the album cover and turning the cross upside down (ha!—as a Swedish band called Oz was wont to say a dozen years later), Coven's imprint took Jinx's self-driven idea in stride, understanding the marketing possibility, and, one would imagine, ignoring the downside in those permissible times.

"They thought it was something that was totally brand-new that they had never seen before. So they were really excited. Ampex put quite a bit of money into the situation. They thought it was just something really brand-new and I think what happened was, you know, when the Manson situation came out, and also being a female in a band...females weren't big back then—they really weren't. There was Janis Joplin, Grace Slick, a few others, and now females run the business. But I don't think they saw a female doing this role too much, which is ridiculous, because what are witches? They're females [laughs]. There's warlocks and there's witches. If you don't have a girl in there, what the hell do you have? But I think that's why we had a hard time. And I think they thought, 'Well, maybe men should be handling this'; it was pretty male-dominated back in the late '60s. But no, I think the label was pretty interested in the project, because they knew that it was a landmark situation, a scholarly work. It was kind of half in the rock genre, or whatever—it was something different. So they were pretty excited about it.

"We used to come out in coffins," explains Jinx, on how the band backed it up live. "Let's see, we did part of the mass on stage. It was very theatrical; I'd call it a rock opera, basically. And nobody was doing this. Nobody! Arthur Brown had some fire on his head, but...[laughs], that's about it, you know? So we did actual real ceremonies and included the music in that and it was just something that wasn't done. I came from an opera background and I also came from a family that was left-hand path, and that is for real, you know what I'm saying? That is not a made-up thing. They had a dias on the farm, they had a big mansion on the farm, and when I was a kid I grew up in all of that. And it was something they wanted to hide. I got in a lot of trouble with my family for even doing the first album and letting out secrets that nobody had known before, like the sign of the horns. I mean, you can tell, the inverted rosaries, nobody was doing that. I mean, find me one [laughs]. Find me somebody who was doing it before Coven. Nobody did the inverted rosaries. Nobody did a black mass. We were the first recorded black mass. Nobody did the sign of the horns. Again, it was just something that I felt I wanted to get out, even though I had grown up that way. But I had a lot of problems getting it out."

Ronnie James Dio is of course credited in metal circles with the sign of the horns, but its origins go way back..."That was done for years," offers Jinx. "When I was a little kid, growing up in this big mansion with my two great-aunts and my great-grandfather, they were members of secret societies. And they were members of the AOD, the H Order of the Druids, and they also had their own secret society, some of it touching on the sonic, but it was separate. And they would do the sign of the horns when people would come to the door who were part of the group. And I saw that as a child, and I started imitating it, and they were always slapping my hands: 'Don't be doing that.' So it's something that has been done for years as a sign of greeting. It's not a hex-removal thing. It's not the _mano cornuto_ —that is a thing that goes toward your eyes. The sign of the horns is a sign of greeting to people who are in your group. And that's where I first saw it. And I thought that would be a great thing to do in the band, and of course my family didn't like that. So I was kind of estranged from the family for about a decade until we did reunite finally.

"Obviously we lost Dio, so he went to the grave with that secret," says Jinx. "You know, I'm sorry, the _mano cornuto_ and the sign of the horns are not the same thing. Italians do have that little gold necklace that goes down with the hands, and they do a thing. Because I was married to an Italian, from Queens. With a very Italian mother and family. And they used to do a thing that was a similar hand sign, but they would point the fingers to your eyes, and it would be the _mano cornuto_ to ward off—like Ronnie used to say—to ward off evil. Well, the sign of the horns isn't what Ronnie really did, with the fingers up, and that is a greeting, of a secret society member. And I've tried to straighten this out on the Internet, and it's like, I'm giving up. Well, if you don't believe me, I don't know what to tell you."

This link to the sign of the horns is graphically documented. As Jinx says, with respect to the _Blood on the Snow_ album cover, "That's an old painting, that, if you notice, the demon that is playing the violin, he's doing the sign of the horns in that painting. While he's playing the violin.

"I would say that I started it the most, obviously, because I grew up in that," continues Jinx, on whether the rest of the guys in the band were as onboard as she was. "The other guys fell into it because they enjoyed it, and they enjoyed researching and they liked doing the rituals. I mean, we lived this, and we lived this every day; this wasn't just a stage act. There were a few times later down the line when we would lose people and have somebody step in, and they weren't into it as much and it kind of scared them, so they left. Like the guitar player came back and forth about three or four times."

Coven? Black Sabbath? Had the two ever crossed left-hand paths? "We did one gig that I remember, at the Whisky A Go Go in the '70s."

This is the same Black Sabbath that put a song called "Black Sabbath" on their album a year after Coven had a song on their album called _Black Sabbath_. "Well, of course [laughs]. That was the record company. If you look at the record company labels and the association there, they were on a label that was off of Mercury. Vertigo—that's a small label off of Mercury. And also if you notice the first single that they did, it was from Dunwich Publishing, which is our management office."

And that would be "Evil Woman," by Crow. "Right—it was Ugas Music, our same publisher, so that was a connection there. To me it's obvious. We also have down the line King Diamond, Mercyful Fate, who did admit they took something from us and were nice to us. And you have the Kiss story, where Kiss was a put-together band. We were the band that was supposed to do that deal; we didn't want to take that deal, we didn't want to put the makeup on and not get paid for seven years. I was very good friends with Neil Bogart. I just have this information on everybody and all these years they have not been saying anything, because we pretty much disappeared from Los Angeles. I was disgruntled with the music business. It was not what I wanted to do; I didn't want to do commercial work that didn't interest me, just for the dollar. Black Sabbath was connected with the record company. At the time of the Manson murders there was of course Sharon Tate and she was a lovely girl; they didn't want to see a girl in that kind of band, and I've even talked to the label people who worked with Mercury since then, and they kind of shoved it on Black Sabbath. As a matter of fact, they put an inverted cross on one of the album covers, which Black Sabbath didn't like. And the name, where they got the name Black Sabbath, I mean, you'll have to ask them. Martha Quinn tried to get something out of them on one of her interviews on television, and then she showed them the album, and they said, 'We've never seen the album.' And I've talked to the road manager, and they had the album back in the day. We had copies that were distributed all through Europe, and they had a different cover on a single, not on the album, but on the singles. And they just kind of shoved us under the carpet because they took a lot of their...I would call it shtick for them, not for us, but shtick for them.

"Out of all the groups Black Sabbath is probably the one who stayed away from us the most, and we weren't as good a friend as other bands. When we played with them, Ozzy was quite taken with the fact that we were introducing the original Ozzy Osbourne to the new Ozzy Osbourne, and it was real uncomfortable. [Yes, believe it or not, right there in 1969, Coven had a bassist named Oz Osbourne.] And when they played that show, they were pretty much a blues band. There was no magic or occult in that show."

But alas, Mercury tired of this black magic band called Coven band selling no albums. The pressure was on for results. "Oh, absolutely! Absolutely. I mean, they had a girl singer who could sing just about everything. I came from opera so I could sing that to pop to blues to country music, and of course they want to go the easy route, and so they thought, Well, pop music, this was too heavy for a chick to do. And plus that had not been around before. Now you have all sorts of stuff going on. But at that time it was more, Let's just make the bucks and this is just too controversial." The result was a single for the hit movie _Billy Jack_ , and after that, there was no turning back, try as Jinx might.

"I've got scrapbooks to show they pretty much dug us," sighs Jinx, asked about the fan response to the pure and sincere version of Coven. "We had big crowds and had big shows, and there was controversy, obviously, but usually the people liked us. Actually, they liked us less when I kind of recorded a film title song that became a hit, _Billy Jack_ , and they were like, 'What the hell is that?' Well, it's called trying to keep your band alive and under pressure from record companies, and just actually it was a session I did for a film that had managed to become a hit. Wasn't any kind of Coven project. But they see that and they go, 'Okay, let's take you down that road.' And I'm like, 'No, I don't really want to go there. That's not in my heart and it's not what I believe in,' and you know, it's not what I started to do. I started to do a scholarly work, and I believe the _Witchcraft_ album was a scholarly work, and it was something that had never been done before. And that's kind of how I wanted to go with things. I didn't want to do the light fluff. Even for the money. It didn't interest me. I came from money, so I wasn't interested."

Asked whether the occult trappings ultimately helped or hindered the band in a real sense, Jinx figures, "Well, when you are the first ones to try and cut a path, you usually don't...those people are usually not the ones who get the credit or who do as well. It's usually people who come behind the pack and just run through the path, you know what I'm saying? And I think being the first ones doing that, it was difficult. And I think other people picked up on it, and only because of the Internet now, a lot of people have discovered that a lot of these other people didn't really come up with all this. Actually, I came up with nothing. I grew up with all this. So I came up with nothing, really. It's just that I put it in a rock context, on an album, first to do all of that. So I can't take credit for anything. So they certainly shouldn't."

The Manson murders most definitely slowed the momentum Jinx had built up for the band.

"Well, we didn't break up until way after that, obviously, more like 1976," figures Dawson. "But I think at the time, it did stop me and the band from doing what we wanted to do. But then in turn, after that kind of settled, there were all these other bands that rose from the ashes. And so it ruined us, basically, I think. I think that it did. I do blame Manson for that. And what's interesting is that later I toured with the Beach Boys, and I got very close with them and I toured all through Europe, which sounds kind of odd, because it's definitely not the kind the music we do. But we had an association because of the Manson situation, if you can understand that. And they had a hard time too, so we kind of had an affinity there and we became really good friends."

Back to the metal...despite the recorded evidence demonstrating otherwise, Jinx says that she would have wanted Coven to be more of a hard rock act.

"The thing of it is, when we played live, we had Marshalls. And we were one of the loudest frickin' bands out there. I keep hearing this: 'Well, Coven is not that loud.' Okay, you've got a mix of an album—what are you going to do? But if you saw us live, I mean, it was so loud, I'm screaming the whole time. It's not like we were a folk group. I mean, it was loud. That's why we played with people like MC5. We were one of the loud groups. Coven was known as being a loud group in that area, Chicago and Detroit."

Just as Coven crashed due to too much psychological heaviness, so did Black Widow, leaving the mighty Black Sabbath among this strange trinity of bands plying the dark side. Was that the formula then? I mean, if you go to far, will you get ostracized? Seems so...

"We all had an interest in it, and the guitarist, Jim, did a lot of research on it," explains Clive Jones, who brings us back to Blighty and the intense form of hype that makes or breaks bands in Britain. "He wrote the main songs, apart from 'Come to the Sabbat,' the actual musical, and, like I say, we got everything right, and we were rehearsing for six months before we actually went on the road and did it. And yes, we were into it, but one thing that happened to us was—and I didn't mind this—was that the black magic act took over the band. Jim and Kip, the singer, felt that nobody was listening to the music. They were just talking about the black magic act. Now I didn't mind, but it caused a lot of problems in the band, and I think they thought that they were going to be wonderful musicians, you know what I mean? But people were coming to see the naked girl get sacrificed on stage. To me, that was what it was all about, putting bums on seats. But yes, I did believe a lot of black magic, and since then, I've come across various strange things that have happened to me personally. But I mean, we did have a lot of silly things in the press, like, double-decker buses were mounting the pavement and trying to knock us over, and a lot of silly nonsense from the press. But personally, yes, I do have quite a belief in the dark side, although I don't sit there and practice it."

And to be sure, the whole thing became more trouble than it was worth. "We played the Lyceum in London, which is a big venue," explains Clive, "That's where they put on the Miss World concerts. And it was run by a guy named Abe Mori, and we were going to play there, we did play there, and Abe Mori had heard about our reputation and said, 'Well, you can play there, but you mustn't do...the girl mustn't be naked.' So what happened was [laughs], quite mysteriously, the girl ended up naked on the stage, and all the bouncers rushed onto the stage to drag us off and cover the girl up, and the audience went mental. And people took photographs, and everyone was checked and had their cameras confiscated, apart from one person, who hid his camera somewhere, and it was in the _News of the World_ the next day, and Abe Mori was furious because the Lyceum was tied up with nice things, shall we say. And there we were, sacrificing a naked girl on stage, and the audience went mental when the bouncers went onto the stage to stop the show."

"When we used to do these gigs, we actually had priests turn up trying to stop the show, and holding crosses at the stage," says Clive in closing, recalling an experience that mirrors that of the Sabs on occasion. "Like I say, we were banned. So sure, we weren't allowed to tour the states because of the Manson murders, because they had the Manson murders and you're doing black magic, and Manson was into that, and it tied into black magic, and I would say, yes, that was trouble [laughs]."

When all is said and done, both Coven and Black Widow lasted three albums each while Black Sabbath soldiered on, becoming a rock institution. Sure, Sabbath did nothing as shocking in their show as these two dark arts artists did, and in fact, it was partly from being confused with Black Widow, who the Sabbath guys found hokey, that Sabbath fretted over things like the inverted cross and the poem inside the first album, making sure that, where they had control (on the road, in the press), they would do as much to distance themselves from black magic as possible.

But then again, Alice Cooper performed all sorts of shocking stunts and took it to the bank, so going there was not without its careerist merits. Like I say, Sabbath, riding up and down Britain in a van, seemed to be having none of it, especially once they felt they were more in control and could assert their views. Basically, you'd have to ascribe weight to the wisdoms of Jim Simpson and Norman Hood, both of whom called the satanic angle in Sabbath a joke at best, an opportunistic dabble at worst. One imagines that as the steamroller rolled on, the Sabs couldn't have cared less about the handful of connections they shared with Coven and Black Widow, both soon to fade, partly because, as Jinx articulates, both were simply too much for a sedate publics to handle. In fact, here up into old age, Tony, Geezer, Bill, and Oz would likely acknowledge this set of connections and coincidences with a half-interested raise of an eyebrow and then invite Jinx or Clive to the pub for a rollicking remembrance of the old days.
8

Wicked World: Geezer the Peacenik

Geezer Butler on War

Back when folks worried about the Cold War, not to mention the very hot Vietnam War, primary Sabbath lyricist Geezer Butler was worrying right along with them, because, God love 'im, Geezer worries about everything. And the immediate real worry came from English lads surveying the scene in America and feeling that any minute Britain would introduce conscription and send its youth straight to the middle of the conflict. As well, Geezer saw firsthand the effects the war had on American soldiers in Britain, soon on their way home. Still, hats off to the handlebar moustache for giving a damn, his concern being real, relentless, passionate, and positive beyond the scope of most metal lyrics...today's anyway. And for those who don't know, yes, Geezer wrote practically every lyric for the band on the first eight albums (the Ozzy years), until subsequent vocalists took over that task ad infinitum, beginning with _Heaven and Hell_ in 1980.

"In Birmingham, especially, we had a lot of bombings," explains Bill Ward, perhaps the most passionate "war conscience" of the band. "Because there were a lot of different factions there. Also, Birmingham has a huge Irish population. And in fact Geezer's family, and Geezer himself, is Irish."

"The Vietnam War had so much of an effect on everyone in the world," continues Bill, asked why so much war protest got into Geezer's lyrics, "that in England there were riots, just like there were in the states. There were marches; there were all kinds of things that were going on that you couldn't help but notice. You would have to be buried in the sand somewhere if you didn't notice. There was a tremendous upheaval about America being in yet another war, and at the time, the public was not supportive of that war, and the disgrace and shame that they brought to the vets, when the vets were coming home, was something that I'll live with forever, in the sense of regret. I thought that none of these guys asked to go. Most of these guys didn't want to go, and they come back and they get spit on and called names and really degraded, and I think that's an enormous shame for anyone who participated in that. And I still write about stuff like that in my music today. It's something that I won't...I've had a friend come by. You know, as we were speaking, literally, literally, my friend just showed up, and with him is a Special Forces Vietnam vet. Yeah, that's what it's like. I saw him yesterday; we sit down and talk, and yes, we have a Special Forces vet here with me as we speak. So that gives you some how idea of how current this is. But yeah, there was the war, which was very depressing for a lot of people. And in any war, things escalated, feelings are felt, even up to today in Iraq and Afghanistan. So yeah, I think they bring out the very best in people and the very worst in people, because these things are so extreme. It felt like a combination of the counterculture movement with a war that was incredibly, incredibly influential and painful to a lot of people, and just the awareness and the enlightenment that we were all getting from the Beatles, the Stones, from Jimi Hendrix, from so many pop bands at that time, who were just absolutely incredible. So we had never come so far in being outspoken and aware of life, on life's terms. I really believe that."

Geezer himself often talks about the fact that having been born in '49; he grew up surrounded by bombed-out buildings, Birmingham having been hit particularly hard in World War II. Geezer also felt strongly his status as a Roman Catholic Irish immigrant, growing up in a poor immigrant part of town with folks from India, Pakistan, Jamaica, and Africa. So yes, it all makes sense. And now, for all those who think Butler wrote nothing but paeans to the Prince of Darkness, here's a look at Geezer, the war protester, album by album...

Black Sabbath (1970)

Geezer steps away for the first time from the quite copious supply of scary, evil lyrics with "Wicked World," a song that oscillates between war imagery and the fate of folks just working and then dying when politicians figure it's time for battle.

Paranoid (1970)

Even if "War Pigs" is a commendable admonishment of warriors in power, there's a vibe or feeling that wafts from it that Geezer laments the scarring of the earth as much as he does the deaths of the pawns sent to slaughter by generals and politicians. This suspicion intensifies come "Electric Funeral," where much of the description of the aftermath of nuclear war focuses on the scorching of the earth, Geezer taking the time to cite sky, storm, houses, flowers, sun, moon, world, globe, earth, clouds, rain, heaven, and of course hell. "Planet Caravan" seems to hint at the fact that the earth is destroyed, mankind possibly forced into the same type of escape discussed in "Into the Void," even if the song is meant to operate on more of a romantic level. In "Iron Man," the central clanking character is bent on avenging a past battle. Finally, "Hand of Doom" specifically references Vietnam, Butler stating in interviews that it was written about soldiers returning from the 'Nam and going straight for the needle.

Master of Reality (1971)

"Children of the Grave" again is a classic rant against war, in this case nuclear war, with its ramifications for the state of nature—it's the classic ironic example of having to fight for peace, revolution. But it is "Into the Void" that is the album's pointed protest song, Geezer speaking of humankind escaping a irreversibly sin-scarred earth by way of rocket ship. More on the abstract, when Geezer now speaks of an evil force, the "Lord of This World" versus "The Wizard" of the past, one gets the sense that its malevolent spirit is manifest through war more than anything else Geezer is noticing as hell on earth.

Vol 4 (1972)

No direct references to war, just pure depression for wine 'n' downer rockers, although "Under the Sun" is partially antiviolence as well as antireligion, "Cornucopia" is anticonsumerism, and the theme of most of the album is escape from what the world has become.

Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (1973)

Geezer's most poetic and obscure lyrics to date again spiral into images of depression, but there seems to be a lot of "killing yourself to live," i.e., being sent to one's death by powers above. In addition, "Who Are You," "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath," and even "A National Acrobat" seem to rail and rebel against those who would hate.

Sabotage (1975)

"Hole in the Sky" is rife with war and violence imagery, as well as figurative environmental damage. Cut to "Symptom of the Universe" and there's a feeling of being shell-shocked, a yearning for peace through mystical escape, with "The Thrill of It All" addressing the same deep desire but through more conventional religious conduits.

Technical Ecstasy (1976)

"All Moving Parts (Stand Still)" revisits earlier themes concerning those in power sending their minions to die, but other than that, well, this album was Sabbath's attempt to try write about more regular rock 'n' roll subjects.

Never Say Die (1978)

The album's cover art depicts fighter pilots, and once inside, there's "Johnny Blade" razoring his enemies up- and downtown, Geezer knowing street gang culture all too well, owing to a youth of ethnic boundaries, not to mention English-on-Irish scuffles, more pointed given that Geezer claims to have come from a family connected to the IRA. "A Hard Road"'s young men dying, from the pen of Geezer, invariably means at war, and then "Over to You" is a chilling lyric that finds the narrator handing his life (and his children's) over to a merciless higher power, who more often than not extinguishes it, again through the hand of mad politicians. "Shock Wave" is the story of the flood of chemicals and emotions at the point of death, but the title and the opening verse can be read as this death coming through war, bombing, perhaps a nuclear bomb. Finally, the last track on the album, "Swinging the Chain," references Hitler, with the sum total sounding like an oblique picture of the aftermath of battle, along with lessons not learned from war.

Despite the rise (and fall?) of punk in the UK, Vertigo evidently thought there was still gas left in the tank for their favorite "dinosaur" band.
9

"The Opening Act on That Show Was Bruce Springsteen"

Bands Who Shared Bills with Sabbath Early On

A little light music for ya...Here are a few anecdotes and impressions from bands who rocked stages with the Sabs in those hazy formative years.

Carmine Appice, Cactus

"We did gigs with Black Sabbath when they first came over here. As a matter of fact, we did one gig where we almost got into a fistfight with them over a bag of pot. And the opening act on that show was Bruce Springsteen. How about that? That's pretty wild. Bruce Springsteen, Cactus, and Black Sabbath—how is that for a bill? You know, it got heavier as it went along. Bruce was rock, we were like heavier rock, and then Black Sabbath was the next in line. They were sort of like Blue Cheer, but their songs were better. But they weren't as aggressive. They weren't as raw. They were heavy, and I always thought Bill was an okay drummer. A lot of people maybe think I'm wrong, but I always came from a technical era, from a new technical era. There was new school and there was old school. And Bill, to me, was playing more old school. Even though he was in a new band that was a new kind of music, he personally was playing more kind of old school. For instance, old school is like, you do a fill and you play like 'boom boom boom' on the bass drum, with the bass drum hitting back. That was old school—the bass drum follows the fill. The new school was that the bass drum does combinations with the fill [sings it]. So because I was always technically minded, I was always following the new school, which came from jazz and funk, you know, James Brown players, Motown players. Where the old school came from, like, old Gene Krupa. That's how I contemplated it. Bill was a good drummer, but I don't think he was that loud of a player. I think he played with the traditional grip, if I can remember. And the traditional grip doesn't give you as much power as matched grip."

The gig Carmine is referring to here occurred one month into Sabbath's first tour of the U.S., November 27, 1970, at the Sunshine In (correct spelling), in Asbury Park, New Jersey, admission five dollars, two shows, one at 7:30 and another at 10:30. The bill was Sabbath, preceded by Cactus, preceded by Steel Mill, Springsteen's pre-solo band. The story about the punch-up has many sides, but essentially, a scuffle ensued over drugs wrapped up in a towel. One band accused the other of stealing it, and roadies plus Cactus singer Rusty Day (later murdered in a drug-related triple killing) got caught in a scuffle. We'll leave it at that, 'cos like I say, I've heard three sides to this story (see my other Sabbath book, _Doom Let Loose_ —they're all there) and they are all significantly different.

John Garner, Sir Lord Baltimore

"Here's a good one for you. I see that maybe you're a Sabbath guy, but I'm going to say something really negative about them and I hope you don't mind. We were on a tour with Black Sabbath. Now, we were friendly, Ozzy was a heck of a nice guy, Bill Ward was wonderful, the other two guys, kind of stuck-up, you know? But we had played the Virginia Dome, and I believe it holds approximately five-thousand-plus people. Now, our manager, for some reason, didn't give us our own PA, and in our contracts there was a rider stipulating that whoever was the promoter had to supply us with a PA. Big mistake—that's a big mistake. You always go with your own PA. You can't depend on people.

"Anyway, he had made a deal with Black Sabbath's manager, that we could use their PA at these gigs that we were on together. So we play the Virginia Dome, and of course we open up for them, because they were out, what, a year, half a year before us, and had some partial success already. And so we were opening up the show, everything's great, five thousand people are screaming, getting into it, loving us...boom. The lights go out. Power goes out, everything goes out. Okay, power comes back on. We start again. People are getting into it, really grooving to us, really loving us, everything is going great. Boom, lights, power, out again. That happened three times.

"Now, I'm nineteen, and I'm into love, peace, and happiness, man. I can't believe somebody could be so devious and deceptive to pull a plug on a group. Call me naïve, and I was, but I never thought in a million years that people could be so mean and do something so treacherous. And it never dawned on me, because I never thought in a negative way. I just thought it happened, what are you going to do, man? I had no idea someone was pulling the plug. But in retrospect, I'm thinking about it and looking at these guys, and you know, Black Sabbath, I don't want to take anything away from them, they sound really excellent. But quite honestly, their musical content in each song wasn't as jam-packed as a Sir Lord Baltimore song. I think they saw us as a threat and just pulled the plug on us. And I'd bet my new set of drums on it. And I never thought of it until later on, until I got a little bit more wise, less naïve, and I had seen the wiles of the world and how people screw each other to get ahead. So that's just a little footnote."

The show John Garner is describing was on March 8, 1971, venue correctly identified as the Dome in Virginia Beach, Virginia. An interesting side note is that Sir Lord Baltimore was the U.S. act most compared to Sabbath, but of an underground nature, i.e., less successful than, say, Mountain or Blue Öyster Cult.

John Baxter, Buffalo

"We used to do 'Paranoid'—did you know that? Yeah, we played 'Paranoid' at gigs. You've seen the albums, and as you can see we did a couple of other groups' songs. But we always tried to do them in our own fashion, not copy, but we do it our way. I actually think we did 'Paranoid' better than Black Sabbath. I've got some live recordings of it, still. One day, if I ever get around to it, I'll put it out there.

Highway were one of many bands that failed to capitalize on the exposure touring with Sabbath had afforded them, valiant as this inventive ad is.

"Anyway, yeah, I've rarely met any big bands from overseas. Even when we played with Black Sabbath at the Hordern Pavilion, just after _Dead Forever..._ came out, we never even got to speak to them. I didn't, anyway. I did one thing at that particular concert. Our changing rooms were sort of next to theirs, down the hallway, and I went down this hallway to their room. I don't know, I just peeked in and there was no one there, but Tony Iommi's guitar was sitting in its case on the table. And I said, 'Oh, I've got to have a look at this.' So I went up to look at it. Because he played an SG Gibson, the same as I did. So I went over and had a look at it and had a feel of the strings, which felt like rubber bands—that loose. He used a very light gauge in those days. And someone walked in; I don't even know who it was, and I sort of felt like I was trying to steal his guitar or something, so I just whistled and looked in the air and walked out. But that's the only contact we had. I don't even know if they watched us play. I don't think they arrived until long after we started."

The above story pertains to Sabbath's second trip to Australia, the band playing with Buffalo on January 16 and 17, 1973, in the middle of what was about a week's worth of gigs. This is a little more than three months after the release of _Vol 4_.

Dave Tice, Buffalo

"We weren't particularly aware that we were playing with Sabbath until we actually spoke to a guy named Derek, who was the A&R man at Phonogram, as it was called in those days. But I'm pretty sure that part of the reason, or a large part of the reason, that they were prepared to sign us is that they saw similarities between ourselves and Black Sabbath. There's a fair amount of heavy riffing going on. I don't think we were that close to Black Sabbath personally, but we weren't particularly aware of them. I know that John was listening to people like Quicksilver Messenger Service and the Grand Funk Railroad. And personally I was listening to probably more of the British bands that were around of the time, the Yardbirds, Jeff Beck. We weren't really aware of Black Sabbath until after we signed the contract with Phonogram, because they obviously said to us, 'We put you on this label because these guys are on that label and they're kind of similar to you.' But we were well and true down that road before we became aware of those guys.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe we were the only non-English band to have been released on Vertigo. Obviously, to tell you the truth, I was kind of surprised at the time that they were prepared to do that. I became aware quite quickly that Vertigo had a very defined direction that they wanted to go to. And it seemed to me like they were being very exclusive about what acts from what country they were prepared to have on the label. In fact, as I say, I think we were the only non-English band.

"So yes, about the time when the third album was about to be released, we did a couple of shows with Black Sabbath, big shows in Sydney, and in fact, if it had hadn't been for those shows, we probably wouldn't have done the last couple of albums. The band was about to call it quits. We had actually split up at that point, mainly because we were onto our third album at that stage, and everybody was chasing the commercial radio station airplay, and we weren't getting any of that. You get to a stage after a while where you really start to say, 'Well, we're flogging a dead horse here'; you get very frustrated with the whole thing.

"And I felt we were making pretty good music, and in fact, the audiences that we were getting were strengthening that thought. We were getting a good turnout. We just weren't getting any response from the commercial radio stations. They thought we were a bunch of larkins who really didn't deserve it. And plus, we didn't wear the right kind of gear. Our management wasn't particularly strong at the time either, so we went, 'Well, maybe we should try something else and do something else.' So we split up.

"And then Phonogram got us back together by saying, 'Look, you've got an album about to come out and Black Sabbath is going to tour, and maybe you can make a good double package with them, because you're on the same record label.' So we thought, 'Well, at least we'll do the shows.' In fact, I didn't even get to see Black Sabbath play, because we did our support slot, and I was actually already in another band at that time. And I would run from the gig that we just did, get in the car, rush up to the other gig, and play with the other band until three in the morning. So I never got to see them play."

"I don't know if that's such a terrible thing, in many ways. The interesting thing is that people were coming up to me, and I still have them come up to me even now and talk about how they saw us in their school days or whatever, back in the '70s. It's amazing to me, still, that people have such closely held memories about these particular times in their lives and the bands that they saw, that still loom so large in their lives. But I still have people come up to me and say, 'Man, I remember when you guys played with Black Sabbath, and you fucking blew them off the stage.' Now, obviously, these things are very subjective and I don't think for a minute we ever blew them off the stage, but it's interesting that people have that perception.

"Still, I think my experiences of those two nights were that we killed them. And that's really what decided that, for all of us, that we should reconsider our idea of splitting up and continue on. Because the response that we got was enormous. Usually, one of the support acts, that's when people are filing in and taking their seats—nobody takes notice. But that was anything but the case when we played with Black Sabbath. I knew we had a people going apeshit."

I've included all that because Buffalo are indeed an interesting side note or orbital to the Sabbath story. As I mentioned above, record collector guys and more serious hard rock aficionados are always looking for "other" Black Sabbaths in their lives, and if you take a hard look at it, Sabbath had no competition in terms of metal intensity, either from the bank of big bands or from the bank of baby bands. Sir Lord Baltimore's name usually surfaces, as do those of Bang, Captain Beyond, Budgie, BÖC, Atomic Rooster, and maybe even Stray. But Buffalo hold an interesting place in the discussion, given that yes, they were on Vertigo, albeit with Australian and European issue only, which is why few in America had ever heard of them. Additionally, over the course of five albums, they quite often rocked very hard, although again, not as often or deliberately doomy as the Sabs.

Corky Laing, Mountain

"I gotta tell ya, nobody would touch Black Sabbath—none of the promoters, none of the agents in America. They wouldn't go near it. It so happens that our manager was friendly with the agent that was trying to get Black Sabbath in America. Mountain took Black Sabbath on tour, and the first of the tours was in Texas. So you can imagine Black Sabbath in 1970 going into Texas....I mean it was ridiculous. Talk about getting dissed—they were dissing us for having them on the show, but at the same time they sort of started breaking through in the same way as Blue Cheer did. But Blue Cheer just didn't have any singing power. I mean, Ozzy was the lead singer and it was a bit more...I wouldn't say music, but it had a bit more concept to it. Blue Cheer was just sort of out there, you know, just blowing it out in the air.

"Black Sabbath, whether they liked it or not, had an association with some sort of cult. But what I'm getting at is that Black Sabbath were just fucking—excuse my Shakespeare—but fucking awful. We couldn't make any sense out of it, but Ozzy put the show over, you know, because of his insanity. So they came off as this insane cult band. And the volume was amazing, and they took a lot of that from us. I mean, we became very close friends to this day. I think you probably know that Ozzy redid 'Mississippi Queen' and Leslie and Ozzy are good friends, and we're all good friends because we helped launch that band. Here we took them into Texas, which is probably the Bible Belt, the foremost Bible Belt, and when you have that kind of criticism, it works for you. It was like it was so over-the-top that people in those days loved them just because everybody hated them, you know what I mean? They were developing a fan base based upon the fact that everybody else hated them. There was that love/hate thing—Black Sabbath were foremost in that.

"There's no question that Sabbath was the beginning of what I consider to be dedication—the dedicated fans. In other words, don't forget, the T-shirts were just coming out at that time. So it was what T-shirt you had; you wore your T-shirt—it was the beginning of that. In other words, yes, there was a niche fan base that came out of Black Sabbath because they were so committed. They had this one vibe—you were able to hook onto it, it was so strong. Whether you liked it or not, it was one thing but it was strong. It was gothic, the world is coming to an end, there's no purpose in life—that type of thing. Although they didn't really say that, that's the way they were interpreted. Yet they were very, very traditional guys. I mean, this is all an act. There was no...these guys didn't go home and...I mean if you go to Tony's house in England, he lives in a beautiful little town—he lives traditional English."

In actuality, this wasn't 1970, as both Corky and Leslie are inclined to say (they also talk about it being Sabbath's first tour of the states, but not so), but rather late March of '71, late in the cycle for _Paranoid_ , at the tail end of the band's second visit to America. Adds Barry Fey, legendary Denver promoter, "I started booking tours with Sabbath in '71, with Mountain. Not Ozzy, but Sabbath. I got most of the whole West, and Sabbath were selling at least half the tickets but were only getting $2,500 a night. I think it was March '71, and they were out in Denver; they asked to play Denver. I bought them all these beautiful thousand dollar watches, and Ozzy still has his. Because I just thought they were getting underpaid. So Denver was one of the cities, I think with Detroit and a couple of others. The fans...they were seeing what they thought of as crazy metal, with Ozzy providing the crazy."

Brad Delp, Boston

"It was odd to me at the time, but was actually really great. The first big show, like ten thousand seats, and I don't know why I remember this, but it was in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It was the first arena show opening for Black Sabbath, and that of course was when Ozzy was with them. And I just thought people weren't going to stand for us because Black Sabbath fans were so fanatical. But our record had just come out and you know, every cut seemed like it was being played on the radio. So it wound up actually being a great pairing. Because they were really nice to work with. Number one, at the time, they didn't do sound checks, and this was at a time when it was fairly common for the opening act to get slighted—you'd be lucky to get onstage five minutes before the show started. And we used to come in and they'd say, 'Oh yeah, go ahead, set up, do what you want.' So that was nice. And because the record was getting so much airplay...The other thing is that you usually go out and have no one know who you are. An example is when Farrenheit went out with us, who were very new at the time. Sometimes I used to feel bad for them at the shows because people were waiting for us—they knew our material. But I used to stand a lot from the side of the stage and say, 'What's wrong with you people; these guys are great!' But Sabbath were very good to us and we did a number of shows with Black Sabbath after that. But yeah, no sound check for Sabbath. Their crew would come up and do like a line check, make sure everything was working. Again, I don't know how many years they had been out at that time, but I'm sure they had it down. It was the first show out for us, but it was the middle of their tour, so I'm sure they might have done them initially, but maybe they had it down. But it was definitely a luxury for us to be able to set up."
10

Thrilling Billing

Black Sabbath's Tour Mates Through History

Sabbath have shared bills with myriad bands of myriad types over the years. Here's the story, summarized by era, of some of the bands that got big, bands nobody ever heard from again, legendary mismatches and classic festival packages.

Late '60s

At this point Sabbath wasn't Sabbath, but Polka Tulk Blues Band, Polka Tulk and Earth. Plus with no Black Sabbath to invent heavy metal, the boys had no choice but to play with blues bands, thematically, those from a†round Birmingham and under the wing of Sabbath's first manager Jim Simpson, a mover, shaker, and local expert when it came to both jazz and the blues. Ergo, at this time, the guys played with Bakerloo (or Bakerloo Blues Band), Locomotive, Tea & Symphony, plus headliners like John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, Ten Years After, Jethro Tull, and Jon Hiseman's Colosseum. You look at that bunch and yes, you can see that it was a time of impatience with the British blues boom, a time when blues was still at the root, but bands were doing more with it—in Sabbath's case, lots more.

_Black Sabbath_

The tour for the first album included one-off billings of all sizes, the band doing small clubs through to festivals. What is interesting is the spirit or vibe of the bands on offer, how they fit the hard rock or hard prog or hard blues creativity of a new flash label like Vertigo (Sabbath's label), and similar hip imprints of majors such as Harvest. In that light, the list includes Blodwyn Pig, Chicken Shack, Clark Hutchinson, Family, Golden Earring, Groundhogs, Gypsy, Hardin & York, Hard Meat, Jody Grind, Keef Hartley Band, Judas Jump, Juicy Lucy, Killing Floor, King Crimson, May Blitz, Medicine Head, Rare Bird, Rhinoceros, Savoy Brown, Steamhammer, Stray, Taste, Ten Wheel Drive, Uriah Heep, Van Der Graaf Generator, Writing on the Wall, and Yes. Even in Germany, the sort of "collectible hard rocking prog band on boutique label" vibe was maintained, through a Sabbath/Frumpy/Hairy Chapter billing. Continuing on with the theme of our first section, this was a whole raft of bands moving on from the restrictive blues boom into a new golden age of creativity in rock, and if any huge generalization can be suggested, you'd have it call what these bands were doing progressive rock of a heavy and driving nature.

_Paranoid_

Many one-off, jump-on/jump-off shows remain, but the Sabs also start seeing limited multiple dates with the same acts, mainly because U.S. touring begins for the first time. However, first it's a bunch of dates with early Vertigo act Manfred Mann Chapter II in Europe, underscoring yet again the hard prog theme afoot here. In the states, Sabbath backs up Alice Cooper, Canned Heat, Jethro Tull, Rod Stewart & the Faces, James Gang, and Savoy Brown. Just after the release of _Paranoid_ , the band is billed with haunting proggers Curved Air and the fairly heavy Freedom for a smattering of dates in the UK. Back in the States, the band is a regular opener for Fleetwood Mac (hard blues) and for Mountain (much harder blues), Mountain sometimes cited as America's first heavy metal band, an intensification of Cream. Interestingly, Sabbath also plays a handful of shows with Sir Lord Baltimore, who soon became a collectible (but frankly weak tea) facsimile of Sabbath.

_Master of Reality_

The _Master of Reality_ tour begins in the summer of '71 in America with a bewildering array of billings, Sabbath sharing the stage with Black Oak Arkansas, Alice Cooper, the Grease Band, the Guess Who, Humble Pie, King Crimson, Stoneground, Sweathog (quite a few dates—Sweathog was part of Frank Barsalona's Premier Talent Agency, which also included Sabbath), Three Dog Night, Edgar Winter's White Trash, and Yes. There are even two dates with Led Zeppelin, mid-September in upstate New York. Back in the UK in late '71 and into early '72, the band logs a pile of dates with killer, underrated hard prog band Wild Turkey, the first few with Nazareth on the bill as well. Wild Turkey accompanies the band on another U.S. leg in March of '72, this time with Yes headlining, illustrative of this opinion you hear out of old-timers that dance cards in the '70s could feature quite wildly different bands, the logical reason being that there were fewer bands out and around, so there was less of a need to segment bands and fans into the micro-genres and pointed profiles we see today.

_Vol 4_

Dates for _Vol 4_ begin with varied bills, featuring the likes of Argent, Bedlam, Blue Öyster Cult (Columbia Records' answer to Black Sabbath), Cactus (America's "Led Zeppelin"), Captain Beyond (see Sir Lord Baltimore above), Groundhogs, Mark Almond, and for a dozen or so shows at the end of the U.S. leg in September, fellow Patrick Meehan/Wilf Pine servants Gentle Giant. On the band's first Australian jaunt, they would play, congruously, with the legendary Buffalo, who were the only band signed to Vertigo outside of the UK, and wallopingly heavy to boot. New Zealand blues rockers Ticket were also a mainstay of this short visit. Back in Europe in early '73, and the Sabs are paired with Badger and Necromandus, a band of Sabbath-camp insiders being groomed as a baby Sabbath (sadly, no record ever emerged).

_Sabbath Bloody Sabbath_

The _Sabbath Bloody Sabbath_ tour kicks off in the UK and Europe with Highway supporting. U.S. dates commencing January 31, 1974, find Sabbath headlining with Bedlam as backup, Bedlam issuing one record that included future Sabbath drummer Cozy Powell in the band. In May and June of '74, Sabbath are back in the UK with southern boogie rockers Black Oak Arkansas supporting, heavier and wilder live than they were on record. A return trip to Australia finds none other than a young AC/DC as support act.

_Sabotage_

The _Sabotage_ tour kicks off in the States with bands jumping on and off as Sabbath support, scheduling permitting. Here we see Brownsville Station, Jo Jo Gunne, Peter Frampton, Kiss, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Mahogany Rush, Slade, Ruby Starr & Grey Ghost, Status Quo, and Leslie West Band all trying to work their way up the ladder. Back in the UK, support is Bandy Legs, who would become NWOBHM titans Quartz, produced by Tony Iommi, future keyboardist Geoff Nicholls as member. Europe features a couple of shows with ZZ Top, and then it's back to America, where future legends Kiss, Aerosmith, and Kansas throw in an appearance each.

_Technical Ecstasy_

October 1976 finds Sabbath out with Boston, the guys looking on forlornly as Tom Scholz and crew's debut album eventually blew up to such proportions, inverting the billing wouldn't have been illogical. Other lesser (and less frequent) guests on the _Technical Ecstasy_ tour include Canadian proto-metallers Moxy, Target, Mother's Finest (heavy southern rock act), Bob Seger (yet to break big), and Heart (ditto). Target stick around for more dates in early '77, but the most historically important guest is Ted Nugent, just about to break big with _Free for All_. Notably, Journey log a few U.S. dates as well, just before Sabbath return to the UK, Nutz (later Rage, again, hard blues rock) supporting. And finally, April '77 finds the band touring Europe with a pestering AC/DC heating up crowds perhaps a bit too dangerously close to crisp. Of note, a handful of German dates also find on the bill a humbled Ian Gillan fronting his ill-fitting jazz rock outfit the Ian Gillan Band.

_Never Say Die_

The big story of the _Never Say Die_ tour is the presence of a white-hot Van Halen backing up a waning, tired Sabbath all over Europe and America (on upward of seventy dates, by far the longest pairing of Sabbath's career thus far), this becoming over time one of the most famous, apocryphal stories in rock about a support act destroying the headliner (see chapter 13). Adding insult to injury, Sabbath are also included on a two-date package where previous support act Boston are indeed now the headliner. Other occasional backups include Lucifer's Friend, Head East, and the Ramones, the last indicating a shift in public consciousness toward punk, but a gradual one, with the Ramones often showing up on hard rock bills of the day.

A rare satin, or "sticky," pass from the '80s.

Ronnie James Dio Era Pt. 1: Heaven and Hell, Mob Rules

Usher in the Ronnie James Dio era, and the band pick Girlschool as backup for a four-night Hammersmith Odeon stand, and then female-fronted French act Shakin' Street, like the Sabs, managed by Sandy Pearlman, for the rest of the European tour. Over in America, we get the Black and Blue tour, the Sabs coheadlining with Blue Öyster Cult, also managed by Sandy Pearlman. The crews feud, the bands feud, Sandy in the middle of it, and to add more drama, Bill Ward takes a flyer and is quickly replaced by Vinny Appice (see chapter 15). Many of the shows with BÖC feature additional support acts, such as Saxon, Molly Hatchet, Sammy Hagar, Riot, more Shakin' Street, and more Girlschool. In Australia, support is AC/DC-derivative ruffians Rose Tattoo. Back to the UK to close things out, weirdly, you have underground NWOBHMers A II Z and Canadian pop/prog/metal genre-defiers (and close to this writer's favorite band of all-time) Max Webster. The massive U.S. tour for _Mob Rules_ includes as support, in large chunks and in chronological order, Alvin Lee Band, Doc Holliday, Wrabit, the Outlaws, then Doc Holliday again, and, finally, Johnny Van Zant. Why three of those bands are essentially southern rock acts, I have no idea. And how obscure Canadian AORists Wrabit got on the tour, well, I also have no idea about that.

Many thought Tony should have knocked it on the head at this point, given the band's revolving-door lineup changes.

_Born Again_

For the savage _Born Again_ album, Sabbath crowds get warmed up with some stronger stuff, namely Pretty Maids in Scandinavia, Diamond Head on the mainland, and a breaking Quiet Riot in America ( _Metal Health_ would go platinum six times, while _Born Again_ didn't even hit gold). As well, Nazareth support on some Canadian dates, and Night Ranger do a few U.S. dates later in the tour cycle.

_Seventh Star_

The band in shambles, Sabbath have more blood on their hands from support act W.A.S.P. Roughly half these dates feature Glenn Hughes at the mic, half Ray Gillen. Anthrax also do a few of these dates. O'er to Europe, and the support is the hyped Zeno, Euro-AORists led by Uli Jon Roth's younger brother Zeno Roth.

American biker rockers Circus of Power got considerable exposure in 1990, landing the sole support slot for the entirety of Black Sabbath's _Tyr_ tour.

Tony Martin Era Pt. 1: The Eternal Idol, Headless Cross, Tyr

Early in the tour for _The Eternal Idol_ , Sabbath are supported by American power metallers Virgin Steele, unknowns in their native America but somewhat in possession of a career in Europe, where they do these gigs. Motörhead and Cro-Mags also support the odd date. Moving forward, the _Headless Cross_ tour begins in America with Kingdom Come and Gene Simmons act Silent Rage supporting. In Europe it's German pure metallers Axxis, with a prolonged stay in the USSR featuring a return visit from Girlschool. Support for the _Tyr_ dates comes courtesy of biker rockers Circus of Power, all over the UK and Europe, close to fifty dates in all. There is no North American tour.

Ronnie James Dio Era Pt. 2: Dehumanizer

With Ronnie back in the band for a dirty, grungy "modern" record, the band pick as supports similarly current bands, namely Danzig, Prong, and Skew Siskin, with Testament and Exodus supplying some upstart thrash to keep things heavy start to finish. Like Priest picking superheavy Pantera and Annihilator for support on the _Painkiller_ tour, this is a case of old gods trying to stay in shape, stay on their toes, stay relevant.

Tony Martin Era Pt. 1: Cross Purposes, Forbidden

For the _Cross Purposes_ dates, the Sabs construct their heaviest bill yet, taking Motörhead and Morbid Angel out for a raft of North American dates, and then Godspeed and new doomsters Cathedral grinding it out over in Europe. Come _Forbidden_ , Motörhead follow up one Sabbath tour with another; this time Morbid Angel are switched out for doomy atmospheric metal buzz band Tiamat.

Neil Murray, Cozy Powell, and Tony Martin are featured prominently on this tour laminate, an amusing reproduction of the _Forbidden_ album sleeve.

_Reunion_

Sabbath's first tour with Ozzy back is as headliner at the second Ozzfest, in '97. The lineup consists of Sabbath as headliners, plus Ozzy Osbourne, Marilyn Manson, Pantera, Type O Negative, Fear Factory, Machine Head, and Powerman 5000 (and those are just the main-stage acts). The Birmingham shows that are recorded for the _Reunion_ album have Fear Factory as backup. Sabbath tour Europe in June of '98 with a whole host of backups (and this is because it's a mix of regular shows and festivals), including Dream Theater, Helloween, Soulfly, Coal Chamber, Neurosis, Pantera, Gamma Ray, Paradise Lost, Deftones, Savatage, and Stratovarius. In '98, Ozzy headlines Ozzfest with his own band, but Sabbath play the lone UK Ozzfest date, June 20, at Milton Keynes. Sabbath return for Ozzfest '99, playing the main stage with Rob Zombie, Deftones, Slayer, Primus, Godsmack, and System of a Down. There are also non-Ozzfest dates in support of _Reunion_ , featuring support acts such as Pantera, Deftones, Incubus, and Geezer's son's band, Apartment 26. Other non-Ozzfest dates have Drain STH and Godsmack supporting, and, less often, System of a Down and Breed 77. The guys come back to Ozzfest again in '01, playing with Marilyn Manson, Slipknot, Papa Roach, Linkin Park, Disturbed, Crazy Town, and Black Label Society. Again there is a Milton Keynes date, with a slightly varied lineup. Ozzfest 2004 finds Sabbath playing with Judas Priest, Slayer, Dimmu Borgir, Superjoint Ritual, and Black Label Society. Ozzfest '05 features Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Mudvayne, Shadows Fall, Black Label Society, In Flames, Velvet Revolver, Slipknot, and Trivium. Sabbath also do festival season in 2005 with a range of support acts, including Soulfly, Black Label Society, and Velvet Revolver.

Given the accurate qualification "The Final Shows ('til next year...)" on this show satin, Birmingham didn't turn out to be quite as historic an event as we all had thought at the time.

Geezer, ever the band's fashion plate, adjusts to the demands for a less metal look as the '70s give way to the '80s.

Photo by Rich Galbraith

The first of two Heaven & Hell shows attended by the author, this inaugural Toronto stop was an indoor show, allowing for a most favorable presentation of the band's thoughtful, expensive stage set.

Heaven & Hell "Band" Era

The Ronnie era returns, and Heaven & Hell hit it hard on all cylinders. The 2007 tour begins in Canada with Megadeth and Down supporting, and then into the states, with Megadeth and Machine Head. Over to Europe, and there's a surprise showing from underground stoner rockers Orange Goblin. Down support in Australia. Back into America, we get Queensryche and Alice Cooper, and then to close out the year in the UK, Iced Earth and Lamb of God. In 2008, the guys embark on the Metal Masters tour, as second billing to Judas Priest, with Motörhead and Testament supporting. The 2009 tour finds the band playing with Axel Rudi Pell in Germany, followed by a huge spate of festival gigs in the summer of '09, then back to the U.S., where Coheed and Cambria support on most dates.
11

"Our New Single...This Is Called 'Supertzar.' Everybody Sing Along!"

Songs Black Sabbath Have Never Played Live

...And there's usually a good reason for it, ranging from the song at hand being an instrumental, or having too much production on it. Conversely, some don't last long because Ozzy finds it hard to sing ("Megalomania" was doomed to a short shelf life for this reason), it's later deemed to be a bit of a dud ("Country Girl?"), someone in the band doesn't like it, or it's simply just too off-the-wall to be considered live material. In any event, here they are, the ones never played, sorted by album to give it some context, as well as a few notes on trivia points of interest. Some of these "notes" appear to list additional songs not played live. They are mentioned this way because of the relative inconclusiveness of the assertion.

_Black Sabbath_ —none

Note: A handful of _Paranoid_ numbers were already in the band's early set lists, as was the expected cover.

Some of the most interesting of the UK music newspaper ads got that way because they seemed a rushed, chaotic mess. I'd say this "mixed message" ad qualifies, especially given the strange addition of a spiderweb to the haphazard stack of images.

_Paranoid_ —Planet Caravan

Note: On the _Paranoid_ tour, the band had experimented with bits of "Into the Void" and "Children of the Grave."

_Master of Reality_ —"Solitude"

_Vol 4_ —"FX," "St. Vitus Dance"

Note: An early version of "Killing Yourself to Live" was played on the _Vol 4_ tour, with different lyrics.

_Sabbath Bloody Sabbath_ —"Who Are You," "Fluff"

Note: "Fluff" was used in outro tape version only. Of the many set lists I've seen, I've not seen proof that "Looking for Today" was ever played live either.

_Sabotage_ —"Am I Going Insane (Radio)," "Supertzar"

Note: An early version of "Rock 'n' Roll Doctor" (sometimes instrumental) was played on this tour. "Supertzar" has been used as a taped intro. I've not seen proof that "The Writ" was ever played live either.

_Technical Ecstasy_ —"She's Gone," "It's Alright"

Note: I've not seen proof that either "Back Street Kids" or "You Won't Change Me" was ever played live either.

_Never Say Die_ —"Air Dance," "Breakout"

Note: Whether "A Hard Road," "Over to You", or "Johnny Blade" was ever played live is inconclusive.

_Heaven and Hell_ —"Wishing Well," "Walk Away"

_Mob Rules_ —"E5150," "Over and Over"

Note: "E5150" has been used as a taped intro.

_Born Again_ —none

Note: "Smoke on the Water" was a mainstay of this tour.

_Seventh Star_ —"In Memory..."

_The Eternal Idol_ —"The Eternal Idol," "Hard Life to Love," "Scarlet Pimpernel," "Ancient Warrior," "Nightmare," "Lost Forever"

_Headless Cross_ —"The Gates of Hell," "Kill in the Spirit World," "Nightwing," "Black Moon," "Cloak and Dagger"

Note: "The Gates of Hell" has been used as a taped intro.

_Tyr_ —"Jerusalem," "Valhalla," "Heaven in Black"

_Dehumanizer_ —"Letters from Earth," "Sins of the Father," "Too Late," "Buried Alive"

_Cross Purposes_ —"Virtual Death," "Dying for Love," "Back to Eden," "Cardinal Sin," "Evil Eye," "What's the Use"

_Forbidden_ —"The Illusion of Power," "Shaking Off the Chains," "Guilty as Hell," "Sick and Tired," "Forbidden," "Loser Gets It All"

_Reunion_ —"Psycho Man," "Selling My Soul"

Note: A new song was played on select Ozzfest dates, called "Scary Dreams."

_The Dio Years_ —none

Note: All three new Heaven & Hell songs, "Ear in the Wall," "The Devil Cried" and "Shadow of the Wind" were played live.

_The Devil You Know_ —"Atom and Evil," "Double the Pain," "Rock and Roll Angel," "The Turn of the Screw," "Eating the Cannibals," "Neverwhere," "Breaking into Heaven"
12

"Oh No, You're NOT Buying That!"

The Story Behind the Sabbath Bloody Sabbath Cover Art

Released on December 1, 1973 (three weeks in advance of _The Exorcist_ ), Black Sabbath's fifth album, _Sabbath Bloody Sabbath_ , would heatedly raise the stakes for record jacket art, offering a grossly satanic visual far more shocking than anything out of the Alice Cooper camp. The Cooper reference is pointed, because the firm behind the cover's conception and execution would be Pacific Eye & Ear, whose main client would be Alice and his canny manager, Shep Gordon, who, all told, would work with America's answer to Hipgnosis on nine memorable designs over the years.

"They had me come to a house in Bel Air that they had rented," begins Ernie Cefalu, creative director at the agency, and originator of the idea that his illustrator Drew Struzan would execute so brilliantly. "It was this big mansion, not the kind of thing that you expect when you go to see Ozzy or Geezer or those guys—you pull up to the gate with like a five-minute drive to the house. They were big Alice Cooper fans, and they loved the work I was doing for them, and we were doing a lot at that point. They were rehearsing, and they had leased the house, because it had a huge ballroom, that they soundproofed. It was like a formal ballroom that you see in, like, _Gone with the Wind_ , with all the dancing and shit, and they had set up their whole stage setup, their show, inside the ballroom. So this guy answers the door, and then he's walking me through this house, and you hear all this kind of piping kind of Muzak, elevator stuff, and I'm like, 'What the fuck is going on here, man? I've got to be at the wrong address' [laughs]. So we get to the door of this ballroom, and it was like opening this can, and the sound rushed over me. Had the whole stage setup, the smoke machine, the lights and everything, just like the real thing. So I sat there for a whole concert by myself, which was really cool [laughs]. And that was the first time I met them. I talked to Ozzy and Geezer; those were the two guys that were sort of taking control of it, and the manager was there, and they were just talking about what they were trying to convey with this _Sabbath Bloody Sabbath_ concept.

Although you're seeing this ad rendered in black and white, the original features the word bloody in garish fire-engine red, adding heft to the already horrific scene depicted.

"And on the way back from that meeting, I was thinking the whole time that they were telling me this thing...when I was a kid and I went through my first confirmation—I'm Catholic—I was actually given by my aunt these two lithograph prints, possibly from the turn of the century; it was a good man and an evil man, both at the split second of their death. They were beautiful. I still have them somewhere, but it was that whole Currier & Ives sort of style. They're not woodcuts, but like etchings, from stone. And when I got home that night, I went looking for them and found them, and then, what I usually do, as the creative director, I was the one meeting with the client and coming up with rough ideas, and then I would sit down with the team I had in the office. At that time it was Drew Struzan, Bill Garland, and Carl Ramsey, and I would do all the initial thinking and then take it in, and we would have a brainstorming session.

"So I brought in these prints, and Drew really gravitated toward them. He really loved the whole idea, and thought that whole concept of good and evil, both at the split second of a man's death, was really sort of right on for what we were talking about doing here. So he took those etchings, studied them for a while, and started doing these drawings. And on the front cover, he's the one that is in the bed. That's Drew. And there are some demonic figures on the front cover; the girl on the right is my wife, Bonnie, and the girl on the left is a girl named Ingrid Haenke, who did the final art on the _Toys in the Attic_ illustration. She was a girl who worked with us; she lived with us because she was a friend, and she worked downstairs. She had her own little business going downstairs in the office. Because we bought a fourplex, and we had put Pacific Eye & Ear in the bottom unit, and we lived in the top unit and rented the other ones out. So she sort of moved in with us. She was married one time to a guy named Ed Silvers, who was the president of Warner Bros. Music, so we became really good friends. So when they split up, she came and lived with us for a couple years, and we helped her get going as an illustrator."

Charming yuletide greetings such as this lent a folksy vibe to the British music newspapers of the mid-'70s.

"First of all, I don't have much of a memory," laughs concept-enabler Drew Struzan, retired and now one of the most collected artists in the world, due to his über-fame as a movie poster artist, creating iconic images for such hits as _Star Wars_ , _Back to the Future_ , and _Raiders of the Lost Ark_. "I've been working so hard all my life. I just go from job to job. But that was back in the early '70s. You know, just out of school, hungry, couldn't get work, so I took a job at Pacific Eye & Ear, doing covers. But I was a hired hand. I was staff illustrator, so I sat there and painted, and everybody else got to meet the band and do the work and had the fun and I just did the job [laughs]. The company's long gone; they lasted about two years after I left. So anyway, as I recall, the direction I got was the band wanted on the front cover a picture of a man dying. So the idea developed, whether it was my feelings or the studio's or whatever, we decided to have a bad man dying on the front cover, and a good man, the same good man, the same man, if he were good, on the back cover. And so they're lying in bed dying. So the front cover is all kinds of scary stuff, from rats in his bed to demons haunting him to 666 over his head, and he's scared to death. He doesn't want to go. And it's red and frightening colors. The back is just the opposite—it's green and blue and peaceful, and the same friends that are around him aren't demons; they're loving and gentle friends, and all the things on the back are symbols of good things. So you see the loving man in the headboard, and you see the lion representing justice, and what else is there? I think there was an eagle, and that's wisdom. And so it's all good things and bad things. And of course they fell in love with it, and it's become a classic, and some of the band members still write me now and again. So as I recall, if it's not their most favorite, it's certainly a very special cover for them."

Continues Ernie, "We had very little input from...actually no input from the label. It all came from Ozzy and Geezer telling me about the music, and telling me what they were trying to do."

Which is interesting in itself, given Sabbath's penchant for conflicted lyrics along religious themes, given Geezer's strict Catholic upbringing, so much to the point where Geezer considered becoming a priest. In essence, the theme of the cover art is fully explored on "After Forever" from _Master of Reality_ two years previous. Less directly, Geezer—ever the worrier—has explored these themes numerous times in abstract and poetic ways, much of _Sabbath Bloody Sabbath_ as well as _Vol 4_ feeling like a coursing narrative supported by this cover art.

"They were really trying to convey the dark side and the light side of life," agrees Ernie. "That whole Black Sabbath aura and image...you weren't sure; it was kind of like Alice—you weren't sure if they were stable or not. Everything they were saying about life, how they were seeing it, the temptations of life...it was easy to fall into the temptations, because they were all right there in front of them, laid out for them to choose and pick as they wanted. It's almost like the seven deadly sins. They sort of feasted on everything they wanted to, and they talked about that, as well as the exposure they had starting out, where they were just some friends who started playing music, and then it became an iconic band, that sort of stood for that dark side. Like I say, you weren't really sure; it danced between the bad and the good part, just like Alice. They wanted to talk to that, the temptations that life had, and how easy it is to fall into that because it's so comfortable and so easy, and such a nice buzz.

"But at the end of the day, there comes a time when you have to pay," continues Ernie. "You pay the piper, and whether you call it death or you call it crossing over or moving on, there comes a time where you have to stand and be accountable for what you've done with your life. I'm just paraphrasing, because I don't remember the exact words. To be quite honest, I was pretty blown away. I just sat through an entire performance where I was the only one in the audience [laughs]. And up until that time I wasn't a huge Black Sabbath fan. I went to college in Oakland, where the kids I went to school with...it was a very small art school; they all lived in communes in Haight-Ashbury. You're talking 1963, '64, so it was right at the prime of all that, and so I had come from a totally different place, and into music like Buffalo Springfield, the Grateful Dead, and Jefferson Airplane. And Black Sabbath I never paid much attention to, because I was more into Crosby, Stills and Nash and the Beatles and stuff like that. So after doing that cover and meeting them, I definitely became a big Black Sabbath fan, and having my own private concert was definitely a turning point in my life."

At that "private concert," Cefalu was treated to the some of the first performances of the _Sabbath Bloody Sabbath_ songs. The album had already been recorded, and what the guys were doing was preparing for the tour, a tour that would culminate in one of the all-time peak Sabbath points, their appearance, alongside Deep Purple, at California Jam on April 6, 1974.

" _Sabbath Bloody Sabbath_ was what they wanted to call it," continues Cefalu, "and that's when I asked, 'What do you mean by _Sabbath Bloody Sabbath_? What does that mean?' And they said, 'It's the day you pay your dues; it's the day you stand on that line, man, and you have to be accountable for what you've done with your life.'

The band's "heaviest" album cover in fact wrapped itself around a set of songs that was seen at the time as a bit too proggy and acoustic-based.

I asked Ernie whether he and Geezer bonded over their common Catholicism

"No, I bonded more with Ozzy. You know, Ozzy was pretty cool. Geezer was real quiet. He was friendly, cordial, but Ozzy and I, we hit it off right away. Ozzy was very much into God and believing in that, and doubting some things. But it's funny you should say that, because Geezer did make some comments almost from the Catholic standpoint, versus what Ozzy was saying about death and standing on that line and living the right life and doing the right thing. So Ozzy was a bit more to the other side of that. But you need to have those kinds of different personalities, I think, to create something like they created, which is greatness. It's those different standpoints and opinions that make a much bigger thing."

Cefalu confirms something I'd been hearing elsewhere, that really, the cover did not cause as much hysteria and adverse reaction as one might have expected looking back. The overt satanism, 666, strangulation by snake, exposed breasts...in some ways, perhaps it was a more permissive time, a lingering carryover of the hippie era and freer exploration of alternate mystical realities. Plus, nothing could hold a Wiccan candle to the horrors of Vietnam and the Nixon administration.

This alternate cover, used in the Far East, one presumes was commissioned due to the official cover's graphic Satanic nature.

"No, it wasn't a problem. I think people dug the cover because it was a beautiful illustration. You know, forget about what the image was. It was just an amazing illustration that Drew did. He actually did two, and it took him about a week to do each one. And that's all rendered in colored pencil, which he was really, really good at. I don't know if you've ever tried to do anything with colored pencil, but it's an almost impossible medium to work with. And that paraffin base...you start putting color on top of color and it starts pulling it off from the board, and then the board becomes...you can't work back into the board; the surface of that illustration board becomes unworkable, with the paraffin. You can't make a lot of mistakes. It's a very tricky media to work in, and Andrew was just amazing at it."

Asked the same question as to the riot the cover might have—or should have—caused, Struzan queries, "Oh, you mean if people were like...ugh!? I wondered, maybe, in the back of my mind, when I did it. But there was none. Absolutely none that I recall. In fact it was extremely well received. I think because we balanced the bad with the good. See, here's two possibilities, make a choice. And I think people understood that. Maybe, I mean, that's my point of view, but no, I never had any bad reviews. In fact, quite the opposite. It became immediately a favorite and enjoyable to people. But I didn't know the music, I didn't know the band, I was just doing my job. I didn't do anything that I thought was offensive. I thought it was a very, very powerful and good idea, and something wise for them to address. It became, 'Okay, the good and the bad—you see what you get' [laughs]."

The illustration presented differs somewhat from the finished product Warner went with. "I'd done some really beautiful lettering that they ended up not using," notes Ernie. "The way the cover was supposed to be...it had a white background with the beautiful lettering that I had done for their name, Black Sabbath, and then _Sabbath Bloody Sabbath_ smaller underneath. And at the last minute I guess, they wanted _Sabbath Bloody Sabbath_ to be the big title, and Black Sabbath to be smaller. So they took that lettering, and they put this funky ass lettering in there, that was just really...it had nothing to do with the feel of the rest of the album. It was like, if I bolted a bumper from a Buick onto your body, it would be pretty obvious it didn't belong there. And the cover came out with a black background, and it had that red type. But if you look at the illustration, you'll see two partial circles on either side of the skull at the top, and what those two circles were was the lettering that I did, that went up into a fuller circle with my lettering, and they just sort of cut it off and left those two lines in there. They didn't realize that when they were changing the logo, that the lettering I had done had gone down into the illustration. They just cut it off straight, even though it had gone into the skull.

"It looked really cool, but then I guess they felt there should be more emphasis on _Sabbath Bloody Sabbath_ instead of the name, so it sort of switched in importance. But you can see those two lines are there, and it just goes up into black. So yeah, so it's just a little stupid thing. And then that, you know, we never really did anything more for them after that, but I never stopped liking the band and liking the music. They were really great musicians, and Oz, he really played the part, you know? Especially these days."

There's an amusing optical illusion to the back cover that I instantly felt and could never shake out of my head, once I locked onto it as a kid back in '74. Picture the blue rectangle at the bottom as a guy's buttocks in a pair of blue jeans, from behind, looking away from the camera (additionally, you can consider the lions' paws as back pockets). Then look at the lighter blue line above that as a belt line. Finally, picture all of the orange bedspread as the back of a guy's shirt, arms extended in Jesus Christ pose, with collar and neckline up around the gent lying in the bed.

"That's what's interesting about art," chuckles Struzan. "Everybody sees things in it and it's different [laughs]. And I'm always glad to hear that. It's something I never thought of."

"Yeah, I see that!" laughs Ernie, lightbulb going off. "That's so crazy. Wow, that's pretty funny! I never really saw that until you pointed that out. That's so weird. But yes, so there...the girl on the left on the back, that's Ingrid, and the guy is Drew, and the guy lying in the bed is Drew, and the girl on the very left on the side is Bonnie, and then on the right side, she's the first one looking at Drew, who is lying on the bed. And actually Bill Garland, who is another illustrator who used to work with us, that's him kneeling there, and then Ingrid is the one standing on the far right. And like I say, she's the one who did the Aerosmith _Toys in the Attic_ cover. She's a really great illustrator herself, and does a lot of children's book stuff. Really beautiful work."

As Bill explains it, the back cover of _Sabbath Bloody Sabbath_ depicts a "good death," as opposed to the front cover's not-so-happy demise.

The lions in the foreground represent "courage and strength," notes Cefalu. "And then the eagle in the back is wisdom, and then the overarching spirit is the God figure, or whatever you want to call him. The rams are courage, just like the lions. It's all positive. And of course on the front, you see the pillow turning into a snake, and the rats, and it's all satanic, and that's the whole dark side of it. And in those original illustrations from the turn of the century, they weren't quite as human as Drew depicted them. They were really more demonic."

"I do recall it was extremely simple," recalls Drew, as to the execution of the piece. "I had a whiteboard, thirty by forty inches, and all that is, believe it or not, is color pencil [laughs]. I don't know why I decided to do it that way, but I did. I worked in many mediums. But that was very simple, just colored pencil. The difference is, when they printed it, some fool decided to print it on a black background. But it was originally drawn on a white background. And if you see it on white, it's a much more powerful image."

Did any alternate ideas come to mind?

"No, it was straight up. And the same with Alice (Drew is also responsible for the front cover of Cooper's _Welcome to My Nightmare_ , and parts of his _Greatest Hits_ cover). There wasn't much time doing comprehensives or anything. It was just directly to the painting. We got models for all of them. If you look closely, all the male models, including the two guys dying, they're actually me posing [laughs]. And one of the women was Ernie's wife, and one was a friend of the studio's. Things were done simply, and I still have done them that way. You don't have to have a huge fancy photo session with photographers and lights and big studio backdrops, I think we shot it in the boss's bedroom, in his bed, and his wife and me and a friend were there, and we just, 'Okay, do like this,' and I take a picture. And I'd do like that, and they would take a picture, and then I would just go to the studio and paint them. It's just translation after all, somewhere to start, and then I just translated it."

"I thought that was the best album cover we ever had," says Bill Ward, who we'll give the final word. "I love the album cover. I love the front, I love the back, and I don't know which I love more. It depends what day it is. But I actually don't recall at all going through the artwork or talking with anyone or doing that. I'm afraid I've got a lot of blackout time. In terms of reaction, I think we had good and bad, obviously, but I think it was the first of a kind, really. It was kind of closer to what we see more often these days in terms of hard-core music, the art that is represented there—I think that was before its time. I think it was just absolutely right on, and I think Sabbath was very fortunate to have that artwork on our album."

Much like the Soviet-era sleeves found on Led Zeppelin's albums, this rendition for _Sabbath Bloody Sabbath_ features seemingly hasty, ill-advised alterations for no apparent reason.

_Sabbath Bloody Sabbath_ would turn out to be Sabbath's fifth platinum album in a row. Poetically, the luridly beautiful cover art, with its yin and yang duality, would augment and underscore the band's triumphant execution of the expressed desire to present, musically, light and shade, acoustic and electric, joy along with expected doom. As regards the original cover art, Cefalu owns both paintings, and, in conjunction with Struzan and his other illustrators of the day, is building a business to sell both originals and prints of the more than two hundred pieces Pacific Eye & Ear produced during their short run after Ernie broke off from his originating East Coast firm. However, with Struzan's movie-related pieces commanding hundreds of thousands of dollars at market, acquiring the crowning visual piece of the _Sabbath Bloody Sabbath_ legacy will not come cheap: Cefalu estimates that each of these drawings will pull in an estimated $100,000 to $150,000 once they are formally put up for bid.
13

Runnin' with the Devil

Black Sabbath's Controversial 1978 Tour with Van Halen

When hoary ol' headbangers talk about Black Sabbath's touring history, the inevitable question comes up: "Did Van Halen blow Black Sabbath off the stage on the _Never Say Die_ tour?" That is frankly unanswerable for many logical reasons, although the general consensus is that Van Halen impressed people more often than not, and Sabbath sometimes looked tired. Heck, you can get into all sorts of mind games, such as how can all four guys in one band be upstaged by all four guys in the other band, all at once? It's like a hockey team sayin' "We stunk and they played great. That's why we lost." Really? What are the odds that all of you had a bad game and all of them had a good game? At the same time? Shift to shift? Astronomically low. I mean, Van Halen were by nature/in general/usually more animated than the Sabbath guys, although Ozzy could compete. So...did Michael upstage Ozzy? Did Alex upstage Geezer? Every night? Every song? And by the way, what songs are being compared to each other and why are we doing this?!

And then there's the case of Sabbath being the headliner, meaning that the fans were there for Sabbath, those were the songs they knew etc., the concept here being that even if Van Halen were amazing, sparkling, long talked about deep into the night on walks away from the hockey barn at hand, one would conjecture that most fans got more out of the Sabbath experience, in sum total, than out of that of Van Halen, simply because that was the material they came to hear. Van Halen had their selections and Sabbath had theirs, many of them monster hits that could always get a roar of approval. In other words, each set is a significantly different experience, and the two should be compared to each other less than they are.

Lastly, I've always thought this idea of blowing someone off the stage, logically, had a subconscious whiff of the ridiculous: How can you blow someone off the stage when they aren't on the stage but still backstage or at the hotel? More pointedly, while and after seeing the first band, you still have nothing to compare it to. Now the headliner's got to go on, and you've already been there for an hour, so what are you bringing to the experience? One answer is fatigue and impatience. As well, extrapolating it to multiple concerts, how fresh is your experience of the backup band and how many times have you already seen the headliner and witnessed all their moves? How much harder is it for you to become impressed when it's your fourth or fifth time seeing this band?

In other words, it's silly and who cares. Yes, there's a story line, to be sure, in our case study, Black Sabbath touring on the track record of two less-than-acclaimed albums and Van Halen eagerly ripping it up on the strength of a white-hot debut. In essence, this is the tale of contrasts I wish to examine.

Black Sabbath's "ten-year anniversary" _Never Say Die_ tour kicked off on May 16, 1978, in Sheffield, UK, but in typical hapless Sabbath fashion, there was no record yet, the album not being issued until September 28 of that year. The guys notched their first _Top of the Pops_ performance (mimed) on May 25, presenting the strangely punky yet melodic title track to the forthcoming album. Van Halen, also a Warner Bros. act, would be support for the band, as it turns out, more consistently and for more dates than any other band for the Sabs in their entire touring history. The first leg was an intensive UK swing, with Van Halen dropping off for the last handful of dates, late June, replaced by Tanz Der Youth, and, at the Birmingham Odeon, the Damned!

O'er to the U.S., where approximately thirty dates would be logged, all of them with Van Halen. As mentioned, September 28, the album was issued in the U.S., with a mere three dates remaining, two in Seattle and one in Spokane, Washington, followed by the UK release date for the album three days later. So as you can see, the boys were already at a disadvantage, essentially touring for no reason, with their last album having limped out of the gate on September 25, 1976, almost two years earlier to the day.

Black Sabbath face further hardship on their fateful pairing with Van Halen, playing Diamond Dave and company's hometown.

The set list reflected this anticlimactic conundrum. All the hits were there, along with _Technical Ecstasy_ titles like "Dirty Women," "Rock 'n' Roll Doctor" and "Gypsy." From the new—or next—album, there was the accessible title track, some level of recognition reinforced by the _Top of the Pops_ performance, and then only once or twice, "Shock Waves" and "Swinging the Chain," both bruising, grinding numbers among this writer's favorites from _Never Say Die_ , but possibly not the best proposals to be unleashed on a crowd who'd never heard of them.

Conversely, Van Halen's scorching self-titled debut was issued to much fanfare on February 10, three incubating months before the start of the tour. The band had roots back to 1972, had played a thousand shows, and had already had their first taste of big stages through a tear-it-up backup slot to Journey earlier in the year. The album quickly garnered airplay, DJs with big Geezer and Tony mustaches going crazy for songs like "Jamie's Crying," "Runnin' with the Devil," "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love," and the band's molten cover of the Kinks' "You Really Got Me," usually including free of charge Eddie Van Halen's groundbreaking guitar solo showcase, "Eruption," which had essentially established Sir Edward as the first bona fide guitar hero since Hendrix fully a rock 'n' roll generation ago. A typical set list for Van Halen on this tour comprised, unsurprisingly, most of the first album, however also more solos than one might expect, as well as, daringly, a couple originals in "D.O.A." and "Bottoms Up!" that wouldn't surface until Van Halen— _II_.

Underscoring the frenzy around this band, _Van Halen_ was certified gold on May 24, barely a week into the tour, and then platinum on October 10, a week after Sabbath's album saw the light of day and right after the break between the end of the U.S. leg and the start of the German dates. By contrast, _Never Say Die_ took nearly twenty years to go gold and has never been certified platinum.

So yeah, meanwhile, Sabbath were drinking too much, both burnt-out and frostbitten from the experience of recording _Never Say Die_ in Toronto in the winter, already during that fraught time (with no material) the band being on the verge of Ozzy leaving or being kicked out or a drunken combination of the two. The record wound up costing half a million bucks to make and Ozzy soon after started slagging it as "horseshit." His descent into booze and drugs after his sacking in '79 would rival Bill's barely a year later, Bill falling hard off the tour for the band's first post-Ozzy album, _Heaven and Hell_.

And that was the backdrop for the '78 tour, as the old hags and the platinum blonde upstarts finished with the U.S. before decamping for more of the same through Germany in October, just after the album's release, plus one London date (the two were joined by Lucifer's Friend), and then back to the states for more grinding punishment. The second U.S. leg comprised another intensive thirty-odd dates, winding up in mid-December '78. The second of two Tingley Coliseum shows in Albuquerque, New Mexico, turned out to be Ozzy's last appearance with the band up until Live Aid in '85, with Ozzy officially banished by May '79.

So how bad was it? Most reports of this legendary tour pairing suggest the standard story line is overblown. In fact more fans seem to vehemently disagree, citing the leaden, doomful, godliness of Sabbath against the tacky party rock of Van Halen, in general terms, Van Halen being seen more favorably in America, Sabbath more so in Europe. Still, the guys were quite painfully aware that they weren't at their peak, and there are anecdotes about the crowd letting them know it, namely by chanting "Van Halen" clear through to the start of Black Sabbath's set. Nonetheless, Sabbath were legends, and they came with an eight-record catalogue revered by this point, and the crowds reacted accordingly. Van Halen were (in the press, anyway) respectful and complimentary of Sabbath and their charms over a crowd. In turn, Ozzy, ever the one to speak honestly, was wont to remark that Van Halen were so good, they should be the headliners.

And as discussed, Van Halen were far from unknowns—and this is rare for a band on their first record—with many fans well aware that they should get there early so they could witness America's new guitar god in the making, the suddenly turned-on crowd getting David Lee Roth as a chewy bonus, not to mention a drummer pounding away atop four bass drums. Additionally, Alex had a bit where he'd light his drums on fire. Conversely, Bill had begun the habit of huffing oxygen just to keep up with Sabbath's much less demanding collection of dirges. So yes, Van Halen were incredibly animated and athletic and yes, Eddie didn't disappoint, his two-handed tapping technique being the highlight of his pyrotechnic display. Sabbath attempted to make up for the showiness of Van Halen with volume, many fans pointing out that Sabbath on this tour was one of the loudest shows they'd ever attended.

"It was an interesting pairing to say the very least," recalls Ben Upham, the photographer who took the shots for this chapter, at the band's last show of the first U.S. leg—coincidentally, the day _Never Say Die_ hit the shelves stateside. "One band was just breaking big and the other apparently ready to end. I was working at Eucalyptus Records at the time, and there was a buzz going on about who was going to be the better band at this show. The Van Halen album was blowing out the door at an amazing pace and getting lots of radio attention with 'Jamie's Crying' and 'Runnin' with the Devil.' The show was a real volume fest, with both bands trying their best to be louder than the other. I was very impressed with Van Halen's energetic and fresh sound. Eddie was making his guitar scream like a horse enduring a cattle prod! Michael Anthony and Alex Van Halen were a solid backbone full of intensity and bombastic volume. I enjoyed David Lee Roth's singing but wasn't impressed with his gyrating pelvis so close to me. I was a little put off by David Lee Roth's ego, but Eddie was searing! The band did at least one, if not two, encores. After their set the whole place was abuzz and ready for Sabbath to come out and finish the job!

A UK-generated ad for the explosive first Van Halen album. This juggernaut of a band was not content with conquering America alone, unlike a number of hard rock bands before them.

"The lights went down and the roar went up as the sounds of 'Supertzar' blasted throughout the coliseum. By the way, I have a copy of the Sabbath set list that a friend had jotted down, so my memory was made more accurate by that. So yeah, the band came out rocking and we got blitzed by 'Symptom of the Universe' and 'Snowblind' to massive applause. Ozzy grinned and flashed the peace sign, uttering something like, 'Do any of you remember a song called "War Pigs?"' I remember seeing some big grins around me as the air raid sirens sounded and the classic tune was unveiled full throttle.

"At this point it really appeared that Sabbath were in fine form and ready to kick some serious ass. Time for the title cut from _Never Say Die_ , and it was spot-on to the studio version, a little on the polished side, not as gritty, but not bad. I knew the album well, by the way, because we typically got promos to play a couple of weeks before street date. At this point the headliners took over and bombarded the crowd with the best three songs of the night: 'Black Sabbath,' 'Shock Wave,' and 'Dirty Women.' 'Black Sabbath,' with its drama and heavy riffing, came off really good and I noticed that odd skunky smell emitting from all around me—must've been some 'Sweet Leaf'(s) burning. 'Shock Wave' was the heaviest song off of the new album, and it was the one point in the show where the band really proved that they still had their crap together and weren't just washed-up old geezers. As 'Shock Wave' ended, you didn't have time to catch your breath before the band erupted into 'Dirty Women.' This was the highlight of the evening for me personally as they played a hyped-up, smoking version that kept building in power. Tony was flashing his evil grin as he was shooting rapid-fire notes out onto our heads. This masterpiece was followed by a short drum break, which led into a medley of 'Rock 'n' Roll Doctor' and 'Electric Funeral,' interspersed with Iommi's guitargasm. The band didn't leave the stage until they played 'Iron Man' and then walked off and waved goodbye.

"At this point it got a little strange. I blame it on the Spokane audience being 'drained' at this point, because they really didn't do much to attempt to bring the band back out. As I recall, the houselights came on surprisingly quick and the evening was over—no encore for Sabbath!

B markets such as Spokane, Washington, were often crucial to the touring success of hard rock bands in the '70s. It's a wide generality, but the feeling was that the major media centers on either coast didn't understand metal as much as "middle America" did.

Photo by Ben Upham

"In the weeks following the show, I spoke with many record store customers who had attended the show, and it was odd how evenly split it was between people who were certain that Van Halen had kicked Sabbath's ass to the ground and others who said the opposite and that Sabbath had dominated the evening and that Van Halen had a lot to learn. My own feelings were that it was a good pairing. Van Halen did kick some serious ass and really heated the place up for Sabbath. Sabbath played hard and heavy and appeared to be having lots of fun. Their sound was thick and very over-the-top, loud and fuzzed, as you would come to expect at a Sabbath show. I do feel that something caused them to end their show so abruptly and not be invited for an encore. Maybe they could feel the crowd losing it after 'Dirty Women' clobbered them upside the head! If I had to rate their performances that night, I'd give 'em both a nine."

Industry veteran (and music encyclopedia!) David Tedds chimes in with his own memories...."September 14, 1978, at Cobo Hall in Detroit. I love early Van Halen, but Sabbath are like a well that I go back to time and time again to drink from. I'd already seen Van Halen by this point, when they opened the Ronnie Montrose/Journey show at Masonic Auditorium earlier in the year. I'd seen every Sabbath tour from _Paranoid_ onward.

"There's a myth that Sabbath audiences only wanted to hear opening acts that they could relate to while they were starting to feel the effects of the downers they'd just taken—not so. I saw acts as diverse as Yes, Edgar Winter, Gentle Giant, Spooky Tooth, Leslie West, and Black Oak Arkansas open for Sabbath, and they all went down a storm. Basic rule of thumb in Detroit—if you were really good and could get the crowd off, then you were okay with us.

"Van Halen came out at Cobo Hall like four Muppets who'd just been shot up with massive amounts of steroids. Then again, coke will do that to you. Say what you want about this form of music versus that, but it all comes down to one thing: A great song is a great song, and VH had an entire set of them. Sure, you may prefer heavier, doomier stuff (like me), but if that same doomy, stoner band hasn't got any memorable tunes, then they don't rate. Apart from a short drum solo from Alex, and 'Eruption,' the whole VH set was short, compact songs with hooks that could land a shark. Add in a front man that knew how to work an audience and a virtuoso guitarist who was doing stuff that no one had seen at that point and you've got one hell of a lethal combination. Cobo Hall, including yours truly, went batshit!

"Now, like I said earlier, I'd already seen Sabbath numerous times at this point. After about ten, fifteen minutes, it was clear that something had changed for the worse in the band. Quite simply put, they were going through the motions. The jams and solos had always been long and lumbering, but on that night they were long, lumbering, aimless, and devoid of spirit. The crowd got amped up when they did the usual staples like 'War Pigs,' 'Iron Man,' and 'Children of the Grave,' but otherwise just sat there and watched the band because they'd paid their hard-earned $8.50 to do so and were gonna get their money's worth. To be honest (and semi-sacrilegious), it was almost a relief when Sabbath finished their set. Besides, I had an airplane to catch and still had a good buzz from the hash oil I'd smoked as I headed off over the Atlantic.

"Two years later and Ronnie Dio pumps life back into the Great Beast. Was it merely through that amazing voice of his? No—it was also because _Heaven and Hell_ featured the best songs they'd written in years, such as 'Neon Knights,' 'Children of the Sea,' 'Heaven and Hell,' and 'Die Young.' Van Halen (and David Lee Roth solo) eventually ran out of compositional gas (due to transitioning from 'musicians who dabbled in drugs' to 'drug addicts who dabbled in music,' just like the original Sabbath had done) and we got 'treated' to such fine performances as their versions of 'Dancing in the Streets' and 'Where Have All the Good Times Gone,' along with 'classic' originals like 'Secrets' and 'Little Guitars,' after we'd got tanked up initially on high-octane material like 'Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love' and 'Runnin' with the Devil.' The moral of the story? It's all about the songs."

Back to our analysis, over the course of the _Never Say Die_ tour, Ozzy and David Lee Roth actually became fast friends, bonding over white powder, Ozzy even inviting Dave home one night to Birmingham to meet the family. In fact, a coke binge with Diamond Dave had caused a cancellation for Sabbath in Nashville on November 16, with only Van Halen playing that night. Incredibly, Roth was asked to sing the show in place of Ozzy, who had summarily disappeared, but Roth said no, 'cos he didn't know the words. Ozzy, as it turned out, had arrived at the hotel, fished a key out of his pocket, made note of the room number on it, stumbled up to that room, kicked out the hotel maid who happened to be there, and passed out, missing his call. Turns out it was a key from the previous night's stay, different town, different hotel. Meanwhile, back at the Municipal Auditorium, a minor riot ensued, but the long and short of it is, Van Halen got to play a solo show to a sold-out hockey barn.

Whether they upstaged Black Sabbath or not, Van Halen definitely won crowds over with their fun personalities and effortless sense of showmanship.

Photo by Ben Upham

Nonetheless, it wasn't all fun and games. There was an uncomfortable undercurrent of competition between these two diametrically opposed solitudes, Tony telling me that Van Halen, essentially, would adopt characteristics from Sabbath's show as the dates piled up, incorporating them into their set, things like the long guitar solo (indeed we got solos from Alex and Michael Anthony as well, Michael with Eddie on "You Really Got Me," and Eddie soloing repeatedly on his own as segue between songs), bigger drum risers, excessive talk out of Dave, and even the adoption of Ozzy's peace signs. At one point, Geezer intimated that Tony had it in mind to thump Eddie for ripping off his show, but reason prevailed and Eddie toned it down, although this was emphatically not the case with David Lee Roth.

A couple of curious closing notes: If anybody has seemed to fuel this story, or reinforce its contours over the years, it's actually been Geezer, Tony, Bill, and Ozzy themselves. To their credit, they've been unfailingly candid about the situation. And of course, given their soapbox as stars, their views carry weight and distance. Straightforward Birmingham lads that they are, they just seem to be telling it like it is. On the obverse, a guy who you might think would crow about it, namely David, or Ed...they've always downplayed any sense of victory people would ascribe to Van Halen on this front. As Tony indicated to me, Eddie made it known that the Van Halen guys were big fans. In fact, the band was once called Rat Salad, and the boys were known to cover "War Pigs"...with Eddie on vocals! But suffice to say, Van Halen became headliners directly after this tour and never looked back. Also instructively, it's been said that they never brought on a backup act that had any hopes of upstaging Van Halen.

Sandy Pearlman, who within a matter of months became Black Sabbath's manager, understands what Sabbath was going through all too well.

"The only time the Blue Öyster Cult really got deep-sixed by anybody was having to follow Van Halen at the Superdome, and my opinion is, in the early '80s, nobody could follow Van Halen—it was just impossible. And you know, Tony never talked to me about it, but the guys he had been with forever said there was a deep reservoir of resentment over how well Van Halen had done. And also, I think, as was the case when Blue Öyster Cult opened for them in 1972, because I was there for all those Cult gigs. From what I hear, Van Halen, BÖC...it wasn't just that these bands went on to become extremely successful, but it's that the bands played so well that Sabbath did not follow them very well. I mean, it's hard to believe, really, but I know. I was at the Cult shows and I saw what happened. And what I heard about Van Halen was just like Blue Öyster Cult. You just can't follow them. Then, not now, as much as I admire Eddie—he is the Paganini of the guitar, which I mean as a huge compliment."

In the end, whether or not a headlining Black Sabbath were embarrassed on a regular basis, night after night, by their firecracker backup act, one could plausibly put forth that watching the wrecking crew that was Van Halen kill it live, town to town, had consequences so grave that it in fact the pairing single-handedly destroyed Sabbath. The result, as discussed, is right there for all to see: Ozzy was gone out of the band, and it was never going to be a given that Black Sabbath would return as a band, let alone excel as they did through the Ronnie James Dio era.
14

Black Sabbath's Knob Jobs

The Sabbath Albums Ranked by Sound Quality

When it comes to production and production credits, Black Sabbath hoes a weird path, eschewing serial changing from one big name to another, sticking with a few semi-name guys, really only Martin Birch sticking out as a marquee knob-twiddler. Fortunately, the records have turned out pretty good, unlike, say, the Zeppelin catalogue—yeesh. Here's a ranking of what's gone down tape- an' mixwise for the guys, along with a few subjective descriptors as to why each record has been ranked by me thusly.

1—Technical Ecstasy (1976)

The Sabs manage to retain that drill-bit guitar sound stumbled upon circa _Sabotage_ , but shift ever so slightly and nicely into modern times for everything else. Never before had the band executed a troop surge like the opening onslaught of "Back Street Kids." Nothing ever matches that one for the rest of the record, but the sounds are generally dialed in logically and richly. Recorded in Miami and Toronto, production credit going to the band alone, engineering by Robin Black.

2—Sabotage (1975)

Perfectly solid frequencies all around, with a slightly manic, uneasy, claustrophobic quality. It's like there's a thin layer or level of gauze on the thing, but not the usual low-tech gauze that chokes treble. The rhythm section sounds desperate and carnal, while Tony's axe tones, man...listen to the opening riff of "Symptom of the Universe"—that's metal. Produced by Mike Butcher and the band, under white knuckle–tense conditions at Morgan in London—too close to distraction for comfort. Ozzy has groused that this was the record, despite the band wanting to pare down to its rock roots, where Iommi became obsessed with production technique.

3—Master of Reality (1971)

Massive, blobulous, melting on the turntable and frying speaker cones, _Master of Reality_ features one of the most all-encompassing guitar sounds ever committed to the tape asylum, partially accomplished by Tony downtuning three semitones, with Geezer detuning as well. It's no surprise that everything else sort of cowers compared to Iommi's heat blast, but the listener is so stunned by the guitarist's domination of the sound picture, he just has no will to complain.

4—Mob Rules (1981)

Martin Birch takes a slightly more distended batch of songs and applies a bassier, more powerful, warmer sound, one that can be experienced as tiring, again, commercial, but to these ears, plusher and more inviting than the hard countertop that is _Heaven and Hell_.

5—Heaven and Hell (1980)

Deep Purple mainstay Martin Birch enters the picture and delivers the band a sterling, steely modern sound all round, changing the band as many steps leeward as did Dio. Credit where credit is due: No record before ever sounded like this, and what "this" is is mercilessly electric, but also weirdly compressed and midrangey and some new, foreign definition of commercial. Which is why I threw a couple other Sabs records just above. I'm conflicted. Birch also produced Whitesnake's _Ready an' Willing_ and Blue Öyster Cult's _Cultosaurus Erectus_ the same year.

6—Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (1973)

A bit of a ragged mess, this one, but charmingly fallible to the point of just charming. The sound of fraught creativity, like a Queen banquet, y'know, as if there is only so much razor-edged genius one can put on a record, that production is going to have to take a backseat. Officially self-produced with Patrick Meehan, (with Mike Butcher engineering) but it was actually Tom Allom who did much of the heavy lifting.

7—The Devil You Know (2009)

Okay, okay, I've skipped the three new tracks on _The Dio Years_ (they sound much like this album), skipped the archival live album and the 2007 and 2010 live albums. Too much stuff all at once just feels somewhat unofficial and compilation-like, plus there's not much to talk about productionwise there (and actually, I've covered it off fairly well in chapter 25). What really matters is that the guys surprised us with a full-blown studio album, and that the sound is one half _Dehumanizer_ , one half correcting for all that album's faults. The result, made in Wales on the cheap by the band with Mike Exeter mixing, is a quite extreme and eccentric, highly interesting sound palette that is rich with hurtful bass and mids, somewhat lacking in high end, and yet somehow that doesn't feel important. In other words, no great flaws, and a bit of a brave, oddball vibe as a bonus.

8—The Eternal Idol (1987)

Quite the debacle, with even more personnel problems than its predecessor, less money on the table and more expensive recording digs in exotic Montserrat, _The Eternal Idol_ limped to a complicated close, produced capably but with no great resonance with Sabbath history or distinction above other records of the day. Produced like a dog's breakfast by Jeff Glixman, Vic Coppersmith-Heaven, and Chris Tsangarides.

9—Live Evil (1982)

Crazy tales exist of band members sneaking into the studio to turn their specific contributions up in the mix, with additional blame put on engineer Lee De Carlo, resulting in the implosion of the lineup, in fact a rending right down the middle. Still, _Live Evil_ makes a mighty noise, due to Tony seemingly winning the day, guitars right up front, an expression of heaviness in sync with the arena aesthetic of the band at the time. It's tough getting a live album sounding good, but this one works at least adequately, as does Ozzy's weird concurrent album of Sabbath covers _Speak of the Devil_.

10—Seventh Star (1986)

Expensive, overshadowed by personnel shuffles, bad vibes, creative droughts, and cocaine, the recording of _Seventh Star_ nonetheless produced a fine-sounding album, if a bit corporate and slick. The drum sound is epic and so are Tony's guitars, and there's a nice atmosphere and separation between instruments. Still, the jarring presence of Glenn Hughes on vocals and the radio-friendly writing only heightened sentiments that the knob job was too friendly as well. Incongruous to the Sabbath story, _Seventh Star_ was produced by name producer Jeff Glixman in Atlanta.

11—Reunion (1999)

Big and bumpy enough, the Thom Panunzio–produced and Bob Marlette–mixed recording job on the live material is gritty and powerful, as expected, but perhaps a little too late-years Ozzy Osbourne in spirit, namely in that there's a slight processed feel to the drums. As well, Ozzy's vocals are a little high in the mix, notwithstanding the fact that he's singing great. As for the studio tracks, I don't know if this was the plan, but the same positives and negatives embedded in the live production and mix job are carried over: slightly synthetic, too-modern drum sound, Oz a little too upfront, and everything else pretty good.

12—Headless Cross (1989)

Might have ranked higher if, both sonically and compositionally, _Headless Cross_ didn't sound like a weak tea version of its robust predecessor, _The Eternal Idol_. Produced in England by Tony and Cozy Powell, Cozy plainly making sure his drums were heard.

13—Vol 4 (1972)

Cold like _Paranoid_ , but not as dank, _Vol 4_ 's production has also, like _Paranoid_ 's, left me weirdly despondent upon each visit. The guitars charge like _Master of Reality_ , but there's a cold upper-mid sizzle that distracts and fatigues. Interesting, not unpalatable, but not what I would call preferred. Still, quite impressive for 1972. Credit goes to manager Patrick Meehan and the band: _Vol 4_ was recorded well off the expected and comfy home grid, at the Record Plant in L.A., white powder everywhere.

14—Never Say Die (1978)

Frankly, this is pretty bad for 1978 and after seven records' experience. The operative vibe here is trashy, cymbal-bashed, loose, and punked-up. Now, when you apply that to some of these sweeter songs like "A Hard Road," "Over to You," and the hummable title track, arguably, dirty is a good choice. Plus, cunning black dog of the catalogue "Swinging the Chain" is a loveable mess this messed up. The band hated making this record, freezing cold in Toronto and self-producing.

15—Born Again (1983)

Of course, this is the one that causes the most stir from a production standpoint. Tony and Ian were reported to have been horrified with the harsh, coagulated, smothering final mix for _Born Again_ , much of the blame apparently foisted upon Geezer, who was accused of turning the bass up uncommonly loud. But it's also the abrasive blocky drum sound that chafes, plus an irritating midrange grind out of Tony. It's extreme to be sure, but _Born Again_ is a well-regarded Sabbath album, especially among extreme metal fans who are used to nutty, unyielding productions on most of the albums they consume. Recorded at the Manor amid much frivolity and practical joking, none apparently aware of the wrong turns to be taken on the final curve.

16—Cross Purposes (1994)

Recorded by the band and Leif Mases on home turf Wales, _Cross Purposes_ doesn't sound particularly good or bad, even if the songs are well below par. Beats _Forbidden_ 'cos there's more treble, but both have wimpy drums.

_Vol 4_ is considered by many fans to be the cold fish, somewhat the _Led Zeppelin III_ of the Black Sabbath catalogue.

17—Tyr (1990)

Continuity with Tony and Cozy once again producing, but this time the drums overwhelm in the mix and the whole thing sounds stiff, corporate, and kind of ear-yank fatiguing. Of course it doesn't help that Cozy is such a heavy-handed drummer, or that the material drags.

18—Black Sabbath (1970)

This is actually superlative, high-fidelity sound for 1970. Recorded in a couple of days, _Black Sabbath_ is twiddled by the low-key Rodger Bain (future Judas Priest great Tom Allom is one of the engineers!) with the most rudimentary of gear. But there's nothing missing from "Black Sabbath" when everyone kicks in. A bit hollow between the instruments, but for 1970, this is pretty much as "correct" as it gets.

19—Paranoid (1970)

_Paranoid_ arguably sounds worse than _Black Sabbath_ , clanking a tad colder, more midrangey, more hurtful. The guitars track heavier, but there's a humanity that's missing that makes me kinda depressed when coming around to check this album out from time to time. I have Zeppelin-y complaints about this one.

20—Forbidden (1995)

The debacle here is that the band wanted Ice-T but settled for guitarist Ernie C., sorta like the Damned wanting Roger Waters but settling for Nick Mason. I happen to like _Music for Pleasure_ but few do. No one I know likes _Forbidden_ , either the songs or the inoffensive "just there" production.

21—Dehumanizer (1992)

Ronnie and Vinny are back for a re-go at the fame and fortune they once experienced during the _Mob Rules_ era. However the songs were dirty, dark, and slow, and another entirely weird new production shift would be made, the band recording in Germany for the first time, with idiosyncratic Billy Squier and Queen producer Mack at the helm. Mack doesn't produce like he did for those two (thank God), but there is indeed an element of his "floundering" drum sound here (picture having Vin smacking bowls of potato salad loosely covered in tin foil—no picnic), _Dehumanizer_ sounding grunged up, the overall power of the band sucked dry and then blurted out broken in an ill-advised quest for grit.

Can't blame Warner Bros. for _Dehumanizer_ 's quick fade—the label definitely pulled out all the promotional stops.
15

The Infamous Black and Blue Tour

Black Sabbath Versus Blue Öyster Cult

The Black and Blue tour was a bad-blooded 1980 coheadlining excursion between the Sabs and Blue Öyster Cult, fraught with all sorts of difficulties, from crew fight through ego battles of th' bands, through to the problematic issuance of a shoddy live VHS of the debacle. In the middle of the brouhaha was one Sandy Pearlman, longtime manager and conceptualist of Blue Öyster Cult, new manager of Sabbath circa the Dio era.

The specifics of the long jaunt are complicated in and of themselves. The idea was for the two bands to switch off headlining depending on relative strength of the market visited. As well, all manner of sundry acts popped on and dropped off as the undercard. To top it off, Sabbath experienced a switch at the drum stool midstream, from Bill Ward to Vinny Appice.

As background, Sabbath had started out their new life with Ronnie touring their gleaming new _Heaven and Hell_ album all over Europe with French hard rockers Shakin' Street as main opener, but also NWOBHMers Girlschool, Angel Witch, and Samson along on various select dates, all of these in the UK. Incidentally, this tour would also birth Viking metal heroes Manowar, given that Ross the Boss, very much a New Yorker, had wound up with Shakin' Street after life with the Dictators, connective tissue being Sandy Pearlman. Ronnie thereafter introduced Ross to a "good bass player" on the Sabbath crew and the rest is fur-lined history.

"Ronnie introduced me to Joey DeMaio," confirms guitarist Ross the Boss, on this interesting wrinkle to the Black and Blue tour. "I was guitar player on tour with this French band Shakin' Street, supporting Black Sabbath on their English tour. We were in the UK, and Ronnie comes up to me, like the second show, and he's saying, 'Oh, by the way, I really love your band, the Dictators; I know all about your history and all about CBGB's, the New York rock scene, the Dolls, all that stuff. I'm a big fan.' And I said, 'You're a big fan?!' I'm like taken aback. He was the sweetest gentleman, greatest person you would ever want to know, greatest singer. Just a great guy, positive guy, never a bad thing to say about anybody. He goes, 'By the way, we have this guy who is traveling with one of our technicians. His name is Joe DeMaio, and he plays bass. And you should check him out. You should talk to him.' And I go, 'Okay, I will' [laughs]. Some twenty minutes later I introduce myself, or he introduced him to me, and Joey and I kinda hit it off, and we talked about things and had the same interest in metal and music and hard rock, and we decided to start jamming together. So when Black Sabbath were onstage, we would sneak into their dressing room and use their warm-up amps to play together."

Another connection, as Ross explains, is that legendary soundman John "Dawk" Stillwell wound up moving from the Sabbath camp to Manowar, along with Joey and Ross. "Yeah, when Ronnie came on to be the lead singer of Black Sabbath, Ronnie got Dawk to redo their equipment. And all of a sudden Tony Iommi had these great Marshalls, which he recorded _Heaven and Hell_ on, so the sound of the band changed. The sound of Black Sabbath really changed; they got an amazing sound on _Heaven and Hell_. And I said, 'I want those Marshalls.' So I wound up getting seven of them [laughs]. Dawk customized every piece of gear we played out of, everything. The cords, the pickups, everything that we used. And he's Manowar's 'technician' still to this day."

In any event, back to the factual bits of the tour: Once Sabbath hits the States, Black and Blue is worked up, like I say, with a roiling undercard, city to city, consisting of bands such as Riot, Molly Hatchet, Sammy Hagar, Saxon, and Girlschool, but mostly Shakin' Street. The association with Blue Öyster Cult lasts from mid-July 1980 through the end of October the same year, the bands basically blanketing all of America but no other territories.

"I'm trying to think exactly what happened," recalls Sandy Pearlman, hit with this blast from the past. "There were some problems with the initial phases of the Black Sabbath tour of 1980. It just wasn't doing that well. And I suggested that we put them together with Blue Öyster Cult, and the shows did very well. Yes, I was right—it was the _Billboard_ Tour of the Year, and every venue we played was sold out, everywhere. We set records in some places for attendance. In Aloha Stadium in Honolulu—I think it's been surpassed since then—but soldiers love Black Sabbath and Blue Öyster Cult, soldiers and sailors and marines and air force dudes, and they were within a ten-mile radius of Honolulu. As well as a bunch of Hawaiians, who love heavy metal. So we got it all, and it was a fantastically successful tour.

"Black Sabbath resented having Blue Öyster Cult on the show, resented splitting the income," continues Pearlman. "They regarded this...one day, one of their onetime roadies pulled me aside and said that the problem here was that this was Black Sabbath and Van Halen all over again. Van Halen had opened for us, as they did for Blue Öyster Cult, by the way, in the early '70s—Black Sabbath in the late '70s, Blue Öyster Cult in the early '70s. And they really had trouble dealing with bands that were opening for them being as big or bigger than them. So there was a tremendous amount of resentment, and at some point...I can't remember when the tour reached Denver. Bill Ward was not in the best of health at the time, was having trouble making all the shows, playing them. He traveled by RV, separately, and sometimes they didn't get in as early as other times. But having said that, that really wasn't the problem. It's just that his health wasn't great, and it was always kind of dicey whether he was going to go on or not. And when we got to Denver, he either didn't get in early enough or he just couldn't go on. There's nothing deep, dark, and mysterious about his ill health—it just wasn't good. We brought physicians in sometimes to the show, because he was having trouble actually performing."

Fact is, Bill was still torn up about his best friend, Ozzy, not being in the band and had been drinking heavily to bury his grief and stress over the situation. "That's up to you to say, not me," continues Sandy. "So in Denver he did not go on, and it was sold out, and the gross was, for the time, 1980, enormous. And afterward, some of the Sabbath retainers pulled me aside and said, 'Well, how many tickets did you have to give back?' And I said, 'Oh, fifteen.' So, McNichols Arena held like eighteen thousand people [note: This was August 21, 1980, after Bill had logged over a month of U.S. dates], so they were thinking, 'Oh, fifteen thousand.' 'No.' 'Fifteen hundred?' 'No, fifteen.' And Blue Öyster Cult had just taken all of what was not a large amount of money these days, but in 1980 it was an enormous sum of money. And so yeah, they get to keep everything. And so they decided that was it for Bill—I'm talking about Black Sabbath, not me. They fired him, and Ronnie called up Vinny, and there we are."

That's the end of the story as far as Sandy Pearlman is concerned, the last we're going to hear from him on the subject. He obviously doesn't remember—or chooses not to remember—any of the problems that went on. But let's not forget—there's always been a strange pathology between BÖC and Sabbath, with Pearlman right in the thick of it. This goes right back to the origins of the Blue Öyster Cult, the name itself (and the name Judas Priest, for that matter) meant to echo the name Black Sabbath. Indeed, Columbia had been upset that Sabbath ended up on Warner Bros. and was known to want a rival act on their roster. Enter Blue Öyster Cult, who had previously been more of a West Coast psych rock band, variously named Stalk-Forrest Group, Soft White Underbelly, and Oaxaca. To make a long story short, both the name of the band and the heavying up of their sound were somewhat of a ruse by Sandy, the band, and producer Murray Krugman to get the band signed. Hammering the point home, a song on the debut album, "Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll," bears more than a small resemblance to "The Wizard" by Black Sabbath.

And here we are, main support for the tour stateside and in Europe, is a third Sandy Pearlman act, Shakin' Street, stuck in the middle of this thing: three French guys, Ross, and a female lead singer named Fabienne Shine.

"Black Sabbath was a different band from Blue Öyster Cult," recalls Shine. "Blue Öyster Cult were like a family; and plus because we were signed with Sandy Pearlman, and he was our producer, we were very close to Blue Öyster Cult. Black Sabbath definitely had an edge and were a bit more of a difficult atmosphere—because Tony Iommi was a tough guy. He was like Louis XIV [laughs]. He always made me think of Louis XIV, because he looked like a king, also because of that hair, and he had a huge following. And I remember one day we were in England, and the drummer, Bill Ward, didn't show up, or when he showed up, he showed up two or three hours later, completely drunk, and they couldn't play. They did play later, but of course, he was soon out of the band. They got somebody else. It was tough with them, but they were such a great group, so fabulous. But yes, with Blue Öyster Cult, you couldn't compare the relationship. It's not that he was paying less attention to Black Sabbath, but Sandy made Blue Öyster Cult. It's like he was their father—Sandy was the dad. Because like I said, it's a family. They created their band at school, with Sandy Pearlman.

"But there were egos," continues Shine. "And Eric [Bloom], the singer for Blue Öyster Cult, also had a temper. And so yeah, it's always been a little bit of, not jealousy, but those two bands were rivals. It's the same story since the beginning of rock 'n' roll. But Ronnie James Dio was extremely cool. He was the coolest of them all. He kept an extremely low profile, very shy, never talked much; he came, he played, he came with his wife or with his son. He's a family man. Ronnie made Black Sabbath look like a very kind band. Oh my God, he just completely turned popularity onto their side. The Black Sabbath band, like I said, they're a band with an edge. It's like Led Zeppelin. First of all, they're English, which already is different. American is so much sweeter, much kinder than English, more sophisticated, and how do I say, more personal. And so already from that, there was a big difference. And so Ronnie James Dio coming in...that's the thing, you see? Ronnie being an American, coming to sing with Black Sabbath, all of a sudden, they became a kinder band and their popularity took off.

"It was kind of a drag," acknowledges Shine, asked about the politics behind who would close the show, Sabbath or BÖC. "A lot of times Blue Öyster Cult had to go first, like the opening band. That created a lot of bad feelings. But sometimes Black Sabbath had to open the show, and that...I mean, they couldn't stand that! This is the reason, mostly, why Sandy chose us to open the shows for those two bands—because he wanted an opening band. This way, there was no opening band, or more like we were the opening band—Sandy was a genius. Sandy Pearlman was a genius. He took a French group with a female singer to open for those two huge bands. We were totally unknown, and we did so well, you know what I mean? We did so well. We had encores practically every day. I mean, it was a very, very difficult tour for us, to win that. You know, we had to be good. In England, in Scotland, it was so tough for us, so rough. Being French, very, very rough, especially with Black Sabbath. It was fabulous, but scary, really. It was scary to go onstage to open for those two bands at the same time. Especially in front of a hundred thousand people like at the Oakland Coliseum—and we had two encores that day! It was a fairy tale, I'm telling you; it was magical. But that was the strategy. Because Sandy Pearlman couldn't have those two huge bands opening for each other, he decided, 'Okay, I'm going to pick a third band.'"

Even the name Blue Öyster Cult was considered a bit of a cooked-up play on Black Sabbath, not to mention the band's about-face into hard rock from an earlier sound that could be described as West Coast psych.

Photo by Rich Galbraith

The Denver date of which Sandy Pearlman speaks—the end of the road for Bill—was on August 21, 1980, Bill admitting that his addictions, mainly booze, were slowing his faculties to a crawl. Bill's last show on the tour would be the Bloomington, Indiana, stop two days earlier (he had first announced his intention to leave two weeks earlier, in Wichita, Kansas). The promoter at the Denver date raised hell, ordering everybody he knew in the city not to let Sabbath escape his wrath, which they in fact did, by covertly finding some taxis to get them out of Dodge.

The next gig was scheduled for Salt Lake City, and negotiations to get Bill to play the gig went right down to the wire, the crew even setting up all the band's gear, but to no avail. Bill was on autopilot, famously talking about not even remembering the recording sessions for _Heaven and Hell_ , also admitting that his depression was complicated by his mother passing away and the turmoil surrounding Ronnie replacing Ozzy. Bill's fear of flying and general dislike of traveling had run him ragged as well, so he was hopping from gig to gig, as Sandy says, on an RV driven by his brother Jim, accompanied by his wife and his son Aaron. Things actually got worse for Bill and not better, Ward letting it be known that he retreated to California with his wife and did nothing but drink, do drugs, and sleep for upward of a year.

There would be five scheduled shows Sabbath would have to bow out of, with Vinny Appice joining in time for the Honolulu date on August 31, Molly Hatchet the opener. Three months previous, Vinny had actually been tapped for the possible drum stool in the new band Ozzy had been trying to get together but had turned it down, essentially because he had been scared off by big brother Carmine, who warned him about Osbourne's reputation. The request to join—or rather audition for—Black Sabbath came through Sabbath tour manager Paul Clark, the suggestion pretty much on the strength of Vinny's work with Axis and, previous to that, Rick Derringer's hard rock project, Derringer. Cozy Powell's name was mentioned as well, but sour relations between Ronnie and Cozy nixed that idea. A jam with Vinny was set up for SIR Studios in Hollywood and Vinny was in, at rehearsals, Geoff Nicholls expressing amusement at how tiny Vinny's kit was compared to Bill's, Bill's massive setup also including a gong onstage.

"The very first gig was Aloha Stadium in Hawaii," affirms Appice. "First rehearsal, I went down to play with them and they said, 'Yeah, this is good,' and then we all went to the pub [laughs]. Actually, Tony, Geezer, and a couple guys went to the pub, and I stayed there with Ronnie and Geoff Nicholls to rehearse; they were helping me out. And then the next day was kind of the same thing. We rehearsed and then went to the pub [laughs]. And I'm getting nervous, going, 'You know, I need to get some rehearsal in here!' And so luckily, we got it together, did four rehearsals. But yeah, the first day, they were so happy that it seemed to work, that everybody went and had a drink. Then we rehearsed a couple more nights in that place and then we moved to another place and then to Hawaii. So they had the confidence in me not to rehearse a lot or overrehearse.

"So we went out to play," continues Vin, "and the next thing you know, I wrote all these charts out in a little book, and I thought, 'This is cool, I've got my charts to go with, and this will help me along, just verse, chorus, verse, chorus.' And then we went out to play, and it started raining, and the rain blew onstage so much the book got wet, the ink ran, and the book was kind of getting to be useless—pretty funny. So I wound up halfway through the set not even looking at the book because it was useless, and then we just looked at each other for the endings, with them all helping, Tony, Geezer, Ronnie, and we got through that show. It was fun. From what Ronnie said, Tony and Geezer were more nervous than I was. Because at that point, they'd never played with anybody other than Bill, onstage."

"It was a rocking tour," laughs Molly Hatchet guitarist Dave Hlubek, who remembers the Hawaii show fondly. "I'll tell you what—they both were really on their game. We were playing absolutely sold-out venues, and it was awesome opening, and then BÖC and then Sabbath. But it was also a really conservative ticket price for those three bands. It wasn't like off the charts like it is now. Aloha Stadium was probably the biggest memory that any of us had. Blue Öyster Cult had just finished, and it was actually a pretty clear day. It was us and then BÖC got up there and just rocked the house. We were out there listening, because for us, we were just amazed, awestruck. The place was just slammed sold out.

"And then Black Sabbath got up there, and they were just different, with a vague, underlyng aura or something. So they started playing, and the song they were playing, the lyrics, from what I remember, were very devil-oriented. And I do remember that it got real dark, real cloudy, out of nowhere, and it poured rain. And they were up there just rocking; people were going nuts. And then off to the left-hand side of the stage, the stadium caught on fire, while they were onstage—out of nowhere, and I mean, a major fire, in the grandstands there, and we thought 'Whoa, this is a little strange—it's a lot strange.'

"I think they caught it in time," continues Dave, "so that nobody was really hurt, which was nice. But it just made you wonder what was going on, if the big boss upstairs who looks after all of us, if he was just a little upset about what they were singing about. Who knows? But it was a heckuva tour, and for us, as a young baby band, it was an exciting time, because these were bands that when we were at home, prior to making records, we were listening to on our car radio. And now we're playing with these guys. It was real exciting, and they were very nice to us. But Sabbath, every time that they got up onstage, the audience, they got exactly what they came to hear. I mean, they delivered the goods every time."

Back to the tour and its frictions: "I believe it was more the road crews that had a problem with each other," figures newly minted front man for the band, Ronnie James Dio, always one to smooth things over. "I don't know why. We really never had a problem with them. I've known Eric just forever. When he was going to school at Hobart University, my band, which wasn't Dio then—we were probably Elf or Electric Elves at the time—were playing there, and he would always come to the shows. It was great, just wonderful. So he's been a friend for a long time and I've known him for a long time. I've known Joe and Al and Buck, but Eric more than anyone else. So personally, I never had a problem. I don't think Tony did and I don't think Geezer really did. I think it was much more the crews who had an opposing feeling about it. So I think that was the problem more than anything else."

"The problem was that we had the same manager," continues Ronnie. "And I believe that he...because he began that band and was there from the inception, and in fact, the band was really patterned after Black Sabbath, therefore Blue Öyster Cult, Black Sabbath, whatever. And I think his allegiance was much more to them than it was to us. And that annoyed us, of course, as it should. And it reached a culmination point in Madison Square Garden, on that show, that has been documented, I guess, because the Black and Blue tour was done there, and it became kind of a full-length feature film of some kind, and they were given everything and we were given nothing. They had all their pyro, everything; we had nothing, not a thing. And I think that really defined what the problem was. 'Hey, you're our manager too. Shouldn't we be using those kinds of specifications?' Within the film itself, there was a video that they had done that was part of that, and ours was only the presentation at Madison Square Garden. So I think that was a lot of the problem."

Ronnie acknowledges that Sandy was, on the main, good for Sabbath's career trajectory.

"Oh yes. He had good ideas. I like Sandy. I don't think anyone else did, but I'm maybe a bit more of an understanding person. He was very alien to them because he's a guy from New York, and he was managing Blue Öyster Cult as well, and maybe there was some friction between what Geez and what Tony felt. I don't want to put words in their mouth; I'm not really sure. I really think that it was...he did have good ideas, he did some good things, but I think a lot of them were lent so much more to Blue Öyster Cult than they were to us."

"The problem was that our band was managed by Sandy Pearlman, and he managed Blue Öyster Cult too," says Vinny, in succinct agreement with Ronnie. "So that was kind of a conflict of interest, because we were doing the tour together, and he was kind of favoring them. He would say we couldn't use all our stuff. We had crosses and all this stuff to use onstage, and he said, 'Well, you can't do it,' while meanwhile Blue Öyster Cult would go on with a giant Godzilla, for the song 'Godzilla.' So there became to be a lot of friction, not so much within the band itself, but the way we were being treated by our manager—there's the conflict right there."

Geezer Butler remembers the tour as "chaos," and I asked him to clear up just who was fighting whom. "Well, because their manager had always managed Blue Öyster Cult, knew they needed a boost, and he saw us as being...he managed that version of Sabbath, and came up with the idea of both bands doing the same tour. But both bands insisted on using their own PA and their own lighting system, and so instead of like where it's half an hour between sets, it was like two and three hours [laughs]. And whoever was finishing the night off ended up going on at one or two o'clock in the morning. It was just horrible."

Asked whether the crews were fighting as well, Geezer says, "I have no idea. I'm sure there were a few swear words exchanged."

"It was like a war!" adds Blue Öyster Cult bassist Joe Bouchard, leaning more toward Geezer's blunt assessment rather than Ronnie's smoothing over of feathers. "No, that wasn't blown out of proportion at all. It was a war zone. Okay, I'm talking about all these other bands, and most of the time I wasn't really sure what was going on with other bands on the tour. Because I would be preparing myself for our performance and didn't want to get too worn out. But I would follow what was going on with Black Sabbath on the Black and Blue tour. And it was not good; it was not good. I wanted to have a good time, because it was the biggest tour the year. But I think that Tony felt that they weren't getting all that was deserved by them, and we were just copying their riffs. Even though we were two distinctively different bands. And they would always go on late and be a problem. If we did well, they would take an hour and a half before they would go out and play their set. And all the shows ran over time. I don't know. It would be interesting to hear what Ronnie has to say about it."

The credits for this this faux movie poster identified the producer as Martin Birch and the director as Sandy Pearlman—more evidence of how deep the ties between Sabbath and the Blue Öyster Cult had become.

So what was Ronnie's role in there? How was he to deal with?

"Well, at the beginning of the tour I talked to him and told him what a fan I was. Because I knew him when he was in Ronnie & the Prophets. Way back, when I was still in high school, I would go see him play. And I was always a big fan, and when I got to college, he was in the big college band in Ithaca. And here it is, it's 1980, and he is headlining with his band and I'm in my band, and there was a lot to celebrate and be happy about. But no, they were nasty. They were nasty. There was probably some internal stuff going on. Ronnie will probably tell you more about that. You know, Bill Ward left in the middle of the tour. Just left all of a sudden. So, what could have been an enjoyable co-billing...it was war [laughs]."

And Ronnie's problem was...? "You know, I'd really don't know. Because after that first show, we didn't talk. Maybe I would see him once in a while, but after that he became aloof and never came near us. And like I said, I've been a fan of his since I was in junior high school. He's a very talented guy. Now Geezer, he was okay. Geezer came out because he liked my bass sound. And he asked me, 'Can I play through your bass stuff? Play through your bass rig.' And I said sure, come on out. So I was at a sound check and he came out, and I'm letting him play through my bass gear, and he went out like a week later and bought the same stuff that I was using. And I don't consider myself to be a real bass maven, someone who is really into the high-tech of it. But it did sound pretty good, and when he played through it, it sounded great. So Geezer was like, okay. But Tony was not good."

Clarifying the scheduling issue, Bouchard explains, "If they had to open they would go on late. They just didn't like that at all. And eventually we said, 'Well, rather than throw the schedule off for the whole thing, let's go on first, and we'll let them close the show.' Even though we were supposed to alternate night after night. We said, 'No, this is just too frustrating. We'll go on first and then they can do their thing.' So yeah, I would say most of them, we let them go on. We didn't want to...but that was good for us, because we played very good, very tight on that tour. Even though there might have been some personal friction in the band, we put that all aside, because our main goal was to do a much better show than Black Sabbath. So it was good, because competition brings out the best in a lot of people. And so some of the Black and Blue shows were some of the best we ever played. And not because we were doing it for the money; we just wanted to show those guys! [laughs]"

And with respect to who exactly was warring, Joe figures, "It was the crew, yeah. It was the crew all the way from...you know, and the problem was, Sandy was caught in the middle, because he was managing both bands at the time. He made a lot of money on the tour, but he said it was some of the hardest money he ever made. And probably if he had the chance to do it, he wouldn't. He was in charge of getting those other guys onstage, and trying to keep the peace, when crowds were all hyped up and ready to riot. As the shows went on, we had a major riot in Milwaukee. I'm sure you heard about that. We were banned from Milwaukee for years after that. They would not let Blue Öyster Cult play in Milwaukee, even though we had nothing to do with the riot. I was back in my hotel. I'm sitting there watching Johnny Carson on late-night TV, and I hear a siren, and I think, 'Oh, I wonder what's going on?' And then I hear four sirens. And then I hear like twenty-five sirens. And I'm thinking, 'Oh no.' And so what happened is, Black Sabbath went on real late again, and somebody threw something on stage, so they walked off; somebody said something, you know, Ronnie can tell you. But I wasn't there; I was at the hotel. But I heard like 150 cop sirens going past the hotel heading to the venue—oh my God, what the hell is going on? And they pretty much destroyed the whole hall, in Milwaukee."

Geezer has told the story of this violent incident many times, saying that there he was, onstage at the Mecca Arena, October 9, 1980, two songs in, performing the bass intro to "N.I.B." He hears something hit a cymbal and then whack!, he's hit in the head by a bottle and there's blood everywhere (Geoff Nicholls claims the projectile was actually a brass cross, and in the meantime, it was Fergie from the crew that got hit with a bottle). This all happens with the lights somewhat down, Geezer retreats and then the "idiot" road manager eggs on or at least admonishes the crowd. Amusingly, Geezer says that he found himself languishing in the hospital and was soon joined by fans in Sabbath shirts, injured in the ensuing riot. And with respect to the riot itself, the damage was essentially to the seating, railings, door glass, and windows in the arena, with security left helpless and even under attack themselves.

And of course, as discussed, as if a riot in Milwaukee wasn't enough, Sabbath were under additional pressure due to strife dealing with their out-of-control drummer, er, sorta like Blue Öyster Cult, come to think of it, with an increasingly unruly Albert Bouchard. "You know, I don't know if it was Bill or if it was Vinny," muses Joe. "I didn't talk to Bill; I rarely saw him. I would see him onstage and that's it. And then all of a sudden, he hopped in his motor home and took off, and nobody saw him after that. I mean, this is the biggest tour of the year."

I checked with Joe whether he thought Blue Öyster Cult might have been guilty of any nasty behavior whatsoever.

"No. I mean, not that I know of," says Bouchard. "I'm sure when there are two road crews and there is friction between the road crews there might be something. But I would say that on our end we were always very professional. Get onstage when you are supposed to, get offstage when you are supposed to. You know, there are only a few rules. Everything else, you can just go crazy. We had our fireworks. We had a motorcycle. There was no problem with that. The motorcycle...Eric would ride it out at the end, through all the smoke, and it was a nice thing we would do for 'Born to Be Wild' or something like that. But I thought our show was really tight and the band played great—we were out to show those Black Sabbath guys how it's done [laughs]. But they had sort of a different vibe going on there. Who knows? They've done well over the years, and they are legends, and I'm still a fan even though we had a lot of disputes."

Blue Öyster Cult drummer Albert Bouchard weighs in as well, answering first as to whether the Sabbath guys were particularly grumpy. "Yeah, I mean, Tony was. Tony was, and especially Ronnie Dio. Although I think Ronnie's issues had more to do with Wendy, his wife and manager, and that she was trying to stick up for Ronnie's integrity or status or rights or whatever. It seemed like Wendy was making a big stink about a lot of stuff. And what would happen is, the slightest thing, and the roadies get all incensed. And so it's the Sabbath roadies versus the Cult roadies, and there are subtle sabotaging things. Also, if the set runs over a little bit...for us, I mean, it was good, because as a band, we would thrive on competition—if they did something, we would just try to retaliate with the music. So it was good in that it just pumped us up to do a great show and try to pull out all the stops, every time we could. But sometimes, if they were opening the show, it would be harder, because they could do stuff like take forever to come on and take forever to come off. So by the time we came on, the audience was exhausted. So it was easier when we were opening the show, because we could just leave the audience devastated, in our allotted amount of time. And Sabbath would have to get on and compete with what just preceded them. But yeah, as drummers, I thought that Bill Ward was a fine fellow. He was always nice to me, and I thought Vinny was even a finer fellow. Vinny is a great guy, and still a really good friend."

"It was just that the Black Sabbath band were in a bad mood," says Joe, as a closing comment. "It was a bad mood that didn't go away. And still to this day, Tony will not let the company that wants to release the _Black and Blue_ movie put it out, in America. And Ronnie went and did another interview talking about the Black and Blue tour, and Tony said, 'I don't want it out.' And we don't have the papers to get the release of that between all the artists, and the guy who produced it has passed away, and supposedly some of the papers probably went with him."

Concludes Blue Öyster Cult front man Eric Bloom, specifically on the doomed commercial video, "It wasn't all that good and I don't think too many people saw it. It's a totally raw performance with nothing fixed up, which doesn't happen too much nowadays. Usually there's postproduction, where they'll fix a flat note or use a different camera angle when something's played wrong, but we had none of that because it was too expensive! So as a singer, there are embarrassing moments."

The video of which Eric and Joe both speak has always existed in a sort of limbo between official issue and bootleg status. For the package, originally issued on VHS, Betamax, and laser disc, the two bands were captured live at Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York, notably home base for Blue Öyster Cult, on October 15, 1980. Tracks performed by Black Sabbath were "War Pigs," "Neon Knights," "N.I.B.," "Iron Man," "Paranoid," "Heaven and Hell," and "Die Young," while Blue Öyster Cult countered with "Doctor Music," "Cities on Flame," "Divine Wind," "Godzilla," "Roadhouse Blues," and "The Marshall Plan"—on the original issue, the tracks were toggled; i.e., a Sabbath then BÖC, Sabbath, BÖC, etc. A DVD release was slated for 2002 but then quashed, the tour and this document of it seemingly forever cloaked in controversy, acrimony, and the vagaries of one-upmanship demonstrated by two guardedly competing heavy metal bands looking for a second wind in a tough business that values youth over experience and wiles.
Timeline

Turn Up the Night

Important Dates in Sabbath History: The '80s

1980

**1980.** UK reissue of _Sabbath Bloody Sabbath_ (Cat. # NEL 6017) and _Sabotage_ (Cat. # NEL 6018). The semiofficial _Live at Last_ is issued (Cat. # BS 001) in the UK only, featuring live performances from 1973.

**Jan. 1, 1980.** Geezer, briefly out of the band, rejoins.

**Feb. 7, 1980.** _We Sold Our Soul for Rock 'n' Roll_ is certified gold, proving the power of greatest hits packages.

**Apr. 17, 1980.** First live gig with Ronnie James Dio on vocals (in Germany).

**Apr. 25, 1980.** UK release date for _Heaven and Hell_ , the band's first album featuring new vocalist Ronnie James Dio (Cat. # 9102 752). U.S. release date is May 27 (Cat. # 3372).

**July 5, 1980.** "Neon Knights" is launched as the first single from _Heaven and Hell_.

**July 12, 1980.** The band's first show co-headlining with Blue Öyster Cult. The Black and Blue tour would provide a famous clash of egos, with all manner of feud between the two bands, who were both managed by the same man, Sandy Pearlman (see chapter 15).

**Aug. 19, 1980.** Bill Ward's last show with the band until the brief Live Aid reunion in 1985. The next four shows are canceled.

**Aug. 30, 1980.** Vinny Appice's first show drumming for Black Sabbath, at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu.

**Oct. 9, 1980.** Geezer is hit in the head with a bottle at Mecca Arena, in Milwaukee, ending the show after two songs. A riot ensues.

**Oct. 17, 1980.** This show is filmed for the semiauthorized Black and Blue tour video. Tony has steadfastly refused consent for the video to be issued on DVD.

**Dec. 6, 1980.** "Die Young" launched as a follow-up single to "Neon Knights."

1981

**Jan. 6, 1981.** _Heaven and Hell_ certified gold.

**Feb. 2, 1981.** Last date of the _Heaven and Hell_ tour.

This bold statement of rearrival for the mighty Sabs came during the golden era for British hard rock known as the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. Strong records such as _Heaven and Hell_ , as well as UFO's _Strangers in the Night_ , Rainbow's _Down to Earth_ , and AC/DC's _Back in Black_ helped inspire countless younger upstarts to throw their hats into the rock 'n' roll ring.

**Aug. 7, 1981.** The animated _Heavy Metal_ movie is released, based on the French/American magazine of the same name ( _Metal Hurlant_ in France). Black Sabbath's "The Mob Rules" is recorded for the project, but it's an early version of the song, i.e., different from the recording used on the album. The instrumental "E5150" appears in the movie but not on the soundtrack album.

**Nov. 4, 1981.** Release date for _Mob Rules_ (UK Cat. # 6302 119; U.S. Cat. # 3605). On Nov. 7, "The Mob Rules" is launched as a single, a week before the start of the tour, which commences Nov. 15.

**Dec. 31, 1981–Jan. 2, 1982.** These are the _Mob Rules_ tour dates that were later used for the 2007 archival release _Live at Hammersmith Odeon_. The band also played on Jan. 3, but nothing from that show was used.

1982

**Feb. 13, 1982.** "Turn Up the Night" launched as a follow-up single to "The Mob Rules."

**Apr. 23 & 24, 1982.** Two shows, both in Seattle, are recorded for use on the _Live Evil_ album.

**Apr. 26, 1982.** _Mob Rules_ tour hits Vancouver, BC, with the Outlaws as backup, this author's first Sabbath concert! Of note, three of the four extensively used support acts for the _Mob Rules_ tour were all southern rock bands—the Outlaws, Doc Holliday, and the Johnny Van Zant Band.

**Aug. 31, 1982.** Last show with Ronnie until the _Dehumanizer_ era.

**Oct. 1982.** Ronnie and Vinny leave Black Sabbath.

**Dec. 1982.** Black Sabbath's first official live album, _Live Evil_ (Cat # 23742) is released in the U.S.

Ian Gillan agrees to join Black Sabbath, sometime over the course of a raucous evening boozing it up with Tony and Geezer at a pub in Oxford called the Bear.

1983

**1983.** UK budget LP issue of _Technical Ecstasy_ (Cat. # PRICE 40), _Never Say Die_ (Cat. # PRICE 9), and _Heaven and Hell_ (Cat. # PRICE 10).

**Jan. 18, 1983.** UK release date for _Live Evil_ (Cat. # SAB 10).

One of a series of concert ads in the '80s, this notice demonstrates that bands will revive and reuse visuals and typography from the past once they prove to be iconic. This particular logo hails from the _Sabbath Bloody Sabbath_ days.

**Aug. 7, 1983.** UK release date for _Born Again_ (Cat. # VERL 8), the one and only Sabbath album featuring, on vocals, Ian Gillan, of Deep Purple fame. Of note, Don Arden (with his son David) is back managing the band again, with daughter Sharon guiding the career of now-rival Ozzy, who is at this point burning up the charts with two hot albums and four months away from a third.

**Aug. 7–14, 1983.** Black Sabbath rehearse for the _Born Again_ tour, Ian's first show taking place on Aug. 18, with a Reading Festival date occurring on Aug. 27.

**Oct. 4, 1983.** U.S. release date for _Born Again_ (Cat. # 23978).

1984

**Mar. 4, 1984.** Last show of the _Born Again_ tour, and last shows with Ian Gillan and drummer Bev Bevan. The following month, the classic Mk. II lineup of Deep Purple reforms, including Ian Gillan on vocals.

**Summer 1984.** Bill Ward briefly rejoins Black Sabbath.

**Oct. 1, 1984.** Black Sabbath jam with prospective new vocalist David Donato. The band doesn't take kindly to Donato dishing on his new job to _Kerrang!_ magazine. Things also don't work out with prospective producer Spencer Proffer and prospective vocalist Ron Keel. After this latest debacle, Geezer hangs it up and takes his chances with the Geezer Butler Band.

1985

**Summer 1985.** Tony demos material for a proposed solo album, working with Lita Ford's band.

**July 13, 1985.** The classic lineup briefly reunites at Live Aid, JFK Stadium in Philadelphia. The band's fifteen-minute set consists of "Children of the Grave," "Iron Man," and "Paranoid." They are introduced by Chevy Chase.

**Aug. 24, 1985.** Recording sessions for _Seventh Star_ begin at Cheshire Bridge Studios.

1986

**1986.** First UK CD issue of _Master of Reality_ (Cat. # NELCD 6004) and _Sabotage_ (Cat. # NELCD 6018). Tony buys out his bandmates, obtaining solo ownership of the name Black Sabbath.

**Jan. 28, 1986.** Release date for _Seventh Star_ , an oddball Black Sabbath album that was originally supposed to emerge as a Tony Iommi solo album (UK Cat. # VERH 29; U.S. Cat. # 25337). _Seventh Star_ is also simultaneously issued on CD (Cat. # 826 704-2).

**Mar. 21, 1986.** Glenn Hughes's first show as singer for Black Sabbath, his last being five days later. Hughes is replaced by Ray Gillen, who makes his debut on Mar. 29.

**May 13, 1986.** _We Sold Our Soul for Rock 'n' Roll_ is certified platinum. _Mob Rules_ is certified gold on the same date, almost five years after its release. _Heaven and Hell_ is certified platinum the same day. These are the band's first platinum designations, although, given the designation on Oct. 13, 1986, they are not the band's first million sellers.

**June 4, 1986.** Last date of the _Seventh Star_ tour.

**Sept. 30, 1986.** Bob Daisley replaces Dave Spitz on bass in fluid lineup of the band.

**Oct. 13, 1986.** _Paranoid_ is certified 3x platinum. On the same day, _Black Sabbath_ , _Master of Reality_ , _Vol 4_ , and _Sabbath Bloody Sabbath_ are all awarded their platinum designations.

**Nov. 11, 1986.** Having recorded bass tracks in Montserrat, Bob Daisley leaves the band.

The crude graphics for this late-'80s tour laminate reflects the fading fortunes of the band and brand at this time in its history.

1987

**Jan. 1, 1987.** Drummer Eric Singer leaves Black Sabbath, with sessions now moving from Montserrat to London.

**Mar. 1, 1987.** Tony Martin replaces Ray Gillen, who quits because he sees no future for the band.

**May 12, 1987.** U.S. Warner CD issue of _Master of Reality_ (Cat. # 2562-2).

**July 14, 1987.** Rehearsals at Tasco Sound Stage in London for tour dates in support of _The Eternal Idol_ , with Geezer back on bass. These rehearsals featured a lineup consisting of Tony Iommi, Tony Martin, Geezer, and Bev Bevan, the immediate concern being a festival gig that didn't happen, due to low ticket sales.

**July 17, 1987.** Geezer leaves the band, replaced by a returning Dave Spitz. This is one day before the Plymouth festival that indeed did take place, although Sabbath were advised not to play, because attendance was so low, only a few hundred in a football pitch. The band flew there, one hour on an eight-seater, turned around, and flew right back home.

**July 21, 1987.** Tony Martin's first gig as lead vocalist with Sabbath, at a multiband festival at a stadium in Athens, Greece. Bev Bevan is still the band's drummer. This is Sabbath's first-ever appearance in Greece, and their only appearance until 2007. Another first on the day is that this was the first show for Quartz drummer Malcolm Cope as tour manager for Black Sabbath. In a day-of-show interview, Tony indicates that the band wants to get back to the UK so they can finish _The Eternal Idol_ in time for an October street date.

**July 24, 1987.** Drummer Terry Chimes, formerly of the Clash, replaces a briefly returned Bev Bevan, who objects to the band playing Sun City on political grounds. The Clash, ELO...oh the irony.

**July 25–Aug. 9, 1987.** The band play their six contentious Sun City, South Africa, dates (the Saturday and Sunday over the course of three weeks), Tony remarking that manager Patrick Meehan had convinced him that Sun City wasn't actually in South Africa.

**Aug. 15, 1987.** Dave Spitz leaves the band again. On Oct. 1, Jo Burt joins as new bassist.

**Nov. 1, 1987.** UK release date for _The Eternal Idol_ (Cat. # VERH 51), the first Black Sabbath album to feature vocalist and Birmingham native Tony Martin. Dec. 8 is set as the U.S. release date (Cat. # 25548).

**Dec. 12, 1987.** Last date of the _Eternal Idol_ tour.

1988

**1988.** Tony Martin puts in some time as a prospective vocalist for supergroup Blue Murder (as does Ray Gillen at one point).

**May 29, 1988.** Black Sabbath play a charity gig—the unique band lineup is Tony Iommi, Tony Martin, Terry Chimes on drums, and Geoff Nicholls on bass. This is Tony Martin's first gig in the UK as singer for Sabbath. The twenty-minute set consists of "Paranoid," "Neon Knights," and "Heart Like a Wheel."

Bill Ward was often gently chided for hiding behind an unnecessary array of cymbals and tom-toms.

Photo by Rich Galbraith

**July 1, 1988.** U.S. Warner Bros. CD issue of _Black Sabbath_ (Cat. # 2-1871).

**Aug.–Nov. 1988.** Recording sessions for Headless Cross.

**Nov. 15, 1988.** Ronnie's hometown of Cortland, NY, renames a street in his honor: Dio Way.

1989

**Apr. 24, 1989.** UK release date for _Headless Cross_ (Cat. # EIRSA 1002), which comes out in the U.S. the next day (Cat. # 82002).

**May 1989.** Neil Murray is hired on as the band's new bassist, replacing Laurence Cottle, who recorded the album but was essentially on the sideline as Geezer decided whether he would return—he didn't, opting for the Ozzy Osbourne band instead. May 31 marks the first date of the _Headless Cross_ tour (much of which would be canceled).

**Sept. 9 & 10, 1989.** Brian May guests during the encores at the Hammersmith Odeon gigs, while on Sept. 11 and 15, Ian Gillan guests for "Smoke on the Water" at the Bristol and Copenhagen gigs.

**Nov. 19, 1989.** The band embarks on an extensive Russian tour, Girlschool in tow, the last date being Dec. 9, in Leningrad.
16

Roomful of Blues

The Studios in Which Sabbath Recorded

Black Sabbath have a decisively colorful trip itinerary with respect to the rooms in which they crafted their doomful catalogue of eighteen studio albums, and the parade of producers (what actually does that mean? Or more so, what does _engineer_ mean?) with which they sometimes desperately tried to piece together product. Here's a little ring round the world and a fly-on-the-wall's view as to what these places were like, as well as some of these key people involved in the debacle at hand.

_Black Sabbath_

The band entered Regent Sound with Rodger Bain and Tom Allom, November 17, 1969 and banged out the _Black Sabbath_ album basically live, in one day, at a cost of six hundred pounds, Tony noting that the next day they were on their way to play a gig in Switzerland ("Evil Woman" was recorded at a separate earlier session at Trident Studios, on November 10). Regent began as a small "affordable" two-track facility at 4 Denmark Street in London, playing host to a young Rolling Stones. This was later known as Studio B and there is now a guitar shop on the ground floor with a very similar name. Studio A began as a four-track facility on University Street, off of Tottenham Court Road in the West End of London—Tom Allom has confirmed that this is where Sabbath recorded, and is also where the Who did some of their earliest recordings and where the Beatles recorded "Fixing a Hole." Allom described the place as "a four-track owned by James Baring, situated below a dance studio owned by the Clark brothers, well-known '50s/'60s ballroom dancing instructors." Allom has said that the recording of Black Sabbath took place basically from 10 A.M. to 10 P.M. on the first day and that mixing was from ten until six the following day, with the band already gone. Geezer talks about having to do it this quickly because the label had only given them enough money for two days' worth of recording. The official credits give the production credit to Rodger Bain and engineering credit to Tony [sic] Allom and Barry Sheffield.

"Back then we never thought, 'Well, we'll write this song and in twenty years' time people will still be liking it,'" muses Ozzy, looking back on the days leading up to the first Sabbath album. "We never realized that. Being in a band when I was a lot younger was a great life. It was better than joining the army, because most times you got home alive. It was traveling, you know. The first place I ever traveled to was Denmark, and we played a club called the Revolution Club. We also did a stint in Zurich, Switzerland—there was a bar there where we used to play a bunch of sets a day. Then there was the infamous Star Club in Hamburg. We did a lot of residency work and I remember going down to the boats to go to Europe one day. We were called Earth at that point. We'd written a song called 'Black Sabbath.' Our manager at the time suggested that we stop off at this recording studio and do these songs we were working on, like 'War Pigs.' We got out of the van, played a bunch of stuff. And really, the first Black Sabbath album was really a live album with no audience and a few overdubs. I'm not a visionary. I couldn't say in twenty-five years this was going to be a landmark album but I'm very, very proud of it."

_Paranoid_

Most of the groundwork was done at the same studio the debut was recorded at, Regent, June 16 and 17, 1970, the guys getting the songs down so that things moved swiftly at the next locale, the sixteen-track Island Studios, built by Island Records founder Chris Blackwell in a converted church on Basing Street, Notting Hill, London—the facility was originally called Basing Street Studios and is now known as Sarm Studios. Judas Priest's first demo with new vocalist Rob Halford, "Whiskey Woman" b/w "Run of the Mill," was actually recorded at Basing. As regards Regent, Allom has also said that the console was custom and rudimentary and lacked midrange and that one of the early innovations he had brought to the situation was recording Bill's drums in stereo. The four-track recordings from Regent (note: Bill had on one occasion told me they were eight) were bounced to sixteen tracks at Island, June 19, 1970. _Paranoid_ was also mixed at Island. Mixing took place on the upper floor, while recording facilities were in the basement, formerly the crypt of the church. The board at Island was designed by Dick Swettenham, who had pioneered state-of-the-art facilities at Olympic. Swettenham's soon-to-be-called Helios desks became to be highly regarded and used on many big records. Island has played host to the likes of Roxy Music, Fairport Convention, Traffic, Spooky Tooth, If, Free, Nick Drake, and Mott the Hoople, with Led Zeppelin recording the initial sessions for _IV_ (moving to Headley Grange) at the same time Jethro Tull had been creating _Aqualung_ , five months after the _Paranoid_ sessions. Credits inside the original _Paranoid_ gatefold include Rodger (now with the _d_ ) as producer, with Tony Allom and Brian Humphries sharing engineering credit. The studios are listed this time (not so for the debut) accurately as Regent Sound and Island Studios.

_Master of Reality_

_Master of Reality_ was dealt with entirely at Island Studios (despite tape boxes reading "Trident"), from February through May of '71, with the penultimate sessions taking place right at the end of May (let's not forget that Geezer is wont to say that the first record took a day, _Paranoid_ five days, and _Master of Reality_ a week, while Tony pegs _Master of Reality_ at ten days). Both Bill and Geezer in separate interviews have told me that the album was recorded on a twenty-four-track board, although other information seems to indicate that the place was only up to a sixteen-track standard at the time. The biggest innovation was the extent to which downtuning played a role, Tony telling me that on _Black Sabbath_ and _Paranoid_ the band "were tuned to pitch" but for _Master of Reality_ , they "tuned down three steps." Hands on deck were assistants Tony Platt and Roy Baker, engineer Tom Allom, and Rodger Bain, who is credited as producer of a Sabbath record for the last time. Of note, however, on the original issue of the album, there are no engineering credits listed, nor mention of studio. _Master of Reality_ is also the last album Tom worked on for the Sabs, Allom adding that "it was recorded over an interminable two months as they hadn't written any songs. I recorded and mixed the entire album with Rodger producing."

_Vol 4_

For the _Vol 4_ sessions, Black Sabbath rented a house in L.A., in Bel Air (773 Stradella Road, currently owned by original Charlie's Angel Jaclyn Smith), and recorded the album at the Record Plant in a cocaine-fueled frenzy, inspiring the song "Snowblind." There were three Record Plants; the New York location opened in '68, L.A. in '69, and Sausalito, California, in '72. In '69 the L.A. location was twelve-track, but it was sixteen-track by the time Sabbath pulled up. Notable acts that recorded albums at the L.A. location in the '70s include Tom Waits, the Isley Brothers, Fleetwood Mac, REO Speedwagon, and Rod Stewart, with the first sessions ever being the mixing of the _Woodstock_ soundtrack album plus _Concert for Bangladesh_. Founder of the Record Plant, Gary Kellgren, died in 1977, drowning in his swimming pool. _Vol 4_ is essentially self-produced, although manager Patrick Meehan muscles in on the credit. Colin Caldwell and Vic Smith are officially listed as the album's engineers.

Black Sabbath wasn't much of a singles band, and so it wasn't at all surprising that the uncompromisingly heavy "Tomorrow's Dream" did nothing at the box office.

_Sabbath Bloody Sabbath_

Sabbath attempted a return to the California good times of the Record Plant for the follow-up to _Vol 4_. Having again rented the same house in Bel Air, the band tried to write but after a month of nothing found themselves dazed from drugs and drink and summarily stumped. To add insult to injury, they found the room they wanted to record in at the Record Plant filled up with a big synthesizer. Demoralized, the guys hastened a retreat. After a break and in search of an inspiring writing clime after finding their usual rehearsal spot fully booked, they set up shop at Clearwell Castle in Gloucester, England, not an actual castle but one "built in the style of" in 1728. Other bands that have used the castle for rehearsal and recording include Led Zeppelin, Sweet, Bad Company, and Deep Purple, who wrote much of _Burn_ there, also in 1973. Tony told me that he had set upon the riff to "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" during writing sessions in the dungeon of the castle, and that it was the first song written, setting the tone for the rest of the album. Recording of the album took place at Morgan Studios in Willesden, North London, September 1973, using Studio 4. Notably, Yes were recording _Tales from Topographic Oceans_ the next studio over, resulting in the fortuitous use of Rick Wakeman, credited on "Sabbra Cadabra." Production credit goes to the band, with Mike Butcher credited as engineer. Morgan Studios would be credited as Britain's first twenty-four-track facility. Previous to Sabbath (and Yes) being at Morgan, notable recordings produced there include Blind Faith's and Supertramp's self-titled debuts, as well as _Benefit_ and _Thick as a Brick_ by Jethro Tull, and Pink Floyd's _Meddle_. UFO would also record three records in a row at Morgan, namely _Phenomenon_ , _Force It_ , and _No Heavy Petting_. Morgan eventually became rebranded as Power Plant and then Battery.

_Sabotage_

_Sabotage_ , like its predecessor, was also recorded at Morgan (February through March 1975, with additional recording in Brussels), with the band attempting to strip down compared to _Sabbath Bloody Sabbath_ in terms of arrangement but then spending countless hours on getting everything right with the rock instrumentation on which they had decided to rely. Tony took control of the reins, and it is said that his obsession with perfection made _Sabotage_ the most costly Sabbath production yet. In terms of arrangement, "Supertzar" was perhaps more elaborate than anything on the previous album, making use of the English Chamber Choir, arrangement by Will Malone. Mike Butcher gets kicked upstairs to a coproducer credit with Black Sabbath, also sharing engineering credit with Robin Black.

_Technical Ecstasy_

Change of pace, with _Technical Ecstasy_ being recorded and mixed at Criteria Studios in Miami over a three-month period in the summer of '76, following a six-week writing session at Ridge Farm Studio in Rusper, UK (and before that a brief visit to Glaspant Manor in Wales). Production credit goes to the band (yet absolutely, it was poor Tony who seemed to be doing everything), the engineering credit going to Robin Black, assisted by Spock Wall. The mix is credited to Tony and Robin, at Critieria, although insiders believe some of the mix took place at Record Plant in L.A. as well as at Sounds Interchange in Toronto. Criteria has a rich history dating back to 1958, with some of the artists recording there in Sabbath's day including Derek and the Dominos, Fleetwood Mac, Bee Gees, and Eric Clapton. It definitely wasn't known as a hard rock studio, though, at least not until the '80s. In fact, when Sabbath were there, Jezz Woodroffe told me that the Eagles had been recording in Studio 3 and Fleetwood Mac in Studio 1.

_Never Say Die_

Getting into the bad habit of trying to write essentially "on top of" studio time, Sabbath decamp to frigid Toronto to try to compose a new record in an also-frigid theater (since torn down), in advance of recording sessions at Sounds Interchange Studios, also in Toronto. Recording took place from January to May 1978, with frequent trips to Toronto's strip bars and noted rock palace the Gasworks in between trying to put together a half hour's worth of music. Production credit goes to Black Sabbath, engineering by Dave Harris, special assistant, Spock Wall. Desperate times all around, with both Ozzy and Bill well onto hanging off the ropes, Ozzy soon to fall, followed by Don Arden relinquishing management of the band to Sandy Pearlman.

_Heaven and Hell_

Learning their lesson about winter, Sabbath pick instead a return trip to Criteria in sunny Florida, this time staying at the manse of Bee Gee Robin Gibb, on Biscayne Bay, setting up their rehearsal space right in his living room. First, however, back to old habits: The band, with Ronnie James Dio now on vocals, had rented a house in Bel Air and were writing, with a jam space set up in the garage. It was still up in the air whether Geezer was going to be part of the band, Rainbow's Craig Gruber close to getting the nod. At this point, having written at least "Children of the Sea" and "Wishing Well," to the band departed for Miami for a session that by all accounts was magical. The esteemed Martin Birch was in as producer—essentially, he was the band's first big-name producer, having twisted knobs for many early records for Fleetwood Mac, as well as every Deep Purple record since _Concerto_ , the key Wishbone Ash albums, everything by Rainbow to date, and everything by Whitesnake to date (and beyond). Additionally, after _Heaven and Hell_ , he was about to embark on a stint with Blue Öyster Cult that would result in that band's two most acclaimed albums, _Cultosaurus Erectus_ and _Fire of Unknown Origin_ , and then a long exclusive stay with the mighty Iron Maiden. In any event, Birch gets production and engineering credit, with Joe "C" Foglia getting an assistant engineer credit. And we all know keyboardist Geoff Nicholls was much more important to the process at this point as well, and to be fair, he does get credit for all keyboards.

Post-Criteria, it was suggested that the album was still missing a fast, spirited rocker, so "Neon Knights" was cooked up and subsequently recorded at Studio Ferber in Paris. "Martin Birch was one of my best friends," explains Ronnie, who had a history with Martin rich with the Rainbow years. "Martin came because I called him. Tony asked me if Martin might be interested in doing it. I called Martin and said, 'I'm just joining Black Sabbath; are you interested? Would you like to do this?' And he went no. Because I'm sure, like a lot of people, he thought that there was a time when Sabbath was incredibly successful, and he remembered them more from a nonmusical attitude. After all, he had been doing Purple all these years, and you're talking some pretty stiff musicians—by stiff, I mean really great people. And I think he, like everyone else, thought, 'Oh, I don't know about this. I don't want to get into that can of worms.' I reassured him that, 'You're going to love it; you're going to love the songs that we're doing. You've always loved me. You know I wouldn't do anything that wasn't great.' So he went oaky. And he loved them right away, and they just adored Martin too. Just a brilliant, brilliant guy. He was able to capture all the sounds that we needed because he was a great engineer, the best engineer I ever worked with. As far as that goes, I thought it was just an easy process, because he had a wonderful sense of humor, and everybody appreciated that sense of humor, and he gave them his expertise that they'd never had before. Had Martin not retired and been a fisherman or a golfer or whatever he may be now, we would always want to use Martin again."

Metal fans instantly accepted Ronnie into the Sabbath fold, given the currency he had built for himself on three well-regarded Rainbow albums—most notably, the _Rising_ album from 1976.

Photo by Rich Galbraith

_Mob Rules_

Having secured a $500,000 advance for the follow-up to _Heaven and Hell_ , band manager Sandy Pearlman figured that Sabbath should own their own studio. A location without a board was found (according to Vinny, Can-Am Studios), and a $280,000 Trident desk was bought and installed. After deciding that the couldn't get a good guitar sound out of the thing, the band simply uprooted and went somewhere else, figuring they would come back for their expensive piece of equipment later. The details become a little hazy, but in the end, according to Ronnie, the band wound up losing the board and their investment—and, soon after, their manager! So, having seen their plans to build their own studio crash in typical Sabbatherian flames, Sabbath threw in the towel and returned to the Record Plant, L.A. division, again with Martin Birch, producer of _Heaven and Hell_ , back in the role of "headmaster" and in search of repeat success, repeat magic. Again, Birch gets engineering credit as well as production, but there are two assistants: Eddie De Lena, first assistant engineer, and Angelo Arcuri, second assistant engineer. The sessions were not as smooth as the previous time, with tensions brewing over Ronnie's new "take charge" attitude, Ronnie sensing that Birch was losing control of the situation presented by these strong personalities. As well, Vinny was considered to be too much of a busy drummer and had to constantly be reined in by...somebody, usually the other Italian American.

"I think Martin did a great job," figures Geezer, asked to remark on the huge, warm bass frequencies achieved by Birch. "He certainly brought the bass sound out on those albums, I think, on both of them. I think _Heaven and Hell_ had really standout bass, but it took a long time getting that sound. I was very happy with the bass sound that we got. At that time, trying to get producers to listen to bass was like getting blood out of a stone. They were going for that really poppy sound, not a lot of bottom end. And he understood what we were trying to get."

_Born Again_

_Born Again_ was the product of raucous, jovial sessions at the Manor, Richard Branson's digs in Shipton-on-Cherwell, Oxfordshire, England. The band crashed cars, blew up tents, stuck a javelin through the lining of the man-made lake, set off a concussion bomb in the same lake, and gained a bunch of weight on the Manor's stick-to-the-ribs culinary delights. Geoff Nicholls gets a prominent keyboard credit, with production credit going to Black Sabbath and Robin Black, engineering to Robin as well, assistant engineering to Steve Chase. Controversy erupted when the album received a covert remix that made the bass louder and the drums turgid, the end result being a noisy, trashy, hard-on-the-ears mix, but nonetheless not a disaster, just "different." In fact, the sound quality of _Born Again_ became a factor in Ian Gillan's leaving the band, as did the album cover, although a lucrative deal to reunite the Mk. II lineup of Deep Purple sealed the undoing of the deal. "It just sort of divided a lot of people," remarks Geezer on the hiring of Ian Gillan. "A lot of people liked Sabbath, a lot of people like Purple, and then when we got together with Gillan, some people were really pissed off and some people thought it was brilliant. Terrible production, though [laughs]. It was too...what's the word? It's really muffled, the sound—I was never happy with it." Other albums recorded at the Manor around the time of _Born Again_ include April Wine's _Nature of the Beast_ , Uriah Heep's _Head First_ , XTC's _English Settlement_ and _Mummer_ (Branson had many of his Virgin Records acts record there), Rush's _Power Windows_ , and INXS's _The Swing_. The first band to ever use the facility was the Bonzo Dog Band in 1971, and the act destined to turn out the lights was Cast, making _All Change_ in 1995. EMI closed the studio that year and it's now a private home.

_Seventh Star_

_Seventh Star_ was recorded in the summer of '85, at Cherokee Studios in L.A. (uncredited on the album) on August 22, the band decamping for Cheshire Sound Studios in Atlanta, home turf of producer of the album, Jeff Glixman, notable for his work with Kansas in the mid-'70s. Just prior to work on _Seventh Star_ , he had worked with Gary Moore and Little Feat's Paul Barrere and engineered Saxon's white-hot _Power & The Glory_. Directly previous, he had produced Georgia Satellites' self-titled debut. "Angry Heart" and "In Memory" were two tracks that were added to the slate in Atlanta. Cheshire Sound was famous as the first twenty-four-track facility in the southeast U.S., and is now known as Glow in the Dark Studios. As late as September of '85, it was still thought that the album would emerge as a Tony Iommi solo album, but Warner Bros. and manager Don Arden worked a deal to give it the good Black Sabbath name.

_The Eternal Idol_

_The Eternal Idol_ would have to reign as the most fragmented and complicated set of recording sessions for a Sabbath album. First the band—at this point a fluid association of players—recorded at George Martin's Air Montserrat in the Caribbean, which is no longer, having been wiped out by Hurricane Hugo in 1989. Sabbath, at this low ebb, was losing money at a rapid pace, and Montserrat was not cheap, long-distance phone charges alone in those days crippling bands. Acts that have recorded there include Elton John, the Police, Rush, UFO, Duran Duran, and the Rolling Stones, with Sabbath joining that esteemed list, living it up on beach lounging, personal chefs, warm coconut milk straight from the tree, and cocaine straight from Peru. Presiding over the Montserrat debacle was Jeff Glixman, a spot of continuity for Tony, who had been facing all manner of revolt, especially from singer Ray Gillen. Glixman ultimately bolted due to financial disputes. After playing musical chairs with bass players and vocalists, the band embarked upon additional recordings at Air Studios' London location (with producer Vic Coppersmith-Heaven) and Battery Studios (with producer Chris Tsangarides). Coppersmith-Heaven was actually an industry legend, his credits reaching back to critically acclaimed late-'60s acts. Yet he is most associated, building on his presence as a Polydor staffer, with the classic records from the Jam.

Tsangarides, on the other hand, was metal all the way, his most notable credits being Anvil, Thin Lizzy, Tygers of Pan Tang, and Judas Priest. Battery, in which Tsangarides was performing his rescue job, had once been Morgan, where Sabbath had recorded _Sabbath Bloody Sabbath_ and _Sabotage_. Mix credit goes to the last hands this patch-up job went through, namely Chris Tsangarides, whose workload also included the recording of "Some Kind of Woman" and "Black Moon" (neither to be included on the album), plus the recutting of all the vocals with Tony Martin's tracks in place of Gillen's.

"That was a bit complicated," chuckles Tsangarides. "I was told there were a couple of guitar solos I had to record on it. When I got there, I had found out that all the guitar solos still needed to be done, and many of the arrangements, and then the singer left in the middle of it, so we had to find a new singer, to re-sing the whole album, and three weeks became six months [laughs]. And there was a lot of politics going on, with previous management and record companies. There was a whole can of worms that was opening up right before my eyes, and I didn't even realize what state the whole thing was in. But basically they had a manager, prior to the one that they had, and apparently the old guy had run off with the advance for this record. Monies were running out, they were being held to ransom by various studios, with the tape, because bills hadn't been paid—this kind of carrying on. But it got itself sorted out somehow and it all fell together. The singer left to join Gary Moore, and the bass player, Bob Daisley, left too, so I didn't know who was going to be in the room from one day to the next [laughs]."

Additional trivia note: Bev Bevan gets a percussion credit on the album, but Eric Singer is pretty sure that Bevan did not play anything on the album. Still, further information exists that Bevan might have been brought in for incidental parts after Singer had already left the sessions. Plus, as a final bizarre twist in the tale, Patrick Meehan, once again the band's manager, is listed as executive producer.

_Headless Cross_

The fun and games continue in the strange Sabbath camp of the '80s, with the production credit for _Headless Cross_ going to Tony Iommi and Cozy Powell, credit for engineering and mixing going to Sean Lynch, who would later work for Judas Priest. Writing sessions took place at Rich Bitch Studios in Birmingham, which also served as locale for rehearsals for the tour. In terms of studio, the credit reads, "Recorded & Mixed Aug.–Nov. 1988 at Soundmill, Woodcray & Amazon Studios," and by all accounts work on the album proceeded quickly, Tony expressing his desire to turn in the record to his new boss, Miles Copeland, and his feisty I.R.S. label, on time and on budget. Tony and Cozy were definitely in charge, the guys using Laurence Cottle on bass, without much thought to whether he would ever become a permanent member of the band (the slot eventually went to Neil Murray, who commenced work in time for touring the album). Of note, Iommi at this point had hired on new management in Ernest Chapman, Ralph Baker, and Phil Banfield, who still manage him to this day.

_Tyr_

_Tyr_ was produced by the same team as _Headless Cross_ : Tony and Cozy. Sean Lynch would get the engineering credit, with mix duties going to Leif Mases. The album would be recorded and mixed at Rockfield and Woodcray in Berkshire. Consensus after all these years is that the drums are too loud, which one would have to blame on having an A-type personality drummer as your coproducer, Cozy being one of the few guys Tony would let have his way.

A Toronto-generated _Tyr_ ad with ties to one of Canada's record store chains of the day.

_Dehumanizer_

The controversial "dirty metal" sound of _Dehumanizer_ was somewhat a trademark of esteemed and expensive producer Mack (or Reinhold Mack), who had created similar-sounding records for Queen and Billy Squier, his most recent credits having been metal-ish, namely Heavy Pettin', Extreme, and Bonfire. Early recordings of _Dehumanizer_ were produced by Max Norman, hot metal producer of the day, whose credits include Grim Reaper, Megadeth, Y&T, and Ozzy. As well, early demos featured Cozy Powell on drums, before the _Mob Rules_ lineup would solidify for the project after a brief period where it looked like Simon Wright might end up with the job. The album was recorded at Rockfield, Tony with his wholly new band returning to the locale used for _Tyr_. Mack took producer, engineer, and mix credits, with his assistant engineers being Darren Galer and Stephen Wissnet. Although Geezer had brought some material from his tinkered-with solo situation, sessions were tense and slow-moving.

"Mack was good," Geezer explained to me, in August 2008. "He had done Queen. Martin Birch...I don't know what happened to him. I think he was going through one of his retirement spells or he was doing Iron Maiden or something. Because the band had come together and we had already sort of been having a few problems, we didn't want to end up like we left it off with _Live Evil_ , where we were all, like, trying to outproduce each other. So the only way it was going to work was bring in an outside producer and let him sort everything out. And we had got on really well with him. He mixed in Munich, where he had always mixed. We did the album in Wales and then flew to Munich for the mix. I thought he did a really good job—I know I was happy with all the bass sounds. Creatively, it was good at first, and then we went through a lull, and I think Ronnie came back, went back home for a bit, and then we got back together again and we were able to pick up from then, just tied it all up quite well, in the end. And I mean, we sort of recorded it, went on tour and completely forgot about it. Then this whole reunion came about and I didn't realize what a strong album we had done at the time. At that particular time, there was a lot of grunge stuff coming out, replacing metal all over the place, and it wasn't really given any sort of radio play or publicity or anything else, really. But when I think now, when we play it live, it really stands out."

"Mack came in, and he really wasn't a 'producer' producer, for us, anyway," figures Vinny Appice. "He just got a really great sound and made suggestions on songs here and there. He wasn't trying to overproduce or make it sound like he wanted it to sound, which was smart. He took it and he listened and he just made it sound good and heavy and then made some suggestions. Whether we listened to them or not was another thing. But he didn't try to overproduce it. And that's why he wound up staying, because he wasn't a threat. So it worked out good with Mack.

"Nope, that band doesn't do that," laughs Vinny, asked whether there was pressure to change with the changing metal times. "Time doesn't matter with that band. Everything changes around the band; the band does not change around the times. So we did what we felt. How Tony's riffs came out, what Ronnie wrote and what Geezer played—that's what it was going to be! It doesn't matter what it is. Even if there was no heavy metal left in the world, they would still do that. And that's why we hear now, 'Wow, you guys always stuck to your guns.' People respect that."

Yet very much so, _Dehumanizer_ sounded like a Dio band album of the day, so it's no surprise that Ronnie has more than happy with the thing, as he explained to me looking back from a 2008 perspective. "I thought it was one of the best albums I'd ever heard in my life after it was done. I think it was only Tony and Geezer who didn't like it. Now, after all these years, they think it's one of the best albums we'd ever done. And it is, and it was. I guess it's your perspective. We do as many songs from _Dehumanizer_ , and certainly we did in our long set, than we did from _Heaven and Hell_. I think _Dehumanizer_ was a brilliant album and it was way ahead of its time for us. We tried to be more modern. Martin Birch wasn't available because he had really dropped out of the field by that point. And Mack, he was Martin Birch's assistant engineer, at Musicland in Munich, where we did that album, and where I had done a lot of the Rainbow material. So I knew Mack from that. I love Mack's great sense of humor, great ears, technically brilliant. Martin was different. I can't tell you that one is better than the other because I'm biased, because Martin has been my friend for such a long time, and truthfully, having been a producer myself, I learned so much from him. I thought Mack did a good job. He's a great engineer; I don't think he produced it. I don't know if he even got producer credits; maybe he did. We produce what we do. Only we know what's right for us. You can't produce what's already finished. As was the case with Martin Birch—he didn't produce what we did. He captured what we did. I think that's what Mack did. Mack did a great job with it. I think Martin Birch is the man, but I have no problems with what Mack did. It was an underrated album and it was underrespected because grunge was coming in. It took all of us off the table, so it was not heard. It didn't have a chance to be heard. All these years later, I'm very proud of it."

Apart from "Time Machine," "TV Crimes" was pretty much the only other _Dehumanizer_ track that had a shot at becoming a hit single. Neither did so.

_Cross Purposes_

Production credit on _Cross Purposes_ goes to Leif Mases (known for his connection to Stockholm, Sweden's Polar Studios) and Black Sabbath, with Leif also getting the engineering and mixing credit, and Darren Galer listed as assistant engineer. After rehearsals in Henley-in-Arden on the outskirts of Birmingham, the album was recorded at Monnow Valley Studio, in Wales, where some of the _Dehumanizer_ demos had been done. Monnow took root in the '80s, previously having been the rehearsal space for bands recording at Rockfield. Bands who have recorded at Monnow include Oasis, Cradle of Filth, the Coral, Stereophonic, Manic Street Preachers, Robert Plant, Pulp, Iggy Pop, and Queen. Leif Mases' most relevant credits include engineering on Led Zeppelin's _In Through the Out Door_ and Jimmy Page's _Outrider_ albums. He also produced for Europe and Lillian Axe and mixed Sabbath's _Tyr_ album. One cool trivia point about the recording of _Cross Purposes_ is that Eddie Van Halen added a bit of writing and performed a solo on "Evil Eye," Eddie having been in the area for a gig at the Birmingham NEC, Tony picking him up and driving him to the band's rehearsals. However, the fact that Eddie is uncredited in either capacity suggests that the story is untrue or, more likely, that it is true, but that Tony replaced his solo and any vestiges of writing contribution through the multiple reworkings of the song that took place.

_Forbidden_

In one of the strangest twists of the Sabbath tale, the band's _Forbidden_ album would come to be "produced, recorded, and mixed" by Body Count guitarist Ernie C., with Ice-T himself showing up for a cameo rap on "The Illusion of Power." Three engineers would be listed: Bobby Brooks (recording and mixing engineer), Andrea Wright (assistant engineer at Parr Street Studios), and Phil Luff (assistant engineer at Ridge Farm), with recording taking place mostly at Parr, in Liverpool, plus additional recording at Devonshire Studios in Burbank, California, where _No More Tears_ was partially crafted. The mix would be done at Ridge Farm. Parr Street has played host to John Mayer, Take That, the Spice Girls, the Verve, Echo and the Bunnymen, New Order, and Birmingham's own Napalm Death.

A US CD advance of the _Forbidden_ album from 1995. Many consider this to be Sabbath's low point, creatively speaking.

_The Devil You Know_

Geezer, Tony, and Ronnie each cooked up a number of demos at their home studios; for actual recording, the guys gathered at Rockfield with Mike Exeter knob-twisting, as he did on Iommi's _Fused_ album. Besides Rockfield however, a fair bit of actual work took place at Ronnie's studio—mostly writing, in two banks of six weeks separated by tour dates. (Of note, the first three new Heaven & Hell songs, added to _The Dio Years_ , were created entirely at Tony's home studio, produced by Tony and Mike.) At Rockfield, Geezer and Tony met up with Robert Plant, whose son was recording there at the same time. The credits are interesting, however, with the production nod going to Ronnie, Tony, and Geezer, and an "additional production" credit going to Exeter (who we know is also the keyboardist on the album, although there aren't many keyboards). Wyn Davis, assisted by Mike Sutherland and Adam Arnold, is credited with mixing and additional recording. Remarks Ronnie on Wyn, "Martin Birch will always be the best producer for me, with the exception of probably Wyn Davis, who has produced—not produced, but engineered—a lot of the Dio records. He's a genius as well, and he reminds me of Martin. You are lucky when you find those people in your life. And even though I produce the Dio records, without Wyn Davis, there would not be those kudos to me." In essence, work on _The Devil You Know_ was a pretty much new combination of individually formulated and fleshed-out ideas, plus writing collaborations, an incubation period, distance from the project through live dates, and then recording sessions in a pastoral, isolated old school environment.
17

"Puccini in Chains"

Onetime Black Sabbath Manager Sandy Pearlman Genuflects on His Subjects

Not only has Sandy Pearlman distinguished himself as a globe-trotting prof and sage on the origins of hard music as well as the links between classical and rock, but yes, he was Black Sabbath's manager during the _Heaven and Hell_ and _Mob Rules_ era, as well as Blue Öyster Cult's for most of their recording career. In between harnessing the power of these giants, he also managed the Dictators and Shakin' Street, was one of the original rock critics (penning and grinning for _Crawdaddy_ ), and found time to produce the Clash's classic _Give 'Em Enough Rope_ opus, a record denounced in some quarters at the time as too rockist, but now celebrated as a work of brilliance, second only to _London Calling_ in the band's punk-politico catalogue.

Pearlman shows up—engagingly and aptly—in our chapter about the Black and Blue tour, but in our most recent chat, he also fired off a few amusing remarks about Black Sabbath's wider impact and context.

"You look at Black Sabbath at the time," begins Sandy, in typical manic fashion. "Tony Iommi I believe is one of the five greatest guitar players in the history of the world. And what they brought to the table was the fact that the first Sabbath album is unrelentingly bone-crushing, right? There is nothing that does not participate in the exploitation of what we have come to regard as the definitive basic elements of metal: modal, extremely distorted, overdriven, chordal. And in fact, they prove a point that I feel I also prove, and have proven in spades, that heavy metal is kind of a fusion of all of those trend lines of the mid- to late '60s, plus something else, which is the influence of horror-film and science-fiction music, written for film, that started being made in the '30s, and then were made in the '40s and the '50s and '60s, through the '70s, when horror films changed radically and they were no longer doing the same horror and science-fiction films. They started to do very different things from the things they did before the '70s. But my point is that every adolescent male who is not completely lame, in the UK and in North America grew up watching _Creature Feature_ and _Elvira_ and _Chiller_ , whatever it is, and that includes the UK, on Friday and Saturday nights. They would just stay home and watch this stuff.

"And the music and the films that were being shown, in the horror film subculture, or the reissue subculture on television, or rerun subculture on television, characteristically had scores written mainly by German and Austrian émigré composers who had come to the U.S. and the UK before World War II, or during World War II. Many of them were Jewish, and of course on the run from the Nazis. These composers had all studied in conservatories that were extremely, heavily influenced by the Austrian late-nineteenth-century composer Anton Bruckner, and of course this is why the dean of the music faculty at McGill University and I teach this course called Bruckner: From Chord Power to Power Chord: How the Gigantic Late Romantic Symphony Orchestra of Anton Bruckner Is Modeled by the Single-Player Crypto-Orchestra of the Heavy Metal Guitarist, in the Quest for Sonic Ecstasy.

"And the point is that Bruckner's scores are extremely complex, with whole vast stacks of overtone series, and distortion; it's all built into the performance instruction and the composition. Bruckner was very aware of hall compression and the K space, things that heavy metal is completely reliant on for its impact. Even a band like Slayer, which kind of turns the idea of the K space on its head by playing so fast that they don't allow for much apparent K in the K space. But having said that, there is the K occurring, in the K space, and it complexifies and masses up the texture further, and it's a really neat trick. And so when we teach this course at McGill, some people say, 'You know, Slayer, they're just lame—they just play fast.' And we say, 'No, let's slow this down and take a listen to what Kerry King is really doing here before you ladle out the contempt for Slayer.' And I'm able to convince them, in my finest moments, that this is as metallic as sludge metal is, and it's just that they are distorting these resources that metalists use.

"But having said that, they couldn't do what they do without the entire metal resource panoply, which was created in the late '60s, by the people I've just discussed. So Black Sabbath is the first place where this is a disciplined ideology, and everything they do is working off of this resource base. And not really going outside of the universe. Not until Dio gets there do they stray much out of the universe.

"Having said that, _Heaven and Hell_ is awesome anyway, even though it has acoustic guitars in it," laughs Pearlman, who signed on with the band in time, in '79, to see this record pieced together in complication and under conditions of all sorts of emotional turmoil.

"So Sabbath is where the ideology is laid out with absolute discipline, complete fidelity, and the resource base is exploited as well as it will ever be exploited by anybody, and again with extreme discipline, which most people aren't capable of. And they don't need to get out of the resource base to complete a completely perfect series of sonic events, songs, all of which have tremendous impact, all of which sound as good, maybe better now, as they did in 1969, when the first Black Sabbath record was being made. Does that answer your question?

"And also, you've got to realize, that what I've just said about science fiction, horror, and heavy metal, is completely proved by Black Sabbath, the very name of Black Sabbath. And that's derived from...I think it's a horror film made by Mario Bava, an Italian horror film. And 'Iron Man.' I mean, I could go on, but I don't have to go on. Their obsession with the horror film, and science fiction and literature, is readily apparent in the song titles, and their obsession with Hammer films and the occult. I could go on, but it's basically like, these guys must've spent every Friday and Saturday in Birmingham, staying up as late as the BBC was on in those days, which was not that late, absorbing this stuff. And it was a youth well spent, in my opinion."

Well spent indeed, but I wanted to ask of Sandy, how does they dynamic in the band change once Ronnie takes over on vocals and on lyrics?

"You know, this is an interesting question, because I regard Ronnie Dio as basically Puccini in chains. And that's not a criticism. I'm not making fun of him, because he _is_ Italian [laughs]. He didn't necessarily have to wind up doing what he did. Look at his melodies and his compositions and even the arrangements, and really, there's a sense of operatic dynamic in him, right? So he's like...it's hard to remember, given Ozzy's huge success, subsequently in the '80s, but in 1979, Ozzy was deadweight. And they couldn't finish...they just couldn't get through their recording, as I recall. I heard some of the back-story when I started to work with them. They were having trouble doing anything, because Ozzy was kind of unfunctional. So they got rid of him.

"And they weren't selling any records. When I first took over, the first thing I did is I went to Warner Bros. and negotiated a huge increase in their advance. And I remember, the vice president of Warner Bros., who liked me, with whom I negotiated this advance, said, 'Sandy, you know, we're going to give you this money, because it's you' [laughs]. 'But if we just blow this money we're going to kill you. You're dead.' I hoped...I liked to treat music that seriously, so they gave me the money, and of course the record went platinum and they were happy. But they were coming off of a sales base of around 200,000 units, which was like way, way, way below what they were selling. And in those days, 1979, 200,000 units was not much. Nineteen seventy-eight had been the biggest year in the history of the music business, because of the devil's spawn, disco. But it had completely inflated what people thought of as realistic sales. It was one of these revolutions that occurs every once in a while in the music business, that will never happen again. Because there is no music business, thank God. From my viewpoint. But having said that, there was the Summer of Love, there was the English invasion, there was 1978, and there was Nirvana. And in each case, the sales horizons were tremendously inflated, from what they had been before, because new and shocking music was introduced into the repertoire, and the audience was more creative. You just had to have it, and it had not existed before, so they had to have something which was so shocking, including disco, that the audiences were radically enlarged, as the function of this new music. So where were we?

"Right, it's Puccini in chains," continues Sandy, not missing a beat. "It is the Ronnie Dio record sui generis. They couldn't have made it without him. It was a very successful fusion of what he did and what they did, and interestingly enough, if you listen to it, which I'm sure you have, back-to-back with other stuff in their cavalcade of awesome recordings, it has the lightest texture of any record they've ever made. I mean, there are various reasons for this. Instead of recording in England and utilizing British recording practices, they recorded in Criteria in Miami [laughs]. My joke about Criteria Miami was that the studio was located near a dock so it was easy to bring the cocaine in. This was the _Saturday Night Fever_ studio, right? The Bee Gees [laughs].

"But I'm not implying anything other than that the studio had a very different sound to what they were used to working with. And the engineering, even though Martin Birch engineered, it's still the studio. It's tape machines, it's boards, MCI equipment, which was built in Miami, and MCI had a very intimate relationship with Criteria, as opposed to Ampex or Studer gear, and API consoles, or 80 series Neve consoles or Helios consoles. If you use an API or a Helios, or an 80 series Neve, you got one sound. But if you used Ampex, or a Studer tape machine, you got one sound, inherently, generated by the equipment—the equipment had a signature. If you used all MCI gear, and the modern monitors that were put into Criteria—I'm sorry I'm not to mention what it was; I think it was a Headway room, but I'm not sure. I don't want to venture a guess on the monitors, but the whole equipment schedule at Criteria was very different from what they were used to. And you know, such studios would never be built in the UK, but such studios were built in the U.S., for better or worse.

"So they radically changed the piping through which their sound went, and by means of which their sounds were produced. And the record had a shockingly lighter texture compared to what had preceded it. It's really amazing, how much lighter it is, and it shows up all the time, when I play stuff from Black Sabbath in a row in my classes, for example, if I follow up 'Iron Man,' or 'War Pigs,' or even 'Snowblind,' cocaine [laughs], with 'Heaven and Hell.' 'Snowblind'...one of great guitar solos ever recorded, and it's double-tracked as well, if you can handle it. I mean, I would sit around and listen to this over and over again and say, 'This guy is just fucking amazing.' And even if it's double-tracked, how is he able to double-track it well enough so it doesn't unravel the double-tracking, but not so perfectly that we actually get a huge impact from the double-tracking when the two threads of the solos, of the twin solos, diverge? It's awesome.

"So you play that, and then you play 'Heaven and Hell,' it's like whoa, big difference here. I don't think for the better. I mean, the record was extremely successful. 'Heaven and Hell' was an awesome track, a pure Bruckner track, utilizing the scherzo rhythms of Anton Bruckner—it's just amazing. If someone was to say, 'I'm going to create a heavy metal song by sampling big chunks of Bruckner, lay some lyrics on them, and execute them with metal orchestration as opposed to Bruckner's huge, supersized Romantic orchestra'...it's actually a paradigm case of the translation of all this stuff, through the lens of the horror film, into...you know, from the nineteenth-century Romantic orchestra to the much smaller, but equally powerful, heavy metal crypto-orchestra.

During the _Heaven and Hell_ era, Ronnie's stage attire was similar to what we might have seen during his Rainbow days.

Photo by Rich Galbraith

"He's obviously a songwriting genius," begins Sandy, asked for his impressions of Geezer Butler. "Because what people don't realize, it's Geezer and Tony, right? It's not Ozzy and Tony who wrote all the stuff. As a lyric writer, Geezer is, in my opinion, I'm on record as saying, from an interview I did with _NME_ probably in 1972 [laughs], once we got past talking about the Grateful Dead, we talked about Black Sabbath, and I described Black Sabbath's lyrics as sheer genius. I mean, 'War Pigs,' who else could do that? [laughs]. And he's an awesome, fantastic bass player. I hope that there is no Craig Gruber on _Heaven and Hell_ , and I really question whether there is or not. There is some nonsense that is going around on the Web that Craig was so afraid of my lawyers and Don Arden's lawyers—give me a break—that he would dare not advocate for his rights. I do remember that there was some sort of controversy, which I was not really a party to, when I got there, about Craig Gruber.

"But as I recall, Geezer was in the studio when I got there, and I presume he played all the parts. I mean, they sound like Geezer Butler, mind you, a little faster and less heavy. But a lot of it was actually designed before he got there. So I mean, a lot of it was designed by Dio and Iommi before he got there, or Dio and Iommi and Martin Birch before Geezer got there. But as I said, the studio setup is a major factor in the sound of the record; 80 series Neves or APIs or Helios kind of give you one sound, and MCI consoles...we used to call MCIs More Cuban Incompetence. I can't remember all that was associated with the room, but there was a particular run of monitors that were used in this room, all in all, which give you a very different sound, and you have to work very hard to work your way around the sound values of that kind of equipment as opposed to the Helios/API/Neve/Studer/Ampex sound value, all of which I love. So those are my values, as opposed to MCI values."

Asked what Martin Birch brought to the table, Sandy notes that "he certainly brought discipline. Martin Birch is really good at concentrating the minds of the people he worked with. I mean, look at the records he's made. The next production, of 'Burning for You,' was awesome. Now it's true most of it existed before he showed up to rehearse with the Cult, but he nailed it and made it even better, and I'm very familiar with 'Burning for You' [laughs]. And so, given the bands that he's worked with—the Cult, Sabbath, and Maiden—yeah, I'm not a big Maiden fan, but I think Martin Birch has a tremendous amount of discipline, great engineer, he knows how to extract the most out of the raw materials. He extracts different things out of the raw materials than I would. That's okay—I can't argue with his success. Actually, it would have been interesting to see what a recording of Iron Maiden, as recorded and/or produced by Martin Birch, would have sounded like without him. Because the Cult has a whole different sound, all different number of ways, right? And the sound of Black Sabbath, _Heaven and Hell_ , is way different from any Black Sabbath album that preceded it. But I would've loved to see what he would have done with Iron Maiden, with all the guys, and how he would've dealt with that texture, and whether they would've actually allowed him to deal with the texture the way he had dealt with it with Sabbath and the Blue Öyster Cult. I mean, with Sabbath, it really is a sea change, if you listen to it back-to-back with the other stuff."

Next, I asked Sandy if the guys ever expressed any rancor over the sudden success of Ozzy as a solo artist, which we would have started to see about the time of _Mob Rules_ , or certainly six or twelve months later, given that Ozzy's second solo album, _Diary of a Madman_ , was issued three days after _Mob Rules_ and was soon to be a monster hit.

"I never heard from them. I never heard any jealousy about Ozzy's success from them, but I heard it from the wives. I heard it from the wives and the changers. But I never heard it from the band—never once, never remotely, did I hear it. But a lot of stuff came from the retainers, because they were their loyal yeomen who had been there since like 1969. They were the Birmingham guys."

And how does Sandy think _Mob Rules_ stands up to _Heaven and Hell_? "Well, you know, I don't know how to compare it with _Mob Rules_. As much as I love the cover, I don't think it's that great. I don't think it has the same depth of material that _Heaven and Hell_ has. So it's difficult for me to really evaluate what that all meant. What do you think?"

Proggier perhaps? "Yeah, well, of course, that is, as they say in Italy, getting back to Dio, that's _bacio della morte_ [the kiss of death], when you say proggy. Yeah, that's one kind of music that I don't like. And Tony played in Jethro Tull! I never actually knew this until I was working with them. [Note: Tony was in the band for about two weeks in 1968, documented for all to see in the filmed footage of the Rolling Stones' _Rock and Roll Circus_.] In an unguarded moment, he said, 'Believe it or not, I was the guitar player in Jethro Tull.' And I just refused to deal with it, because I was like...Jethro Tull got the metal Grammy, and I have a real problem with the very existence of Jethro Tull, let alone one of my five favorite, and five greatest guitar players, being the member of that...can I call it a band? Is that stretching the envelope a little too much? I don't know, flute and Tony Iommi together on the same stage? Can you deal with it? [laughs]."
18

"The Boys Are in the Kitchen Having a Little Chat."

Craig Gruber on the Birth of Heaven and Hell

Bassist extraordinaire Craig Gruber had been around the block with Elf and Rainbow, featuring on that band's debut _Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow_ , before almost getting the nod to be part of Sabbath. Recommended by Ronnie but then nixed due to the return of Geezer, Gruber and his experience with the guys is an interesting footnote in Sabbath history.

"I had left Rainbow for the second time in 1978, and that's when Bob Daisley stepped in," begins Gruber. "I started working at the Record Plant and was living in Hollywood. Andy Johns was working at the Record Plant as an engineer and producer, and Andy and I became good friends. He did Led Zeppelin and Bad Company and he's a really great guy, and he said, 'Listen, forget about the road for a while. Why don't you come in, I'll get you some work at the studio. That way you can go home every night, you can work and make really, really good money and get off the road and get away from the brain damage with Rainbow and all that stuff?' And I said, 'That's a great idea.' So I did, and I stayed there for a year.

"The spring of '79, that's when Ronnie left Rainbow for the last time. So that was the exact moment that Black Sabbath let Ozzy go, the spring of '79, February or March, right in there. So back to the Record Plant, I was still recording there and doing sessions, and Ronnie gave me a call out of the blue. I don't even know how he got my number. It's an unlisted number and I hadn't talked to him for a year and a half prior to that. And he said, 'Listen, Craig, how are you? Blah blah blah. I just joined Sabbath, and they let Ozzy go, and Geezer has left also.' And I just went, 'And why are you calling me?' I wasn't interested, truthfully, in the very beginning. I said, 'I'm doing well here at the Record Plant; I'm making huge money, sleeping in my own bed.' And he said, 'Listen, we've written some really, really good material. They've got a house in Bel Air, they're rehearsing out there, please come up, I really want you to hear some of the songs before you say no.'

"After a couple of more phone calls I agreed to it. So they came and picked me up and we went up there to the home. And we went out to the garage; way out there they had a full setup, and we played 'Wishing Well,' 'Children of the Sea,' and a blues jam. We played for about four hours and it really kind of rocked, felt really good, and they said, 'Think about the possibility of you coming in, you and Ronnie, replacing Geezer.' It wasn't called...the album didn't even have a title yet. So I said I'd think about it. And a week or so went by, and Ronnie gave me a couple more phone calls; we talked money, opportunity, talked long-term, so that's initially what brought me into the band in a nutshell.

"With Rainbow, there was no weird stuff," continues Craig, "but yeah, Sabbath did [laughs]. That was crazy. Yeah, there was a séance and shit. But back to Rainbow, no. When we did the _Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow_ album, no, there was nothing like that at all. We went into Musicland Studios, which was just downstairs in the hotel—the Stones had just built it and it was brand-new. We would just go down and turn stuff up, have some drinks, and just start to blast. There was no weird stuff.

"But Sabbath, when I flew to move into the Sabbath house in Miami that they had rented...after I got the gig, after we'd rehearsed the songs and written four or five more songs, the whole band relocated— Sabbath that is—to Miami. They rented one of the Bee Gees' houses, Barry Gibb's house, right on Biscayne Bay, this huge palatial place, where we set up in the main living room. Two-million-dollar house, set up the living room—those guys don't care. But when I landed, there was a car to pick me up at the airport. It was a Friday night, pretty sure it was, and I'd flown in, and when I got to the house, I beat on the door, bang bang bang, for someone to open the door and no one opened the door. So I walked around the side of the house and pounded on the windows, and Graham Wright, the road manager, opens the door: 'Craig, how you doin', mate? Come on in; let me get you something to drink. The boys are in the kitchen having a little chat.'

"So he grabbed my bag and basses and came in, and I walked through the whole house and found the kitchen, and we went into the kitchen. They were at the kitchen table and there were four or five candles lit and the band was sitting around, with Ronnie, Bill Ward, and Tony, and they were trying to get in touch with some spirits to see if there were positive spirits in the house to make sure that if they were positive and good spirits in the house, that the sessions were going to go well and the writing was going to go well, and that was kind of strange. You know, I went to the kitchen, the lights are off, and I went to the refrigerator, opened the door, to get a beer and they bitched at me because the light came out of the refrigerator and disrupted the session and all the spirits went away and they were pissed. And I'm laughing, going, 'Yeah right.' I just want a beer, you know? And, 'Bill, want another beer?' Bill goes, 'Yeah, Craig, get me another one of them big sixteen-ounce Schlitzes sitting in there, mate.' Bill was in his underwear. He never wore clothes. He was in his boxer shorts.

"When I went to that monster mansion they had at the top of Bel Air...you know, you could see Liberace's house from there. That's the kind of house this was, massive, talking twenty thousand square feet, I don't know how many bedrooms, massive. Anyway, I knocked on the door when Ronnie and I went up there the first time they brought me up, and Bill opens the door; he hasn't shaved in three or four days, hair greased back; he's got his boxer shorts on and a sixteen-ounce can of Schlitz in his hand. 'Hello, mate, why don't you come in? You must be Craig, hey.' Wow."

As pertains to lyrics, Gruber indicates that "Ronnie had mastered that. He just had an absolute knack for lyrical content and melody. We totally left that to him. And he's an absolute genius of a person, the sweetest person you'll ever meet in your life. I don't know if you've ever met him—you probably have—but a gentleman all the way through. But to answer that question directly, Ronnie absolutely mastered the direction as far as lyrics goes. As well as melodies."

I asked Craig if there were songs that eventually emerged on _Heaven and Hell_ where he perhaps could have got writing credit on but didn't.

"Yeah, 'Die Young,' for example. That's definitely my song. I brought that in and Tony asked me about it. 'Do you have anything up-tempo? We didn't have any up-tempo numbers. A burner.' They hadn't written 'Neon Knights' yet, and I had nothing to do with 'Neon Knights'; let me make that clear. But I said, 'Yeah, I've got a song left over from some Rainbow stuff that never got on the album that's a burner and it's up-tempo and fast and really, really has a great feel to it.' So I went into 'Die Young,' and I wrote that in the living room with Tony and Bill Ward in about thirty minutes. And then Ronnie came in and he said, 'Wow, Craig, show me what you're playing there.' So I played the whole song. The middle section isn't mine. They changed that. I'm not going to take credit for that. That part where 'Die Young' slows down [sings it], I didn't...that wasn't me. That was another piece that after I left, I think they put in there. Because my song was completed all the way through. But yeah, I should've definitely, definitely got writer's credit for 'Die Young.'

"But nothing else other than little bits here and there that Tony and I would work out, some chord changes. He would say, 'What do you think of this?' And I would twist it a little bit, but nothing major. I also had a song called 'Fight the Wind' that I played for Tony. It's definitely a Sabbath song, and it's definitely got a great riff to it. I recorded it myself with my own band called Bible Black a few years later."

So presumably there would be _Heaven and Hell_ demos kicking around with Craig on them...."Yeah, because we recorded the album in Criteria Studios, and we had recorded every single song, completed, except for 'Neon Knights.' So sure, there should be something, because I played on the whole album besides 'Neon Knights.'

"But it's really just that one song, 'Die Young,'" says Craig, in closing, really quite good-natured about the whole experience. "I was very hurt and upset and kind of pissed. When the album came out I got zero credit for the song; it was like I didn't even exist. That was really bad. But they made up for it since then. A year ago they did a _Heaven and Hell_ special, a five-page article in _Decibel_ magazine, and they were speaking with Tony and he said, 'You know what? You need to contact Craig on this. I think he should really tell his side of it.' So yeah, there was a five-page article in _Decibel_ magazine, and they gave me a half-page question-and-answer, a picture of me playing and everything. So that clarified it and made me feel a little bit better about it. Because the Internet can be pretty cruel. I don't go around telling people about it, because it's too hard to even get into. So if people ask me, I say, 'Yeah, in fact I was with the band for nine months. I did play on the album, but Geezer came back into the band afterward and rerecorded bass parts, blah blah blah.'"

Parse carefully and you might notice that Craig didn't say "the" bass parts!
19

That's a Wrap!

Black Sabbath's Album Covers Ranked

Sabbath's obviously got themselves a wild batch of record sleeves, ranging from the grossly understated ( _Master of Reality_ ) to the wickedly blaring ( _Sabbath Bloody Sabbath_ ) and all points in between. Here they are courageously ranked and precociously pronounced upon by your intrepid author. Banished from the debate are the semiofficial live records and compilations, archival releases, foreign territory–only albums and various hits packs—a motley crew of designs not worth discussing.

1—Sabbath Bloody Sabbath

So stunning I ceded to the urge to write a whole chapter on it, _Sabbath Bloody Sabbath_ 's cover art is the epitome of wrenching out all the church organ stops, courageously by record companies, management, and band alike. I still shake my head in wonder that this artfully, disturbingly devilish sleeve didn't get buried and replaced at concept, let alone sketch or paint, the Baphomet vomit of it so overpowering that nothing would come close—from Alice, or the kings of sleeves, the BÖCult—at least until the '80s, perhaps through Venom or Witchfynde or A II Z or other early extreme metal eyeball-munchings. Note the subliminal/subconscious (no longer!) fact that this sleeve is the band's fifth to mix pink/purple/orange and black, tacitly establishing a connection to teen males (shiftless or, at best, up to no good), their sense of doom, doing their DoodleArts (personal fave: "The Sea") buried alive in their boy caves under the sense-attack of black light, black light rock posters, and Black Sabbath.

2—Technical Ecstasy

Hipgnosis has dozens of sleeves to their goodly name this good, but there's almost added juice just to the idea of them working with Sabbath, because aside from UFO, there was never much metal to the roster. Love the art deco bathroom colors to this one, George Hardie and Richard Manning bringing us a pictorial representation of "technical ecstasy"—namely, two robots passing on an escalator having sex, but in a more polite telling of the scene, flirting, two strange appliances in the night exchanging glances. But I'm afraid the former "friends with benefits" explanation is more in keeping with the idea. A brilliant topping touch is the exquisitely plain black ink Helvetica typeface, both band name and album title furthermore rendered the same size. Flip to the back sleeve and you might infer from the scene a commentary on how tricky it is to get relationships right, connection made, connection missed, mix results, on with your day at your marble-walled place of business.

3—Never Say Die

I do love that story about how the shot used for Rainbow's _Difficult to Cure_ nearly wound up being used for _Never Say Die_. However, it didn't, and what we got instead was even niftier, a strangely robotic and quiet and lonely shot of fully suited fighter pilots milling about in front of their plane against a typically overcast steel sky of a British day. As on the cover of Blue Öyster Cult's _Mirrors_ , there's the added value of stuff painted faintly into the sky. But forget _Mirrors_ , I've always found this sleeve to be morose and misanthropic, like that of _Technical Ecstasy_ , with the one-two punch of the music contained in both of these albums fitting the world-weary lack of humanity draining the band's batteries as the '70s drew to a close. Plus Geezer, ever wary of bombs falling on his head, finally gets his war pigs.

4—Heaven and Hell

The connection here is that Sabbath's manager during the first Ronnie era was Sandy Pearlman. Sandy had commissioned illustrator Lynn Curlee to come up with the gorgeous _Agents of Fortune_ sleeve, and here's the return visit to Pearlman's heavy metal orbit, with a painting titled, quite obviously, "Smoking Angels." Angels are heavenly beings, but their behavior here is hellish—namely, smoking, gambling, and getting mixed up in modeling work for an album by the band Black Sabbath. It's one of the more iconic images amongst those of the Sabs' checkered career and catalogue (whatever _iconic_ actually means), so much so that the artwork would be revisited for the backstage passes used by the band Heaven & Hell, which...even the reuse of the record title is in some strange way a tribute to the package of graphics and sound that was the album _Heaven and Hell_. In any event, this is a solid, substantial, conservative cover, its weight underscored by the choice of type, band name and record title presented with equal emphasis, much as they were on _Technical Ecstasy_ two records and a whirlwind of events earlier. Last point: The _Heaven and Hell_ sleeve will always be compared with Van Halen's _1984_ cover from four years later, that one depicting a mischievous male toddler taking a butt break.

5—Black Sabbath

Lonely green witch in front of old Mapledurham Watermill, obscure Victorian type, eerie solar eclipse pink...this turned out to be the perfect image for the underground horror rock enclosed, the whole scene feeling like a still from a low budget horror film, but one far more disturbing than monster fair, something closer to _Race with the Devil_ or _The Wicker Man_ or _Rosemary's Baby_ , the bog-blasted last issued a year and a half earlier to much hysteria. It all sprang from the mind of Vertigo designer Keef, the band not even seeing it until management handed them a copy, the record literally already in the shops. The Sabbath guys instantly loved it, save for the upside-down cross within the gatefold (U.S. issue skipped the gate), Geezer in particular figuring, given his strict Catholic background, that his parents would freak when they saw it.

Warner Bros. continues to build upon the fans' goodwill toward a Sabbath fronted by Ronnie James Dio, promoting _Mob Rules_ far and wide.

6—Mob Rules

Quite unlikely that the "Kill Ozzy" one could scratch out of the rocks and dirt bottom right was intentionally put there, given that this 24" x 20" Greg Hildebrandt painting (untitled but later known as "Mob Dream") was crafted back in the '70s. Makes a great story, though, and it makes a great Sabbath cover, given the addition of the graffiti-styled red text and given that the devil on the canvas in the middle would resemble a figure from the future, namely Ronnie's Dio band mascot, Murray. Sure, it's fantasy illustration, but there's a class to the thing, with the muted browns and the intrigue of the scene rather than displays of overt or cartoony horror. Hildebrandt originally resisted Sabbath's request to use the painting (they had seen it in an art book), due to its origins in a disturbing dream he had about his conflicted Catholicism, which is an interesting tie-in to Geezer's strict upbringing and its incongruity with his heavy metal happenstance. In any event, Greg said that once he completed the painting, his nightmares ended as well.

7—Sabotage

I'm totally blinded by this being my fave Sabbath album ever and, like, in my Top Five of all time by anybody. Still, be still my beating heart and let's try to be critical. The joke is the reflection in the mirror not being quite right, front-to-front and, on the back, back-to-back. The backstory is that the guys weren't exactly prepared for a photo shoot, and Bill somehow wound up in Ozzy's red tights and then no pants o'er top. The cover, however, bears no relation to the title of the album, as opposed to, say, Heep's _Look at Yourself_ or Blue Öyster Cult's _Mirrors_ , which both tackle the idea cleverly. What I do like about it, though, is just how cool and mid-'70s the guys come off, not quite boys and not quite old men, dressed like rich hippies from California (okay, not Bill), this being, in particular, pretty much the most righteous photo of Ozzy in existence (and he's been snapped a few times in his life).

8—Paranoid

Sabbath wanted to call the album _War Pigs_ , hence the cover, but the U.S. label thought that too potent and piquant, given divided opinion over the intense Vietnam War. But man, slapping _Paranoid_ on it gives it a whole new twist, our pink-clad Ian Anderson look-alike comically charging forest demons that in fact aren't out to get him. Given that this is the Sabbath album most celebrated and revered by the widest possible swath of society, the sleeve—i.e., its combination of type and image—is near unratable given the snow blindness of iconic status. Still, and despite the tangled (trip)wire of its message, one would have to applaud its mathematical composition, its daring pink-and-blackness, and the poisonous post-Manson dark psych of the typeface utilized to announce Sabbath's second serving of doom.

9—Master of Reality

What I love about this sleeve is its daring simplicity, which renders it the grandfather of a line of sleeves that wells up through AC/DC's _Back in Black_ , Spinal Tap's _Smell the Glove_ , and Metallica's eponymous "black album." But let's not forget, though the cover is graphically sparse, it had a gimmick: namely, embossed text, to say nothing of the original curious thin box/box-flap design—curious because I'm not sure I get the point. It's also cool that Geezer's nervous, fatalistic, poetic lyrics are proudly printed on the back. The sum total is that you actually got more from this package than from the average sleeve, despite the blobulous enigma of the front mind-melt.

10—Live Evil

_Live Evil_ sports a Stan Watts illustration of the same sort of concept rendered photographically by Rush for _Exit...Stage Left_. But whereas Rush played up their albums, what Sabbath does is picture-check every last song included right here on this live album—and using a few different conceits. Songs represented as characters coming ashore include "War Pigs," "Neon Knights," "The Mob Rules," "Paranoid," "Heaven and Hell" (is it two characters because the song is on the album in two parts?), "Voodoo," "Iron Man," and, most amusingly, "Children of the Grave" and "Children of the Sea," which are both taken care of by three tots rowing a coffin. Less obviously, the hooded guy is said to represent "Black Sabbath"; the goat's eyes, nostrils, chin, and horns at the feet of the War Pig are reserved for "N.I.B."; the acoustic guitar on the back, "Fluff." Additionally, the cheesy devil's head lighting is supposed to take care of "E5150," I suppose because "E5150" roughly translates to "evil" in roman numerals. O'er to the back again, as stars in the sky, it's "The Sign of the Southern Cross." Okay cover, but the high art of something like _Technical Ecstasy_ or _Never Say Die_...that's falling away as unfortunately was also the case of Sabbath in the Ronnie era musically and lyrically. In other words, the band is becoming increasingly cartoony and folded back into itself.

11—The Eternal Idol

Noble of intent (and I'm inclined to cut it some slack, 'cos the album is so kick-ass), the cover for _The Eternal Idol_ features a live re-creation of Auguste Rodin's 1889 sculpture of the same name. Permission to photograph the work was not secured so instead, a couple of naked models were painted and posed for the piece, a process which almost killed them, given the hours spent hanging around while toxic chemicals slowly seeped through their pores. Can't say it makes for a pretty picture, but at least the statement here is due north from scaring adolescent record-changers with demon babies and cartoon skeletons.

Even if _The Eternal Idol_ is a personal favorite of the Tony Martin era, I think now it's pretty much consensus that _Headless Cross_ is the high point of this part of the Sabbath saga.

12—Tyr

_Tyr_ 's Satori-designed cover is classy, with deep greens, stormy skies, and Celtic knotwork, the vibe very much predicting the neo-pagan black metal look coming down the pipes from Norway by the end of the decade. The runes are from Sweden's Rök Runestone, and the piece is meant to visually portray the Nordic mythology of much of the album but not all of it. The back cover quote reads, "TYR—son of Odin and the supreme sky god of the Northern peoples; the god of war and martial valour, the protector of the community, and the giver of law and order." The back cover and the CD print itself somewhat let down the side, but still, this is a nice return to something classy and quiet since, well, every sleeve after _Heaven and Hell_.

13—Seventh Star

The worst part of this cover art is the clumsy way the band's name is styled: "Black Sabbath" in a big font; "Featuring" (tiny font); "Tony Iommi" (medium). Other than that, it's a shot of Tony alone, on a gray background. But is that it? No, the background reveals a pattern, a ghoulish illustrated scene in black on gray, a sample of a copper engraving from 1506 called _The Torment of Saint Anthony_ , named for a saint who led a monkish life wandering the Egyptian desert. The cover shot, conversely, is of the Tony near and dear to headbanging hearts, standing in...a desert, with a second larger shot from the same shoot filling the back cover, on which also sits the song titles, one of which is "Sphinx (The Guardian)." It's still not a great cover, also faltering because it sends the one message that everybody should be downplaying—that Sabbath is down to one original member.

14—Cross Purposes

The _Cross Purposes_ sleeve fits the tenor of the times, designer Matt Curtis going for the sleek and sumptuous look also achieved by Hugh Syme and Dave McKean. The burning angel suggests a future film cell from a movie called _Heaven and Hell_ , and that, combined with the upscale type, suggests a band with a major-label art budget. Can't say the angel is too convincing, being two different shades of blue, nor do the flames feel much like real fire. Not horrible, however, and decidedly more uptown than the two comic book–ish sleeves preceding it.

15—Headless Cross

Just what in the heck is a headless cross anyway? This washed-out illustration (we're back to the blacks and purples of the early days) doesn't answer that question, the front being essentially a stone cross over what I imagine is a grave, the back cover being the same marker with the cross part broken off, neither being a headless cross. One nice touch is that the typeface chosen for the band name resembles somewhat the font utilized way back on the debut. Another mildly artsy gesture is that there is no album title on the front.

16—The Devil You Know

Not crazy about the over-the-top "ghoulish devil reigning o'er hell" illustration used for this (Walmart got a toned-down cover)—just way too predictable, corporate, thoughtless, and even nasty. This goes for the title as well, although to be positive, I do like the text placement, on a strip across the lower half that resembles a cigar band or a Japanese obi strip. Nice touch as well with the Dio—Iommi—Butler—Appice tag, a gesture that elevates each personality, and equally so, to the level of star status. Further on the title, it's actually somewhat more imbued with meaning beyond the satanic, Geezer commenting that it's a crack at the fact that even with a new band name, to fans, we're still the devil you know. A final trivia note: The 25 and 41 on the devil badge is a reference to Matthew 25:41, the subject of that passage being The Last Judgment.

17—Vol 4

If I'm gonna speak up for a minority and give it up that _Master of Reality_ sports a good cover, then I've got to go with consensus on _Vol 4_ and call it crap. First off, there's no agreement on the title of the damned thing. I've always obstinately gone with the cover, which says _Vol 4_ , as opposed to the spine and record, which say _Vol. 4_ , and not the verbal, which from everybody, the Sabs included, is always, sensibly, Volume 4 ( _Operation: mindcrime_ , _The Razors Edge_...geez, I hate these things). Moving on, that doesn't even look like Ozzy, so let's double the pain and repeat the front cover on the back cover, reverse the shabby colors (white and yucky brownish yellow), and add song titles. On the positive, this is exactly what was on my first rock T-shirt ever and it obviously is stark and simple enough to make for an image immediate and striking, especially rendered in nothing but black ink thickly plastered on blinding orange cloth—yeah, baby, that was what it was. And come to think of it, my second rock tee was similarly very bright red, plastered with a faithful rendering of the cover of _Sabotage_!

18—Forbidden

The reaper from _Dehumanizer_ returns, covering up his red shawl with a blue one. He is no longer robotic, but now just a goofy, grinning cartoon. Open up to its full three-panel splendor: He stands watch over a cranked-open grave out of which drift comic likenesses of the band and various friends and acquaintances thereof, including label boss Miles Copeland, producer Ernie C., guest Ice T., and even Tony's wife Val. Again, the schlock horror of it all suggests Sabbath as a parody of itself, Tony Iommi's riffs and Tony Martin's second-guessing lyrics at the time not helping to dispel the notion.

19—Born Again

About as bad a botch job as one could imagine, the _Born Again_ sleeve features a lurid red demon baby with yellow claws and green eyes writhing over a black light–purple background. Gold text in black keyline completes the abortion. The cover was so bad, it was one of the factors in Ian Gillan fleeing the band, forked tail between his legs. In fact, no—no forked tail. That was the whole point. Ian was trying to steer the band away from any semblance of mysterioso satanic crap and this is the thanks he gets. Further dirt to the grave, really, this was the band's first completely dumb cover. There would be more, but it's the first. The story of the cover's crafting is a humorous one, designer Steve Joule purposely turning in garbage so that he wouldn't lose his job designing covers for Ozzy. Sharon had recently split fantastically from dad Don, and the feud had been on. So Steve turns in a rough akin to this, upon which Don Arden and Tony like it, Geezer hates it but loves it, and Ian and Bill...they weren't present to pronounce one way or the other. To Joule's surprise, he gets the thumbs-up and finishes the thing in a night of booze and drugs, hand-lettering of the lyrics and all, and receives his pay—twice what Ozzy's camp had been doling out to him at the time. Joule cites the source photo for the baby as from the cover of a 1968 issue of a magazine called _Mind Alive_. Depeche Mode had also used this photo, for the picture sleeve of a single called "New Life," but Joule had been unaware of this at the time.

20—Dehumanizer

The subdued blue and purple color scheme of the _Dehumanizer_ cover illustration comes nicely augmented by burgundy text presented in new custom logo, but the composition of the scene portrayed is, alas, crap. See, there's a grim reaper figure giving the power hand to a headbanger, who seems to be ripping off his shirt. Both figures are steel robots, as is the guard dude in the background. I suppose the idea is to obliquely portray song titles like "TV Crimes," "Computer God," and "Time Machine," the composite suggesting this idea that what we're getting is a Sabbath for a modern age, a Sabbath edgy enough to compete with grunge. Each of those song titles is certainly jarring to the Sabbath fan more accustomed to the timeless. The back cover, however, is quite regal looking, featuring a tiny, blue-tinted shot of the band framed by the song titles in a torpedo-shaped arc.

21—Reunion

As if the guys hadn't learned from the _Born Again_ debacle, here they are back again with a crude portrayal of demon children, the baby of _Born Again_ being born again, doubled up into what looks like two chubby daughters with horns, bat wings, and werewolf lower halves—nice. They are standing on more horns, propping up a shield with more horns. The back cover is considerably classier, featuring the song titles tightly packed and artfully scattered, floating over a throng of concertgoers. But the front is crap: no thought, no brains, no improvement plastered on a shirt.
20

Doom Gone Solo

Key Sabbath Members and Their Solo Accomplishments—A Critique

The Black Sabbath guys have made a valiant effort as solo artists over the years (see appendix 3 for a timeline of solo achievements), especially considering how many Sabbath albums got cranked out along the way. So who's offered up the best music? The answer is Ronnie James Dio, for obvious reasons. And if you don't cop to that analysis, well, may I suggest Bill Ward? Here's why.

Tony Iommi

Now of course, Tony is the only guy who's been there for every Black Sabbath album, and he's been the chief music writer, so let's excuse him if he hasn't gotten up to much. Still, in 2001, he came up with the _Iommi_ record. Problem is, it was so loaded up with famous guest stars, there's very little soloness to the thing. Plus, every song was written by Tony, each song's vocalist, and overbearing producer/song doctor Bob Marlette. The end result was a record by anybody with sludgy doomy riffs as the thread. O'er to something a bit more palatable, and Tony teams up with Glenn Hughes, first for a sort of shelved situation, _The 1996 DEP Sessions_ , issued in 2004, and then a bona fide record called _Fused_ , in the summer of '05. Both are officially Iommi albums, messily marked with the Glenn Hughes name as well. _Fused_ also featured session drummer Kenny Aronoff and, again, Bob Marlette sucking the personality out of it. The whole messy catalogue oddly mirrors Glenn Tipton's solo career, and the songs enclosed, also the same, namely a sort of stiffness and claustrophobia, although _Fused_ is actually a bloody good record, far and away the crowning achievement of the modest catalogue.

Ozzy Osbourne

No question Ozzy's catalogue is the best from the key Sabbath members, but we all know it's hardly a "solo" career, the Oz man bringing into his band some of the best in the biz, who help with music, lyrics, the whole thing. Still, you've got to appreciate the guy for producing so much great material over the years, no matter what his actual role. And fact is, he's singing everything, making all the major decisions and then being the great live performer he is year after year. I don't mean to diminish his role in the band; it's just that, in many ways, Ozzy Osbourne is a force and a brand even bigger than Sabbath—that's really the reason I can't view his efforts in this field as a guy dipping into a low-budget solo career, whacking out an album, sort of alone. His solo career's a friggin' aircraft carrier, loaded with multiplatinum albums. So yeah, Oz is disqualified from this discussion, even if, for the record, _Diary of a Madman_ and _Bark at the Moon_ (and maybe the underrated _No Rest for the Wicked_ ) are right up there with the best from Dio, who, by the skin of his teeth, doesn't get disqualified.

Tony Martin

Eh, barely registers, although one of his two bona fide solo albums, 2005's _Scream_ , is bloody excellent, heavy, melodic, and what a voice. His other is _Back Where I Belong_ from '92, and admirably, Martin played all the instruments...at least on the demos! Other than this, though, he's mainly been a bit player (and granted, at times, full-on collaborator) on other people's usually project-y records (Empire, Dario Mollo, Phenomena, Rondinelli).

Ronnie James Dio

Ronnie's first singles were as a kid in the late '50s, and then he crooned his way through his honky-tonk Elf albums plus three drop-dead classics from Rainbow. Now, is Dio a solo career? Well, more so than Ozzy's, given that Ronnie has more of an upper hand over producers and his manager, more input into the music, and he writes all the lyrics. It's definitely less of a collaboration. Ronnie prides himself on running the show and everything he puts out bears way more of his stamp than wot happens in Ozzy's more corporate organization. So if Dio qualifies as Ronnie's solo career, well, _Holy Diver_ , _The Last in Line_ , and the underrated _Dream Evil_ should be enough proof that here's a guy with lots to say outside of the Sabbath camp.

As surprised as anybody, Ozzy suddenly found himself not dead from drink, but fronting a supercharged hit band blessed with a bona fide guitar hero in Randy Rhoads.

Photo by Rich Galbraith

Geezer Butler

It's always been inspiring to watch Geezer as a solo artist. Here's a guy who's a bassist, doesn't contribute much to the music writing of Sabbath, but of course wrote all those great lyrics for the band through the '70s before he ceded to Ronnie come _Heaven and Hell_. So we knew he had a head on his shoulders. So enter the alt rock '90s, and Geezer gets prolific, and not only that, we find out a) he's a bit of an industrial/tech metalhead, b) he hasn't lost his flair for intelligent, artistic wordsmithing, and c) he's as heavy, or even heavier, by choice than the example of Sabbath would let on. In that light, Geezer cranks out _Plastic Planet_ in '95, _Black Science_ in '97, and _Ohmwork_ in '05, and all with a pretty consistent band (though Fear Factory's Burton C. Bell only served as vocalist on the first one). Oh yeah, and the first one's by "g//z/r," the second, "geezer," and the third, "GZR." And although some of the material felt a bit trendy, and response from the press, in the main, wasn't all that effusive, it was cool to see Butler stick his neck out a bit, try to keep pace with the tattooed and pierced set, and in the end, crank out three solid, challenging chunks of futuro-metal that did nothing if not enhance his reputation.

Bill Ward

I don't think anyone did more for his reputation as an artist within Sabbath than Bill did, by attempting solo statements away from the mother ship. First, you can't get much lower than the drummer in the band, especially if you don't assert yourself as much of a writer. Sure, Bill sang a couple, and his drumming is stark raving unique. But troubled by the booze, regularly tumbling out of the band, fragile of heart...surprise to us all, Bill's solo work has proven to be the most introspective, passionate, socio-conscious, ambitious, and on occasion stunning, against any of the guys that get down on him for fun. There isn't much of it ( _Beyond Aston_ is comically about as behind schedule as GNR' **s** _Chinese Democracy_ was), but what there is...serious Sabbath fans are quietly in awe. First was 1989's _Ward One: Along the Way_ , with that dog's breakfast of a cover. But look inside, and Bill turns out to be the Roger Waters of heavy metal, possessing depth beyond his beers. Who would have thunk it? Turns out he's both the soul and the mind of Sabbath. Move up into _When the Bough Breaks_ and the Roger Waters comparisons deepen. It's not a hard rock record at all this time, but a serious singer/songwriter spread, slightly progressive, emotionally raw, with vocals from Bill that betray him as one of the singing secret weapons that the Sabs stopped using before he could blossom. Finally, there was Bill's masterpiece, one song, "Straws," issued in a novel way, for free, for donation, a lone song on a disc with a plea, for world peace. "Straws" is quite simply one of the greatest songs ever written, again, let alone put up to pithy comparisons to anything any of the Sabbath guys ever did apart or together. It is a masterful slice of dark Floydian brilliance, and it is the reason to keep a watch on Bill and hope that he can somehow untangle himself from his eccentricities and get some music off his hard drives and into the public domain.

A fantastic '70s-era backstage shot of Bill Ward is utilized in this ad for his vastly under-rated second solo album.

Conclusion? Well, I think you know my conclusion. In the true spirit of the "side project" with the attendant low budgets and no one looking, with it all on the line and with the lion's share of the responsibility on one guy, it is Bill—the John Paul Jones of Sabbath—who has stood low expectation on its head and quietly created the most timeless art on the sideline of the Sabs.
21

"Next on American Bandstand, a Kooky Bunch All the Way from England..."

The 20 Most Shockingly Radio-Friendly Black Sabbath Songs

Hooks, melody, lyrics about girls...Sabbath occasionally reached out in desperation to prop up their career. Here are the songs that raised a few eyebrows, caused a few snickers, or otherwise wrinkled noses.

1—"It's Alright"

_Technical Ecstasy_ in general trended toward the rock 'n' rollsy, away from doom, but "It's Alright" went way farther than that, emerging as the band's first ballad without a hint of doom, and first with all instruments in, meaning, 'Hey, we're serious here.' It's a rare Bill War–-penned title, and Bill even sings it (sort of a Peter Criss—"Beth" situation). Apparently Bill used to sing quite a bit in the early days, indeed, this, very personable, Beatle-esque track having been worked up by Bill and Tony as far back as 1972.

2—"Rock 'n' Roll Doctor"

Back to _Technical Ecstasy_ for a heavy number, yet one that is framed around a churlish, stripper boogie, Sabbath party rocking, arguably, for the first time in their dour and serious career of doom. And if we didn't get the point that this is a Sabbath yearning for a little happiness, there's honky-tonk keyboard to float your boat. Of note, the track first showed up as an instrumental during the band's tour for _Sabotage_ , and then doesn't really live an out-of-the-closet life until the lubricated and fun-loving Ian Gillan takes a hold of it on tour for his lone record with the band, _Born Again_.

3—"No Stranger to Love"

The incongruous Glenn Hughes joins the band (well, this was supposed to be some sort of Tony solo album) and croons his brokenhearted way through a rote '80s hair band power ballad, even if Tony manages to massage into the thing a few apocalyptic chord sequences. The video, in which a lonely Tony looks for love, doesn't help assuage the pain that Sabbath as we knew it had been slowly chipped to fragments.

4—"Changes"

Anything quiet Sabbath did previous to "Changes" was funereal to say the least, and really, this track is still sobbingly sad. Still, it's a relationship song, and there's a detectable rise in elbow grease applied to it over previous tinkly tunes. Thirty years hence, Ozzy and his daughter Kelly took an almost touching duet version of this song to the top of the British pop charts.

5—"Spiral Architect"

Bits and pieces of the _Sabbath Bloody Sabbath_ album had fans up in arms, many comparing the album to _Led Zeppelin III_ , claiming the Sabs had gone soft and fancy-pants. "Spiral Architect" was the chief villain, given its drippy, psychedelic melody and the obvious amount of seriousness with which the band treated the strings-'n'-things pastoral arrangement.

6—"Neon Knights"

I wanted to represent the Dio years (original era) because really, so much of the band's material here felt less doomy, more willing to embrace the punters. "Slipping Away" is funky, "Wishing Well" is bouncy and melodic, "Country Girl" raised eyebrows because it was a bit of a love song...but really, "Neon Knights," for all its secure reputation, is quite up-tempo, melodic, party-hardy, and then there's that title, which includes both a pun and the jarringly modern word _neon_. Yes, that's how we analyzed the Sabbath situation back in 1980, furrowing brows that there was something a little too non-doom about this song and even the whole idea of the new, shiny, and efficient Sabbath with Ronnie.

7—"The Illusion of Power"

Brooding, third-rate, warehouse-of-riffs Sabbath that it is, "The Illusion of Power" had no hope of being a hit, especially given Sabbath's waning lifeblood during these lost years. I only include it because, like Rush's "Roll the Bones," the song includes a gratuitous rap; here, big-shot Ice-T providing some rhymes, blasphemy to Sabbath purists, and a pox and pall over the whole album, which was produced, bafflingly, by Ice-T's partner in Body Count, Ernie C.

8—"Never Say Die"

Perhaps "A Hard Road" is the more obvious choice form the band's last album with Ozzy if one is to cast aspersions toward ear candy and other commercial panderings, but since the day _Never Say Die_ came out, the title track has always sat off to the side as this hugely melodic, supercharged, incongruously speedy song of pop persuasion. And if we can squeeze in another form of commerciality and bow to current trends, it's a bit of a punk rocker as well.

9—"Psycho Man"

Not that negative a factor in the mechanics of the appreciably heavy track lacking much hook, nonetheless "Psycho Man" was cobbled together quickly, somewhat as a test of the creative possibilities of a reformed Sab, but also as a shot at a single. The naff lyrical conceit however seems cynically commercial, horror by boardroom, dumbed down for the common mob of knobs.

The tepid reception afforded new compositions "Psycho Man" and "Selling My Soul" was a likely factor in Ozzy deciding that the magic and material weren't on tap with respect to the Sabs being able to craft a studio reunion album.

10—"Paranoid"

Not for the girls per se, but nonetheless, "Paranoid" was swift, curt, and molded to be single material, not so much a light bit to be added to the oppressive album of the same name, but still something accessible. Plus it didn't help that various UK journos harrumphed about it, jealous of the quick success the Sabs found, fueled, really, by this first single. All told, it's a bit similar to the tale of Deep Purple's "Never Before" as well as "Black Night."

11—"Turn Up the Night"

That title sounds like something by a glam band, although coming out of Ronnie, it's wrapped in evil and mysticism, so fair enough. But dig into the song, and it's plainly prepared for partying as a second-rate "Neon Knights." Plus, as much as I dig it, Tony's guitar solo here is all sugar and spice.

12—"Evil Woman"

The commerciality of Black Sabbath's very first record slants in from a few directions. First off, it's a cover, demonstrating a willingness by the boys to be jerked around and given a song to do, conveniently, with the publishing already owned by their new record company. Plus, lyrically, the song represents a softer version, a compromise of the satanic doom and gloom of much of the rest of the debut album. Last, the track is short and bouncy, not nearly glam-happy or anything, but still quite accessible, even if down a downer rock path to perdition.

13—"Feels Good to Me"

This one's a power ballad that breaks (wind) from the conceptual nature of _Tyr_. Iommi's chord changes are typically mournful, but Tony Martin's stadium rock pipes take it in a Whitesnake direction, while Cozy's big and boomy drums remind one of production travesties from the hair metal '80s.

14—"Call of the Wild"

The title is a tip-off for this one, Tony Iommi getting about as close to a hair metal rocker melody as he's likely capable of conjuring. The year's right for hair, and Tony Martin, despite losing his, is suitably melodramatic as well. There's also a trendy sitar part and, come break time, muted Def Leppard picking. The dated and dry '80s production values support the above premise.

15—"Angry Heart"

Almost everything on _Seventh Star_ feels radio-friendly, Tony writing rootsy for Glenn's pipes and for his accessible boy/girl lyrics. "Angry Heart" is a tough, bluesy number, although not as rote as "No Stranger to Love." Still, it's a three-minute rocker that gets to the point immediately. As well, it gets very melodic for the chorus. All told, one could imagine this as a radio hit like any number of desperado Whitesnake anthems from that band's transitional (and best) midyears.

16—"Looking for Today"

Side two of _Sabbath Bloody Sabbath_ seemed to most robustly support the argument many had of Sabbath going soft after four pretty uncompromising and hefty records. "Looking for Today" was indeed quite light, they guys offering up an almost southern rock–pickin' chorus and arguably also a verse that contained just a bit too much soul, all in the name of sophistication, stepping out, maturation.

17—"Orchid"

Yeah, I know, it's dumb calling this minute-and-a-half bit of instrumental acoustic crumpet "commercial," but man, I bring it up because of all the clueless mainstream reviewers who used to waste words on these things, remarking how Sabbath had learned to write some lovely songs and have spread their gossamer wings beyond that nasty, loud acid rock they will surely be denouncing forthrightly once they really study James Taylor. In effect, these brief spots of chill-out music, by virtue of being remarked upon beyond relative importance, became stealthy commercials embedded in these ancient print notices, drawing in unsuspecting fans of the Carpenters, and, who knows, maybe even Karen and good Richard themselves.

18—"Back to Eden"

_Cross Purposes_ has a few annoyingly commercial tracks, but this one chafes in a few ways, one, through its funky arch-Aerosmith riff; two, through its overtly melodic chorus; and three, through the modulation come guitar solo time. Sure, the single was "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle," and "Dying for Love" is a power ballad, but "Back to Eden" just feels gratuitous.

19—"Time Machine"

Granted, it's a stretch, to say anything from the grim and sludgy _Dehumanizer_ album was remotely radio-friendly. But "Time Machine" qualifies given its ties to the _Wayne's World_ movie, as well as its hip-swiveling beat (amongst a career-suicidal collection of dirgy numbers). Furthermore, it's blessed with a completely hooky, welcome, and well-reasoned chorus, which, no doubt is the musical passage the largest cross section of Sabbath fans could, when pressed, drag out and hum from this humdrum album.

20—"Digital Bitch"

Given the filthy production job foisted upon the _Born Again_ , it's really hard to imagine any of these songs being played on the radio. Still, as would occur on the following record, Tony found himself with a lyricist who wasn't about to go for the usual Sabbath claptrap. So we got songs like "Hot Line" and "Trashed" and track at hand "Digital Bitch," which is yer standard butt-shakin' meat-and-potatoes metal song from the early '80s, something that coulda shown up on a Ratt or Crüe record with a bit more spit and polish. Plus to the traditional metal fan, there's just something jarring, and yes, commercial, about seeing both the words _digital_ and _bitch_ in a Black Sabbath song title.
22

Math Pt. 1: Plaque Sabbath

Some Sabbath Sales Figures

As history has shown, the Sabs were pretty much an instant hit out of the blocks, much like Uriah Heep, Led Zeppelin, and (once Ian Gillan and Roger Glover joined) Deep Purple. Still, unlike the stratospheric Zeppelin, Sabbath have found that their enormous influence and name recognition far outstrip their actual record sales, of which gold and platinum record certifications in the U.S. are the most widely accepted benchmarks. The positive flip of this is that Black Sabbath records do, and will, continue to sell, with further certifications to be expected, although the collapse of physical product sales due to legal and illegal downloading might just nip this in the bud until we figure out a new way to count song downloads.

For the record, Record Industry Association of America (RIAA) gold certification is given for U.S. record sales of 500,000 copies, with platinum set at a million. The platinum award actually wasn't invented until 1976, with the concept of "multiplatinum" arriving in 1984. Obviously, like I say, we've now entered the era of counting downloads, so changes are afoot, beginning with the role of SoundScan in keeping such statistics.

In any event, here's how Sabbath have done over the years (much of this, sans the analysis, can also be found in our Sabbath timeline), demonstrating a pattern of achievement not unlike that of bands such as Deep Purple, Rush, or Kiss.

The _Black Sabbath_ album was awarded gold status on June 14, 1971, driven by the success of the _Paranoid_ album, with singles such as "Paranoid" and "Iron Man," as well as regular U.S. tour dates and novel marketing by Vertigo. When the label went back for a mass certification on October 13, 1986, the album had reached platinum. The debut album's success is very much affected by the instant-hit status of _Paranoid_ , which was certified gold on May 7, 1971; triple platinum in 1986; and then quadruple platinum on January 31, 1995. _Paranoid_ remains the band's biggest selling album, as essentially the record containing the band's two biggest songs, as well as somewhat the gateway or "default" record for people discovering Sabbath for the first time.

_Master of Reality_ went gold immediately on September 27, 1971, platinum in '86, and double platinum on July 26, 2001. The hits and live favorites from this record would be "Sweet Leaf" and "Children of the Grave." Similarly, riding a wave of three successful records previous, _Vol 4_ went gold immediately on Nov. 6, 1972, and platinum in '86. _Vol 4_ was the first Sabbath album to reach silver certification in the band's home country, for sales of sixty thousand units, the certification taking place February 1, 1975. There were no real hit or even anthems to speak of, although "Tomorrow's Dream" was floated as a single and "Supernaut" and "Snowblind" have earned their keep. As a side note, the album was designated gold in Canada, for sales of fifty thousand on September 1, 1977, the date for a number of Canadian Black Sabbath certifications. Canadian sales of the first three Sabbath albums totaled roughly half, proportionately, to sales in the U.S., Canada clearly not being a strong territory for the Sabs, nor was the UK until the mid-'70s and into the Dio years.

_Sabbath Bloody Sabbath_ went gold immediately on March 20, 1973, and platinum in '86, the album going silver in the UK. Interestingly, follow-up _Sabotage_ was not certified gold until June 16, 1997—surprising, given that there still seemed to be lots of gas in the tank. Then again, this is a challenging record of long tracks and no hits. _Sabotage_ quickly went silver in the UK, for sales of more than sixty thousand units. _Technical Ecstasy_ suffered the same fate, not receiving gold certification until June 16, 1997, nor was it well received by fans or critics. The last album of these late (and dark) Ozzy years, _Never Say Die_ , was not certified gold until November 7, 1997; like its predecessor, it was panned by fans and critics.

Hits pack _We Sold Our Soul for Rock 'n' Roll_ was certified gold on February 7, 1978, platinum in 1986, and double platinum on March 16, 2000, proving the power of the greatest-hits album. However, in a double album, each disc gets counted, so these levels are reached with essentially half the amount of sales of a single disc. Additionally, _We Sold Our Soul for Rock 'n' Roll_ was certified silver in the UK. Incidentally, another UK compilation put out by Castle (and thus considered semiofficial) called _The Collection_ currently sits at gold, while a later Sanctuary compilation (Sanctuary took over Castle) called _The Best of Black Sabbath_ was also certified gold.

Rejuvenating the band, _Heaven and Hell_ went gold fairly quickly, on January 6, 1981, and then platinum on mass-certification day, May 13, 1986. _Heaven and Hell_ is also Black Sabbath's biggest-selling album in the UK, attaining gold certification of 100,000 units on April 28, 1982. Of note, this is a record with much more impact on mass metal consciousness than is reflected in record sales. Given the death of Ronnie James Dio, who consistently called this his greatest record, one would think _Heaven and Hell_ has more sales upside in the future over any Sabbath record save for _Paranoid_ , which is in a statistical class of its own. The second album of Ronnie's first run with the band, _Mob Rules_ , took five years to be certified gold, which it finally was on May 13, 1986. Back in the UK, however, the _Mob Rules_ album went silver almost immediately, on February 5, 1982, making it the fourth Sabbath album to reach silver in Britain. _Live Evil_ rose to no certification level. SoundScan indicates U.S. sales of 114,223 since the fall of 1991.

This, of course, is where Sabbath sales start to experience a pronounced drop-off. _Born Again_ has received no certification, with SoundScan indicating U.S. sales of 36,386 since the fall of 1991. _Seventh Star_ has also received no certification (and SoundScan figures seem to be in error). SoundScan figures for _The Eternal Idol_ indicate U.S. sales of 18,773 since the fall of 1991. _Headless Cross_ continues the band's run of no certifications, although the album is said to have done encouraging numbers in the UK and mainland Europe, particularly Germany. SoundScan indicates U.S. sales of 35,067 since the fall of 1991. SoundScan figures for _Tyr_ indicate U.S. sales of 49,155 since the fall of 1991.

With Ronnie back in the band, _Dehumanizer_ nonetheless failed to reach gold certification, but SoundScan figures put U.S. sales at 220,676 as of late 2010. You will note that these SoundScan numbers are going up, but that's because date of release has caught up with the counting of sales; i.e., the lion's share of the sales of the previous six albums occurred years before the tally job was begun. Again, this is why only old records that achieve gold and platinum are accurately represented saleswise, while if the plateau of 500,000 is reached, we really have no clue how they've done.

With the _Dehumanizer_ lineup imploding and Tony Martin back at the mic, _Cross Purposes_ received no certification, but SoundScan figures put its U.S. sales at 97,681 as of late 2010. _Forbidden_ and _Tyr_ remain the only Sabbath albums not to break the Billboard 200 in the U.S. SoundScan figures put U.S. sales of _Forbidden_ at 67,253 as of late 2010.

With the much-lauded reinstatement of the original Sabbath lineup, _Reunion_ was certified gold and platinum on the same day, January 4, 1999 (Canadian platinum certification followed in September). There's big hoopla over the reunion gigs, most notably because superstar Ozzy Osbourne is back in the band, plus _Reunion_ of course included many hits in a live setting, plus two new studio tracks. (However, again, each disc in a double CD gets counted.)

As we cross into the band's incarnation as Heaven & Hell, _The Dio Years_ had rung up U.S. sales of 160,408 as of late 2010. _Live at Hammersmith Odeon_ is preset to have no hope of certification—this CD was a Rhino Handmade numbered, limited edition set at five thousand copies, all of which sold pretty much immediately. _Live from Radio City Music Hall_ (the first album credited to Heaven & Hell) has received no certification, but SoundScan figures put U.S. sales at 33,486 as of late 2010 (57,361 for the DVD version). The band's first studio album, _The Devil You Know_ (credited to Heaven & Hell) similarly has received no certification, but SoundScan figures show U.S. sales of 87,508 as of late 2010. Finally, we close with _Neon Nights: 30 Years of Heaven & Hell—Live in Europe_, for which I have no figures, given that this book went to production just as album was issued.
23

Math Pt. 2: With a Bullet

Black Sabbath's Chart Positions

We've looked at sales numbers, and, frankly, I've always put more faith in those than in chart positions as far as providing an accurate picture of an album's standing. Still, SoundScan and RIAA designations are an imperfect system for gauging success for a number of pretty big reasons, biggest being that idea that for noncertified albums, SoundScan only counts sales since 1991. An additional area that system weakens a bit on is timing and rapidity of success, and that's where a look at chart positions can add to our understanding of success and relative success. Anyway, here's a little look-see at chart positions of the Sabbath albums as well as selected attendant singles, just to help you get a sense of how the two work in tandem, what worked and what didn't. These are _Billboard_ numbers, of course, _Billboard_ being the industry standard for such analysis, and the number indicated is highest position achieved.

_Black Sabbath_

U.S.: #23; UK: #8. The album stayed on the U.S. charts for over a year, gathering new life after the release of _Paranoid_ later the same year. The album's lead single, a cover of Crow's "Evil Woman," was not included on the U.S. issue of the album, and back home in the UK, it failed to chart. In the UK, the album opened at #25 in February, dropped to #31, rose to #9 in April, dropped all the way to #29 by the end of the month but then made its rise to #8 by mid-May.

_Paranoid_

U.S.: #12; UK: #1. In the UK, the album opened at #27, rose to #1 in the third week, and left the charts after dropping to #63 twenty-two weeks later. Additionally, it is known that the album hit #5 in Norway. The title track hit #61 in the U.S., #4 in the UK (spending eighteen weeks on the charts, rising from an opening position of #47), and #1 in Germany, underscoring the band's run of success built on the backs of their early Hamburg gigs (at which much of the band's early material was also written and road-tested). Elsewhere around Europe, _Paranoid_ hit #9 in Italy, #3 in Austria, and #2 in the Netherlands. Second single "Iron Man" peaked at #52 in the U.S., but not until 1972.

_Master of Reality_

U.S.: #8; UK: #5. Note the slow reversal of UK and U.S. positions taking place, which very well could reflect this trend of Sabbath and other big UK bands "abandoning" home base for extended tours, and indeed recording sessions in the U.S. as UK rockers tried to avoid high British tax levels, becoming "tax exiles." In the UK, the album opened at #14, rising to #5, and stayed on the charts for thirteen weeks before bowing out at #49. The album hit #5 in Germany and #12 in Norway as well.

_Vol 4_

U.S.: #13; UK: #8. In the UK, the album opened at #19, rose to #8, and left the charts after dropping to #48 ten weeks later. "Tomorrow's Dream" was launched as a single, but it failed to chart. Norway rewarded the album with a #7 placement.

_Sabbath Bloody Sabbath_

U.S.: #11; UK: #4. The album lasted at #4 for two weeks in the UK and dropped out at #44 eleven weeks later. The album also reached #6 in Norway and #49 in Germany.

_Sabotage_

U.S.: #28; UK: #7. The album also hit #6 in Norway, #9 in Austria, and #33 in New Zealand, Sabbath having been one of the few bands of that era to establish roots down under quite early in their career. On the UK charts, the album opened at #7, dropping out of the charts at #43 seven weeks later.

_Technical Ecstasy_

U.S.: #51; UK: #13. The album opened at #13 on the UK charts, stuck there for an extra week, and then dropped out at #60 six weeks later. Note the big drop-off in America, which began with _Sabotage_ and continued with _Never Say Die_.

_Never Say Die_

U.S.: #69; UK: #12. Single "Never Say Die" reached #21 in the UK charts, lasting eight weeks on the charts over June/July of '78 after a slow rise, while "A Hard Road," launched in October, peaked at #33, spending a total of four weeks on the charts (this is the same year that a reissue of "Paranoid" hit #14). In the UK, the album opened at #14, rose to #12, and then dropped out within six weeks at #49. _Never Say Die_ also hit #37 on the Swedish charts.

_Heaven and Hell_

U.S.: #28; UK: #9. "Neon Knights" rose to #22 and spent nine weeks on the UK singles chart (#17 in the U.S. but on subchart "U.S. Mainstream Rock"), while "Die Young" peaked at #41 in the UK, spending seven weeks on the chart. The album entered the UK charts at #29, rose to #9, and fell out at #72 twenty-two weeks later. Huge upswing for the band, particularly in North America, where the band's high ranking would carry right through to _Born Again_ , an album that is anything but easy on the ears.

_Mob Rules_

U.S.: #29; UK: #12. The album opened at #12 in the UK, spending the next thirteen weeks descending to #98 before dropping out. "The Mob Rules" hit #46 as a UK single, spending four weeks on the charts, with "Turn Up the Night" rising to #37 in the UK, lasting five weeks on the charts. "Turn Up the Night" also hit #24 on the U.S. Mainstream Rock chart, while "Voodoo" managed #46 on the same chart. The album reached #45 in New Zealand.

_Live Evil_

U.S.: #37; UK: #13. Additionally the album went to #15 in Sweden and #34 in New Zealand. In the UK, the album entered at #13, and dropped out at #90 eleven weeks later. Finally, the album went to #15 in Sweden and #34 in New Zealand.

_Born Again_

U.S.: #39; UK: #4. In the UK, the album opened at #4 and then dropped like a rock over the course of seven weeks, leaving at #99. Additionally, the album went to #7 in Sweden and #44 in New Zealand. One would have to surmise that _Born Again_ entering the UK charts at a hot #4 had to do with Ian's joining the band, a circumstance that merged two of the Britain's mightiest rock institutions. Conversely, it's always been said that Purple never quite took hold in America the way it did in much of the rest of the world.

_Seventh Star_

U.S.: #78; UK: #27. The album stayed on the U.S. charts for eleven weeks and on the UK charts for five weeks. _Seventh Star_ also hit #11 in Sweden. At this point, Sabbath were obviously on their way right off the map when it came to U.S. interest.

_The Eternal Idol_

U.S.: #168; UK: #66. The album stayed on the U.S. charts for six weeks, but on the UK charts for only one.

_Headless Cross_

U.S.: #115; UK: #31. The album stayed on the U.S. charts for eight weeks. The title track hit #62 as a UK single, staying in the charts for two weeks. In the UK, the album entered at #31, leaving two weeks later at #53. The album also charted at #22 in Sweden and #23 in Switzerland.

_Tyr_

U.S.: # n/a; UK: #24. In the UK, _Tyr_ entered at #24 and slipped out three weeks later at #52; it failed to chart at all in the U.S. As well, the album charted at #12 in Germany, and #24 in Sweden, Austria, and Switzerland. Much discussed is the band's brief renaissance in Germany with _Headless Cross_ , a circumstance that would have had an echo effect on the band's fortunes on home turf. Ergo both that album and _Tyr_ did quite well in the UK, although the stays up the charts were quite brief.

_Dehumanizer_

U.S.: #44; UK: #28. The album stayed on the U.S. charts for eight weeks, due to a huge press push, the _Wayne's World_ tie-in, and the fact that this lineup—half American—did good business last time around. "TV Crimes" hit #33 as a UK single, but the album slipped out of the charts after two short weeks (same length of time as the single, actually) at #54, a huge disappointment given the expense of making the record, mostly in Germany. As well, the album charted at #7 in Austria, #12 in Sweden, #13 in Switzerland, and #14 in Germany. "TV Crimes" is the band's last single ever to chart in the UK.

_Cross Purposes_

U.S.: #122; UK: #41. The album stayed on the U.S. charts for two weeks, and in the UK for but one. Additionally, the album charted at #41 in Switzerland and #32 in Germany.

_Forbidden_

U.S.: # n/a; UK: #71. On and off the UK charts in a single week, the album failed to chart stateside. As well, _Forbidden_ charted at #35 in Germany and #48 in Switzerland.

_The Devil You Know_

U.S.: # 8; UK: #21. _The Devil You Know_ entered the UK charts at #21 and left three weeks later at #71. In the U.S., its #8 placement was achieved with sales of only thirty thousand albums, reflecting the new sales climate in the age of downloading. The album also charted at #5 in Finland, #8 in Sweden, #17 in Germany, #37 in Austria, #53 in France, #84 in Belgium, #31 in Switzerland, and #20 in Poland. Again, it's interesting to see the band do best in America, but, as we've discussed, this version of Sabbath is exactly half American, with a proven track record in the American market, one that promised to be toured heavily—promise fulfilled.

Miscellaneous Releases

_We Sold Our Soul for Rock 'n' Roll_ peaked at #35 in the UK.

Exploitation archival live album _Live at Last_ rose to a surprising #5 in the UK.

_Cross Purposes Live_ , not issued in North America, nonetheless did not chart in the UK.

_Reunion_ rose to #11 on the U.S. charts, sticking around for eighteen weeks, while in the UK it peaked at #41, also achieving #5 in Canada, #11 in Sweden, #40 in Germany, and #65 in France.

_Past Lives_ nipped onto the U.S. chart at #114, falling off after one week.

_Black Box_ —granted, a massive box set—failed to chart.

_Greatest Hits 1970–1978_ hit #96 on the U.S. charts and stuck around for ten weeks.

_The Dio Years_ rose to #54 on the U.S. charts, lasting nine weeks.

_Neon Nights: 30 Years of Heaven & Hell—Live in Europe_ is an album for which I have no figures. This book went to production just as it was issued.

Not much thought was put into the cover art for what would be, at its most charitable description, a semiofficial issue of a Sabbath live set.
24

What I Think Pt. 1

Sabbath's Studio Albums Reviewed and Rated

_Black Sabbath_

Look, it really is the first heavy metal record proper and deliberate. Mere pretenders and tempted attempters with asterisks are _Vincebus Eruptum_ (Jan. '68) and _Outsideinside_ (Aug. '68), both from Blue Cheer; _Kick Out the Jams_ (Feb. '69), from MC5; and the self-titled _The Stooges_ (Aug. '69). Kicking its ass however are _Paranoid_ , Uriah Heep's _Very 'Eavy, Very 'Umble_ , and especially _In Rock_ , from Deep Purple, but all of those come later in 1970. Sure it's dated, but let's laud _Black Sabbath_ for what it is: a very heavy, conceptually new album, incredibly played and recorded for its day, especially given that it was done in only two of them. One oddity to the thing, however, is Ozzy singing in such a low register, in parallel with Steven Tyler on the first Aerosmith album, supposedly a holdover of the British blues boom. And speaking of the blues, there really isn't any anywhere in the Sabbath canon, including here, although one could argue that _Black Sabbath_ is the album with the most abstractions derived from or present in the blues, evident on "Behind the Wall of Sleep," its riff straddling newly invented metal rules and those of the blues, more so in the jammy "Warning," which is a cover anyway, and about as dark as blues gets. But yeah, what we get here in total is surprisingly direct and powerful and plentiful metal, the heaviness away from the blues supported by so many resourceful sorcerous lyrics in songs like "Black Sabbath," "The Wizard," and "N.I.B.," all pounding, rhythmic metal munchers, heck, even in "Evil Woman" and "Warning," which are both covers. Incidentally, as a reminder, "Evil Woman," is part of the UK album, but is replaced in North America by "Wicked World," again, a loping, psychedelic malevolent metaller that made _Black Sabbath_ even heavier stateside. Still, despite all this breaking of ground, can't say I derive much listening pleasure from this album, finding it crushingly depressing, a little disturbing, ancient of values, jammy like it's almost half instrumental—frankly, it sounds like the work of an evil hippie cult. It's like Sabbath is dosing and then tormenting the listener, but without explaining very much, and when they do, or Ozzy does, the news is fragmented and rarely good, likely to involve the witch and the millhouse of the album cover. Damn, spend time with the album, though, go deep into things like "Sleeping Village" and "Warning," and there is much tasty playing from everybody, notably Bill, who furthermore is recorded viscerally, warmly, and lively. I mean, Sabbath really deserves a lot more credit, 'cos I tell ya, it's not like all these so-called British blues boomers with the critical reputations were being any more creative or gymnastic than Tony was, and given the restrictions of being that snoozy way, they weren't nearly writing up the storm clouds that make up the climate of this pioneering record track after track, covers included.

Rating: 8

_Paranoid_

Despite the progression, the 20 percent more in all departments, _Paranoid_ is still a mere progression over _Black Sabbath_ , its vibe still creaky, jammy, rainy, dank of timber, struggling to get out of Birmingham, London, the blues boom, the death of '60s ideals, struggling to get away from the war. For that reason it's always been hard to sidle up to it with a pint, like, say Zep _IV_ or _Machine Head_. Speaking of both of those goddamn albums, however, it's hard to be objective about _Paranoid_ , because the huge heart of the album—"War Pigs," "Iron Man," and "Paranoid"—don't care if I go to my grave never hearing these again. For the record, though, there is lots going on within both "War Pigs" and "Iron Man," just like in "Black Sabbath," beyond the dumb riffs everybody can't get out of their heads. Tensions build, buoyed by Bill, crazy beatnik that he is, Geezer bobbing and weaving, Tony striking an evil pose, Ozzy sent off for tea. Substantial songs, both, and both are more immediate, face-slapping metal than anything on the debut. "Paranoid," on the other hand, is massively overrated, like "Stairway To Heaven." Folks should take a chill pill and then a good hard listen and realize there's nothing there—it sounds like a punk rocker written in an afternoon stuck on for filler. Oh wait...Immerse further in this acid bath, though, and a couple less famed corrosive classics flash before your death, "Hand of Doom" being a morality tale about soldiers returning from the 'Nam and discovering heroin, and "Electric Funeral" quietly closing the heavy velvet curtain on "Black Sabbath"'s status as the band's most mopingly doomful anthem to date, Geezer discovering that nuclear annihilation is a bigger bummer than Satan. Note again that Sabbath refuse to stay and play big and dumb on both of these cancers, getting around to parts that most watchers forget about until they are upon them afresh. Half drum-solo instrumental "Rat Salad" is a complete throwback to the jam band ethic of, say, "Warning," this one acting as a preamble to "Fairies Wear Boots," which meanders into view sounding much like "Warning." Once things get going, well, it's metal, but again, kinda crusty, this track never really becoming something I had time for as soundtrack to real life, part of the fatigue of it arising from its blues abstraction to distraction. No question Sabbath are the baddest metal band about the face, neck, and chest, though, 'cos there's only one softie on the whole record and that's "Planet Caravan," a wobbly drug trip through the universe, the ultimate romantic getaway, as Geez is wont to sum up. So yeah, summary time: I'm sure many are up in arms about my not assigning this one a 10 with a flourish, but I like to go by the proof and not the hype and certainly not by sheep sales of the damn thing. Plenty enough 9's and 10's floating around. Nothing to see here, folks, move on.

Rating: 8

Haphazard but collectible, this Swiss issue of the _Paranoid_ album framed the iconic cover shot of the debut album with text that was inappropriately psychedelic.

_Master of Reality_

Any reservations or wariness I had as a kid with respect to _Paranoid_ , any lingering discomfort with its cold-fish feel, well, that's all gone come _Master of Reality_. For whatever reason, I group—nay, quarantine— _Paranoid_ with _Black Sabbath_ , and really warm up to the catalogue with the bulldozing, gauzy, insane, heavy metal celebration that is _Master of Reality_. Quite simply, I find myself charmed by and unafraid of _Master of Reality_ , feeling I can be perfectly happy with it in a darkened room. I mean, the album opens with a hair whitener, that cough from Tony after a bad toke, but then the most all-encompassing flood of guitars arrives through the opening lope of "Sweet Leaf," and all is quilted with the world. And who can pooh-pooh a Cheech _y_ Chong sentiment like a love song to pot? Exactly. With "After Forever," Sabbath deliver a blistering, metallic...Christian song. What gives? Who knows? We're just being rocked large like a San Fran earthquake, with Ozzy and Bill hanging on white-knuckled to a train driven by blobulous, all-else-obliterating bass and guitar. After a spot of mellowness called "Embryo" (grim, resolute headmasters playing classical), we're right back into the mayhem, "Children of the Grave" delivering a proto–power metal gallop pioneered by Deep Purple on _In Rock_ 's "Hard Lovin' Man." Brings up a point: Even though metal's now invented, doesn't mean that we can't quickly, on cue, under duress, in the spirit of competition, immediately start breaking records, _Master of Reality_ doing just that over _Black Sabbath_ , _Paranoid_ , _In Rock_ , and _Very 'Eavy, Very 'Umble_ by downtuning into equipment-breaking realms. Side two offers more of the same, the eerie calm of "Orchid" and "Solitude" broken by "Lord of This World" and "Into the Void," respectively, the former light bits music to play under your headphones in the minutes before death, the latter the ringing in your ears seconds before death. "Orchid" features Tony revealing a part of himself, but "Solitude" is the album's only soft actual song, and it's no improvement in disposition over "Planet Caravan." Both of the bulldozing Quaaludes-and-wine numbers, however (ha, always loved that customer profile), sag under their weight, their lethargic thumps evoking images of bridges to nowhere about to break. We're at the end now (note how there really haven't been a lot of songs), but I can't help admire still, despite the rawness and the lack of lots going on, how much more comfortable and even protected I feel about being part of the Sabbath tribe now that they are sharing this amniotic music with us. It's like the final bloodstains of the Manson murders have been cleaned up, the carpet lifted, and the house sold, and all of those affected have been transubstantiated. If that's too heavy, how's this: Sabbath have become heavy metal's Cheech _y_ Chong.

Rating: 10

An example of how various subsidiary record companies around the world struggled to turn the difficult _Master of Reality_ graphics into a marketable sleeve.

_Vol 4_

Pretty sure this was the first Sabbath album I ever personally owned...yeah, I was the friend who had _Vol 4_ while others had others. So it's ingrained in me to be its defender, 'cos as pups, we'd do that, promote the value of our own albums (I was also _Dressed to Kill_ guy). Deep down, though, I was green with envy of _Master of Reality_ guy and couldn't have cared less about _Black Sabbath_ and _Paranoid_ guy. So if _Master_ was just so darn likeable on every level, the earlier two too cold and raw, _Vol 4_ was basically cold but not raw. In fact, it still feels older and more uptight than _Master of Reality_. But sure, there's a sophistication here, a few more layers, not one wall of guitars but a few subtle shifts to different walls. I do love the fact that it's heavy and unrelenting, no soft _Sabbath Bloody Sabbath_ core to the fully seven rockers. And the mellow songs? They were so inconsequential they never annoyed me, two being short instrumentals, one, "Changes," being so laughable light that still, to this day, it's a piss-take. So yes, there was a new musicality and sense of texture to the rockers and they jam and have many parts. I should wear them as badges more proudly, but fact is, most of these are way, way down the list of favorite Sabbath songs, despite their showing up in the set list year after year. And that's 'cos of this chill in me head that was there from first listen through to this day, this feeling that there's a biting cynicism, malaise, malevolence, even merely detachment to each and every song on the damn album. I can almost hear the tightness of the cocaine, especially in Bill's strange drum performance, Bill bashing and thrashing his way to a low spot in the mix, Tony's relentless guitars and the blob of Geezer's bass wrapping light Bill and thin Oz tightly wound in alcohol-drenched gauze. Seriously, when this whole downer rock tag got applied to Sabbath, to my mind it's this repressed, itchy batch of songs that caused it. I mean, I don't see a lot of difference in will, enthusiasm, inspiration within _Vol 4_ versus the albums that are supposedly all about lack of that, namely _Technical Ecstasy_ and _Never Say Die_. I suppose the way the guy wearing a white leisure suit, amusingly listening in (maybe picking up leftovers), you know, next door to the Sabs there in Bel Air would put it is, "I don't hear a single."

Rating: 8

The art of making a bad album cover...worse.

_Sabbath Bloody Sabbath_

I always admired greatly this record as the band's _Zeppelin III_ , although _Sabbath Bloody Sabbath_ is nowhere near the raft of mellow vibes folks accused it of being. Sure, the idea here is that acoustic parts are woven into the fabric of rockers, some are more acoustic than rock, and then there's "Fluff" and "Who Are You," one folk for outdoor funerals (sorry, celebrations of life), the other, the first Ultravox song. Bloody 'ell, though—and this is partially the album cover speaking— _Sabbath Bloody Sabbath_ has got to be the band's most harrowing and drugged-up and apocalyptic album yet, the feeling of expense and bloat as metaphor for rotten souls consoled by consumerism, of restraint thrown to the dogs, of expensive nirvana-delivering drugs coddling minds of band and listener alike in no way with which pints could compete. What else can explain the eerie malaise one experiences as Sabbath ease the needle into the acoustic break of "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath?" I mean, we're supposed to be headbangers, but there's no notice that it's acoustic and no recognition that it's not metal. Happens time and again. I spent my whole life figuring "Sabbra Cadabra" was one of Sabbath's heaviest rockers, but alas, it's a form of butt-shake boogie rock, and it seems to be some sort of love song. Plus later, there's boogie-woogie piano, synth, prog...what th'?! This one brings up a weird, tantalizing thing about this record, and that's this idea that Tony is achieving new levels of heaviness through high notes, twin leads, lead licks, sweet-and-sour melodies, and odd, nonobviously metallic tones, such as those found on "A National Acrobat," one of the album's gauzy smotherers. And really, how heavy is "Killing Yourself to Live?" Doesn't matter on paper and with boots on the ground, 'cos once the secret-agent-man riff collapses into the chorus, your bowels are loosened and your hair goes white. Point I'm getting at is that Sabbath are on their way to achieving an artful heaviness of decadence here, not just drums, wires, amps, and Geez doubling what Tony is playing. In fact, it gets even more complicated for the last two tracks on the album, "Looking for Today" sounding happy of riff, but then throw some flute on top of Jethro Tull acoustic moody blues and, quixotically, the mood is darkened. Melodic rock anthem or soundtrack to a drug den of deaths before the weekend is out—you choose, but choose with full knowledge that Sabbath sound like they sold their soul for rock 'n' roll before cooking up these spoon tunes at Clearwell Castle. Closer "Spiral Architect" achieves similar effect, but with odd acoustic prog plus strings, hippie lyrics unabashedly flowing from Geezer's knowing pen into a medicated Oz releasing them to the ether in a fever. 'Ere's your solid 10, people, the first Sabbath album where they've lived past their hugely important gimmick, but gimmick all the same, and found themselves making up music that they could add Rick Wakeman to as an equal and not some wiz on the mount.

Rating: 10

_Sabotage_

This has long been my favorite album by anybody ever, but my admiration for _Sabotage_ was refueled recently when buddy Bob Nalbandian remarked how Ozzy was "singing his balls off" on the record, going on to explain, quite rightly, that it's Ozzy's finest suite of songs as singer for the Sabs. A discussion then ensued about the help or hindrance medically that coke added to the equation. In any event, fall spine-first into "Hole in the Sky," and if Geezer an' Bill's massive cymbal-bashed grove doesn't snap it, Ozzy's mic-clutching, teeth-grinding performance will rock you snow-blind. I have to chuckle when I see those old interviews where the guys talk as if they were correcting somehow after _Sabbath Bloody Sabbath_ , writing more of a basic "rock 'n' roll" album. Nay, _Sabotage_ might even be more proggy and majestic than its daisy-pressing predecessor, only it's done mostly with huge steely-blue tools of doom fired in the forge of British Steel blacksmithing. The irregular heartbeat acoustic of "Don't Start (Too Late)" is a lark by graphic contrast, contrast underscored by the drop-off from "Hole in the Sky," its brevity, and the decisive drop-on to "Symptom of the Universe," maybe the band's most evil and heavy song of the entire catalogue, its riff combining the machine gunnery of "Paranoid" with the _diabolus in musica_ of "Black Sabbath." As reminder of brains, though, take Ozzy's hand and walk deep into the track and a whole pile of sense-inundating things happen, including acoustic funk rock—whoops! Sabbath have invented another genre. Impossibly, come end of side one's "Megalomania" and Sabbath plunk a ten-minute epic that is the band's production tour de force to date (they'll top it on side two), as well as one of the band's heaviest, most claustrophobic songs ever, both philosophically and sonically. And you know, the only other album I ever am wont to call fave album of all time—to be fair, the two are tied—is _Physical Graffiti_. "Megalomania" is better than _Sabotage_ 's "Kashmir"—it's _Sabotage_ 's friggin' "In My Time of Dying." Love the way both build, and I could compare all over, but I'm also wont to quip that Sabbath managed to use one record to achieve what Led Zeppelin had to fumble around with two to get. I mean, just a comparison of the craft, arrangement, production, parts of these two songs...I think Sabbath is the better all-round band, even if that proposal is a laugh to the cognoscenti. What a side of slabbage, and so side two, like many Sabbath albums, has to step back a bit, stretch out, play with growth after the first half's intensity. None of that for "Thrill of It All," though, Sabbath presenting one of their all-time great dark-horse tracks. Again, tide turns sweet-and-sour melodic, dark yet hopefully sizzled with synths, Bill's drumming so full of swing, Tony's production gorgeous on what is the best sounding Sabbath album yet. The middle of the side is Sabbath's brains fried on creativity, drugs, malnutrition, litigation, "Supertzar" being a Wagnerian synthesis of metal with classical music on a scale never before attempted, much less achieved, save maybe for Queen, who are really good at this stuff. It is the most produced pile of pomp yet in the Sabbath catalogue, not quite an instrumental, 'cos there's choirs mouthing notes but not words throughout. Brilliant. Next up is "Am I Going Insane (Radio)," which is somewhat of a light moment if your sense of humor is all up in knots. It's essentially "Who Are You" with drums, and it's ridiculously uncommercial, even though it's the most commercial thing on the album. _Sabotage_ closes with yet another massive head-crusher of doom, "The Writ" doing its damage slowly, Ozzy again singing his balls off, angered at having to sing about so much dis- and mistrust between the band and its pauperizing management. Devastating rhythmically and philosophically, it's also damn near horror soundtrack music, what with that boiling vat break and the thorniness of the new metal movements pounded out as we work our way through the nightmare of it all toward a conclusion inconclusive on the question of who should manage the band next. And there you have it: the greatest album ever in the history of rock 'n' roll. Now that didn't hurt a bit, did it?

Rating: 10

Japanese sleeves were usually faithful to the original, except for inserts, obi strips, and the use of a thicker stock of cardboard.

_Technical Ecstasy_

Why is it really crazy that studied Sabbath fans love _Technical Ecstasy_ and _Never Say Die_? Likely, a big cause of the admiration is quite mundane, namely that all the more celebrated albums they know up, down, left, right. But I think there's more that that, and I'll speak from inside that group, thank you, and I'll stick to the pudding at hand, namely _Technical Ecstasy_. First off, I love that the band was under siege, that all of a sudden, as cynical and bloated as they were, they were uncomfortably hungry again. No respect from fans, their label, their brains scrambled, their confidence shattered, Sabbath '76 kept striving. The result was a collection of brutally depressing songs that nonetheless happened to be rooted in this world. Hookers, gypsies, love interests, street gangs, politics...this was not the world of supertzars, megalomaniacs, holes in the sky, and writs. I mean, when I got _Sabotage_ at twelve years old, I didn't know what a writ was, and never bothered to check for years—decades, maybe. Anyway, it didn't matter that Sabbath was halfheartedly trying to be of this world (another part of that was songs that started and ended in a reasonable space of time), because it all failed miserably. You felt more alone and more sorry for the band and their state of siege at the end of this record than you did after the nightmare landscape of _Sabotage_ or _Sabbath Bloody Sabbath_. A recluse tries dating and all his fears are confirmed and it's time to build the wall higher and thicker than before (I'll show you, world). But for those who can stand the mirror, who can take watching minds and dreams and faith fall apart, _Technical Ecstasy_ is an imposing work of art. The album opens with "Back Street Kids," and immediately one notices how good the record sounds, and how mainstream Tony can rock if he tries—mainstream, but still bloody heavy, unlike any American band. Oz sings his head off, but the lyrics are crap. Stay away from them and groove to that wall of metal and Bill and Geezer's massive backbeat. Then, if one starts counting, the proggy parts start showing up, this first one accompanied by astonishing synths. Then the world collapses, the fan is confused, vigor gives way to intense suicidal thoughts, as Sabbath kill spirits with "You Won't Change Me," definitely not a statement of defiance, but of resignation. Heavy, funereal, evocative of _The Exorcist_ , for crissake, this is a lost classic of Sabbatherian psychological damage. Bill's Beatle-esque ballad "It's Alright" is next. Gorgeous, but it's emphatically not all right, your first clue being that you think of Lennon and not McCartney when you hear this. Both, again, look at the tasteful parts, look at Tony's solos (electric then acoustic), look at the production. Side one closes with "Gypsy," and again, it's a somewhat forgotten track, but look at the parts and movement. It's a journey filled with drama and emotional surges...a lost masterpiece, I'd say. Over to side two, and there's a strangely funky metal track called "All Moving Parts (Stand Still)," again, rifled through with intense parts, and maybe even a lyric that nods to punk. "Rock 'n' Roll Doctor" is a microcosm for the critical reception of the record as a whole, again, this idea that Sabbath is trying stay current, here, by bizarrely writing a boogie-woogie tune with honky-tonk guitar and cowbell. Then after a dirgey acoustic ballad (with strings) called "She's Gone," the band rock out like a moth to flame with "Dirty Women," a masterful side closer like "Gypsy," this one even heavier and more epic. Glad to see that this got revived for something as blindingly commercial as _Reunion_ , but man, again, a somewhat lost classic of proggy heaviness and personal chemistry drenched in the fearlessness of hard rock in the '70s. Really, Purple and critics who like Purple can stop being so pompous about their ideals and cut the Sabs a break—this is great writing, despite the lyric about hookers. As _Technical Ecstasy_ winds down, as the shade is lowered and a tumbler is half filled (only to be half filled again), it is apparent Sabbath are channeling an intense humanity through these seemingly disparate songs, all the while doing their jobs at some level of peak performance but in no mood to do so. Ultimately, then, _Technical Ecstasy_ is the sound of a band besieged, forced to a corner by those who view it as embarrassing and obsolete, told to conjure genius on demand with no positive encouragement and with nothing for fuel but fumes.

Rating: 10

Just as Sabbath would modernize and heavy up in time for the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, so would the backup band on this tour, Nutz, even going so far as to change their name to Rage.

_Never Say Die_

Crack-knuckled from the cold, white-knuckled from hanging on for dear life, parents dying, Oz in the drink, a label that no longer cares, punk killing dinosaurs... _Never Say Die_ is the sound of Sabbath in crisis, yet rising to the occasion on the adrenaline of raw survival, turning in daring songs of pushing and shoving, not much might, but much to feel mighty proud about. Of course, that's not the typical narrative around this most maligned of Oz-era records, but dig under the gutted, sludgy recording, get over your preconceptions of what you require Sabbath to be, and there's lots of killer music-making going on here. Smash of the bat, there's the opening title track, a strangely simple, almost happy song, speed without typical toughness, until new chords turn us round the corner, darkening the whole song but not permanently, Tony taking us out on a happy headbang, soloing joyously if not wholly without enjoyable tone. "Johnny Blade" is a rough gangland rocker, propelled by Bill's military snare, Don Airey providing a profusion of futuristic synths. Look, we'd have to agree that Tony's guitar sounds terrible, as do Bill's cardboard drums. Let's just say that a mood or atmosphere is achieved, and let's also say that it's a new (if wrong) sound, setting _Never Say Die_ different. And sure, there are only two more egregiously rocking tracks on the album, but "Shock Waves" and "Swinging the Chain" both roar and rumble, lurching violently to a Bill not so much swinging as surging through a killing surf, death by drowning not an option. In fact, Bill sings "Swinging the Chain" life-worn and wise, o'er-top a sinister, even more deliberately gutted riff from Tony than accepted and acceptable on the rest of the album. All this production dreck (not even sure I hear Geez) beats the song up to the point of it being one of the band's heaviest ever, despite its Hendrix funk, despite harmonica. "Shock Waves" is just a lovable Zeppelin-like bash, if that band knew how to rock this deliberately, this safe in their skin. "A Hard Road" and "Over to You" I've paired since the day I got this album brought back to me from Spokane by a bud as a new release (along with the Saints' _Eternally Yours_ —ha! Maybe less punk at this point than Sabbath), both tracks being built from walls of _Never Say Die_ crud, but melodic as they roll and roil to conclusion, the band, oddly resigned to...something, death of career, death of metal itself. Quite touching really, and again, secret weapon is Bill sitting gorgeously in the pocket, his drums, again at face value, badly recorded, but really in the myriad abstract ways Bonham sounds bad and then timeless. "Junior's Eyes" is your next plectrum toward light music, this being a painfully sorrowful song at "You Won't Change Me" levels, a paean to Ozzy's dad, Jack, recently dying of cancer. What's left are the album's softest tracks, twin lightning rods (third being the production) for those who denigrate _Never Say Die_. I never got much from the Berlin Iggy/Bowie jazz of instrumental "Breakout," but again, would Sabbath toss caution and explore sound this way ever again?—no, and I miss that. "Air Dance" is just as bold, opening on joyous, sublime chords set to a soft gallop, the band then abandoning that conceit forever, collapsing into a form of doomy jazz halfway between "Supertzar" and _Sabbath Bloody Sabbath_ 's pastoral passages. Quite remarkable, but in the tradition of past Sabbath dirges, a drug trip worth taking. All told, I've always viewed _Never Say Die_ as the work of a band at a similar loss for words as last time round, but with the whole thing unraveling, the drama of everything going wrong and not just some stuff, making for more intense, voyeuristic, guilty pleasure viewing, ultimately, better reality TV than the episodes that came before, even if, switching the set off, one feels shameful and soiled for watching the show.

Rating: 9

_Heaven and Hell_

I love Bob Daisley's comment, in how his band, Ozzy Osbourne, were busy making a record that sounded nothing like Black Sabbath, worried to heck about this shiny new piece of product by the branded Black Sabbath that sounded nothing like Black Sabbath. Then, of course, both records were completely different from each other as well. Happy times, as Ronnie's arrival intrigues each and every metalhead. Remember all of these high-profile member changes we've seen in rock 'n' roll since...this didn't happen that often back then, and no one was up in arms about it, Ronnie-hating with venom. Rather, Ronnie was beloved and missed, given his dropping out of the last Rainbow album, and Sabbath had lost steam. Speaking of steam, spitting boiling water, electrical wire flopping around shooting sparks, there was no question something avalanched with energy was afoot when the wrapper was shed and _Heaven and Hell_ 's first track kicked in. "Neon Knights" presented a band percolating with optimism, its speedy heaviness not in the least reflective of the nastiness of "Back Street Kids" or "Symptom of the Universe." This was a supergroup arriving and bossing everybody around and we loved the fact that somebody was taking responsibility, giving orders. As the side progressed, Martin Birch's instantly likeable production prowess lifted all boats, "Children of the Sea" transcending its lethargic pace, "Lady Evil" transcending Ronnie's cliché lyric straight out of the Dioworld handbook as we all became transfixed by Geezer's secret-agent-man bass riff. And doesn't Tony fire off some scathing licks? Side one closes with the title track, Ronnie's favorite song ever of his whole distinguished career (as is the album in that category). Majestic, triumphant, blessed by a monster of a riff, and then wound up southern rock–style by a rave-up, the track has been slowly, insistently pushed forward by years and beers to where many a friend and fan of many a generation would exalt it above any other Sabbath song, including, you know...zzzz. Side two opens quite weirdly, "Wishing Well" never getting deep into Sabbath fan consciousness. But do yourself a favor: Listen to this one for its joyous Bill Ward drums alone—man, that cat can groove. Which brings up a point of sadness and of interest: Think about how all these songs have become Vinny songs, and how rarely Bill ever got to play them live. Also of note on this somewhat forgotten happy rocker, Tony solos up a storm, and that's one of the unspokens or subconscious reasons we all love _Heaven and Hell_ so much—Tony is incredibly inspired most times it's his turn, very much like when it was time to punch clock and write the riffs for _The Eternal Idol_ —all killer, no filler. Then bang, the album's greatest track hits, unassumingly side two, track two, "Die Young" urgently begging us to live and live now, Ronnie's opening "Oomph!" the greatest one second of the album. You'll note that this song, as legendary as it is, has no riff—it's up to Ronnie to talk directly to us and draw us into his world, Tony, Geez, and Bill racing to beat the sands of time but definitely in support role to the sense of urgency created by Ronnie. Sequencing brilliance or blasphemy, we're next taken to the "album track" pop metal of "Walk Away," the record's second of only two uncelebrated tracks, other being "Wishing Well." Then it's on to closer "Lonely Is the Word," a brilliant slow doom that manages sorrow through the chorus but not exactly blues. As the song progresses, it becomes apparent that Sabbath is delivering a "chill" track to take us out, Tony soloing jazzy then metallic, the rhythm bed always huge, yet without noticing, we're being lulled into a state of despondence, loneliness. A great, great album, all told, but somehow I wanna make a statement and not crank 'er to a 10, which most the world clearly thinks _Heaven and Hell_ deserves. Why? Well, the uniformity of sound, for one, and two, the self-aware, postcommercial, smarmy and efficient feel of the/a band transformed. I bristle when Ronnie (God rest his soul) used to call _Never Say Die_ crap, 'cos on one level—and maybe only one level—it was more a work of "art" than is _Heaven and Hell_ , and I'll always hold that one point back for Ronnie's invasion and "rescue job," because of this daring, crazy, fearless, hopeless, suicidal thing missing once Ronnie rights the ship. Still, I can't deny that I've always been swept up in the energy and mission and expert vaulting to the top of the metal mountain that Sabbath had executed right here and right now. With _Heaven and Hell_ , 1980, for however long it lasted, Sabbath were the ruling class of the heavy metal world.

Rating: 9

_Mob Rules_

Despite its reputation as "son of" _Heaven and Hell_ , _Mob Rules_ is a rich and eventful album with integrity and indeed its own terrain, its desert browns and _Mad Max_ –proposed future painting an exotic picture that is apocalyptic and crazy from the heat, a worldview supported by the proggy Dio metal enclosed. And if I may dare to say so, _Mob Rules_ is more multidimensional than the hard surface of its predecessor, this one swooping through long songs, short songs, fast songs, slow one, its tales more fantastical, its rewards arguably deeper. Also giving it a different contour is that Sabbath now have a new drummer, one Vinny Appice, who quickly makes his huge presence felt through these very rhythmic songs, _Mob Rules_ containing the most fancy-pants fills he'll ever be allowed to lay down on a Sabbath album, although his magic will always be most fearlessly on display through his work on the classic Dio albums and Sabbath in a live environment. Despite the album's distinct character, opener "Turn Up the Night" is definitely a "son of," doing for this album what "Neon Knights" did for the last—that is, opening with a happy, headbanged blast, Ronnie turning up the night, addressing a theme that will ripple inky black through the Dio catalogue, Tony blessing the song with one of the most beautiful and resolving solos of his often chaotic canon, floating above the fray, the second one a mix of the same miragelike vibe with wah, the third, the wah taking over. Instantly one hears that this record is going to be warmer, fatter, more extremely bulbous of recording than the in-your-face mids of _Heaven and Hell_ , and this also points to _Mob Rules_ stepping out of that great record's shadow as well. As we move through side one of the original vinyl, Sabbath demonstrate these other grown-up values, this idea that they aren't going to make the same record again, that a trip through peaks and valleys is in store. Ergo the thump of "Voodoo," the slow atmospherics of "Sign of the Southern Cross" (again, mirage or oasis?), and then a sound effects track in "E5150," something which _Heaven and Hell_ was too uptight to cough up. This leads into the title track, which again is unprecedented, rumbling like BTO or sumthin', its riff swirling, instantly catchy but completely heavy, beaten up by a swinging Appice backbeat. Sum total: Sabbath seem to be growing into their identity, rocking with more authority, writing now with confidence and a bravery to branch, offering at least a hint of the crazy-legs Ozzy era (but alas, experimenting to those heady levels is well and over in the music biz). The much maligned "Country Girl" opens side two, Ronnie famously castigated for his "twee" lyric, but again, the package being heavy, melodic, charming, personable. Breaking more rules, "Slipping Away" is Sabbath's version of Aerosmith, funky, jagged, a bit of Elf to this one. "Falling Off the Edge of the World" is fast and heavy and intrinsically Dioesque as it moves through its passionately power-chorded pieces. _Mob Rules_ ends with yet another unexpected, "Over and Over" being a bluesy, doomy ballad featuring lots of Vinny dramatics plus soloing from Tony that is egregiously electric and soulful. The reason _Mob Rules_ doesn't attract the praise _Heaven and Hell_ gets is the reason I like it as much or maybe (shockingly!) more, and that's its personableness, its willingness to participate in the world, its warmth and lack of its predecessor's haughtiness, pomp, and lack of humor. Of course, _Heaven and Hell_ 's sense of elitism, most would argue, is wholly justified, so what's the problem?

Rating: 9

_Born Again_

Yes, the cover's a disaster and only a mother (or a denier of global warming) could love that production, but there is much charm to Sabbath's shacking up with Ian Gillan, and fans have been coming around to that fact for years, showing up at the door of _Born Again_ and finding themselves invited in for a pint. The personality of the album wells up from Gillan's unique storytelling style, his English-as-second-language/crossword-loving twist of phrase, and his grounded sense of humor, this idea that you really have got to laugh at all of this in the long run, even at Purple. Hence, "Trashed" is about smacking up cars at the Manor on toxic fuel (this is before drinking and driving was thought to be such a big deal), the song checking the box on the form since _Never Say Die_ indicating a rollicking rocker must introduce the record. And now to comparisons with _Sabotage_ , where the first side's got only three songs plus some piddle in between (two named here, versus one on _Sabotage_ ). Personally, I never thought "Disturbing the Priest" was too hot a track. Despite the amusing tale of its lyric, the final, for all intents and purposes, is a mean satanic story, ill-fit for Ian, "No Laughing in Heaven" notwithstanding. "Zero the Hero," however, is a massive sledge, maybe the band's heaviest song by some measures, its riff built like a sand-colored tank rolling over North Africa. Ian puts his best histrionic blues rap over top of it, lending the song a maturity that one could imagine turning to cheese with Tony Martin instead. Bill proves he's still the master of the slow-drip drum part and a massive headbang is achieved that makes the recently elapsed Dio era sound like Toto by comparison. Side two of the album is Gillan's, Ian less shoved into a box, a song like "Digital Bitch" being a kick-ass regular rocker one could see on a Purple album or, more aptly, a Gillan album. The title track...strange one, but again, there's a sense of art and maturity here that was missing on _Mob Rules_ and _Heaven and Hell_ , a certain bravery to write well outside the lines, with "Born Again" being in the bluesy doom category, but adding to the band's little batch of those by being unraveled and psychedelic. "Hot Line" is another beer-foisting "Digital Bitch," round two if you like, with Ian eventually peeling naked and running around the parking lot with a lit roll of newspaper up his bum (ask him one day). And then closing this entirely and interestedly cohesive side is "Keep It Warm," another doomy blues, this one more an upright song, more musical, melodic, and metallic, but still a slog, the third amusingly slothful song on the album, and, you know, just the right balance, unlike _Dehumanizer_ or _The Devil You Know_. So yeah, add it up, and what you've got is a friendly Sabbath album, Ian's input, like that of Glenn Hughes next time, refreshing the stable, lightening the mood, most definitely keeping the punters talking long into the night about what we want or don't want as part of Sabbath's baggage.

Rating: 8

_Seventh Star_

The little Sabbath album that could—that's the way I always saw this record, an extra shot of love coming from the fact that Glenn Hughes is like a real, authentic, mainstream rocker, somehow a mature writer with multidimensional influences, beyond Tony Martin surely, but even Ian Gillan, at least the Ian Gillan of 1983, and again, somehow more "everyman" than Ronnie. Of course, my affection for him now is bolstered by friggin' a half dozen or ten solo and collaboration albums that are so damn good, and just his overall can-do vibe since climbin' outta the snow. And so there's all that, plus an odd sensation of liking this album because it's a break from Black Sabbath albums. Heck, "In for the Kill" is like a NWOBHM rocker; "Turn to Stone" is majestic and melodic yet heavy like the cream of _The Eternal Idol_ ; and "No Stranger to Love," for all the stick it takes for being a power ballad, ain't hard on the ears. The "Kashmir" pomp of "Seventh Star" is a bit much, especially when trying to reconcile it with who Glenn Hughes is. O'er to side two, and we get a hot metal injection of the album's best track, "Danger Zone" again presaging what would be so Angel Witch/Quartz cool about _The Eternal Idol_. Not a fan of "Heart Like a Wheel" given that cinder-block blues songs immediately make me turn tail and run. But then again, there's definitely heavy blues to "Angry Heart," but woven hair band melody as well, an interesting mix of predictable (Sammy Hagar) frame and Tony's thrice-removed but supposedly intense bluesiness (there's a debate for ya). So yeah, as one is wont to remark about certain classes of things in life, this album is one I always have time for, _Seventh Star_ , despite its fragmented making (which presumably should have wrecked it), coming out the other end "worth something," due to a palpable sense of personality to most of the tracks, indeed, maybe only the title track sounding inauthentic, forced, contrived.

Rating: 7

_The Eternal Idol_

On paper, there's no reason one Tony Martin album should be standing out head and shoulders above all the others, much less the first one, but for some reason, that's always been stuck in my head ever since totally digging _The Eternal Idol_ upon release and then initial reaction confirmed as every disappointing rehash emerged periodically over the next eight years. First off, I suppose it's the mystery of this unknown singer, one who sounds like a gothic metal underground toiler, like a Swede or something from the Torch/Heavy Load/Axewitch/Overdrive/early Europe world. Sound ludicrous now, I know, but at the time, coming off of _Born Again_ and _Seventh Star_ , Sabbath sounded like a castle-rocking, pure-of-purpose metal band again, carrying a pride, vibe, and authority like no project since _Heaven and Hell_ (and none before that record either). But Tony Martin's only one part of it. The other fact and factor of gorgeosity here is the quality of Tony Iommi's riffs, riff after riff. And not only are they all quality, they're all of a similar quality that is really heavy yet melodic and hooky—these are Tony riffs that you hum happily rather than use to plot doom upon yourself and others. Many of them fall into that class I call Tony's "Geronimo" riffs, the kind you hear in Soundgarden hits that aren't the ballads. "The Shining," "Born to Lose," "Glory Ride"...these all sound triumphant, uplifting, conquering, and yet deeply committed to metal like...well, go listen to Europe's self-titled debut, or Overdrive's _Swords & Axes_ now. Equally beautiful but engagingly warm and Whitesnake-y is "Hard Life to Love," which, like the above tracks, also evokes a winning stadium rock attitude. "Nightmare" and "Ancient Warrior" are a little more typically Sabbath-spooky, but in the spirit of this album's blessed good luck, they stay strong, unlike countless doom tries from subsequent albums. The title track, meh—I think this one's so bogged down in dark Sabbath trappings that there's no escape. But yeah, just before that clunky closer, there's another fantastic fastback rocker, "Lost Forever," that again is somewhat removed from Sabbath rules into a bit of a Whitesnake vibe. In any event, whatever it is, it's just another song thrown on a pile of inexplicably bold and boisterous tracks one after the other, when forces conspiring against the band should have won out. One final thought: Earlier I compared this to _Heaven and Hell_ , meaning what we have here is a serious, gothic, somewhat classical-toned album that convinces in that arena. Well—stay with me—I'll also compare it to Heaven & Hell, not so much the band, but the new band name. And what I mean by that is that this bunch of guys huddled together feels like a unification and rejuvenation, in the same manner that giving something that we already knew the name Heaven & Hell does. In other words, _The Eternal Idol_ sounds like the work of a gang of heavy metal pirates.

Rating: 9

_Headless Cross_

Don't really care if Germany liked this album, or that the band was demonic and spooky again. 'Cos all I here is cheese, set to boomy, oppressive drums, ill-placed keyboards, ill-timed, ill-advised, and halfhearted attempts at sounding commercial enough to conceivably have someone out of touch assign the band a piece of the hair band pie, and riffs that try too hard to be Sabbatherian. That's actually a first, and woefully not a last, Tony scratching his head and trying to write like a Tony standing beside himself. You could probably count the songs on one hand going back to 1970 where it felt that way, but now he's grasping. And what's with this production? I've not really read or heard as many complaints on that front that I would have expected. Too much drums, hair metal clichés, Tony Martin somewhat buried...lots of problems here. Still, the biggest discomfort is the unconsidered lurch from pop metal ("Call of the Wild," "Kill in the Spirit World") to doom ("Nightwing," "Headless Cross," "When Death Calls") and even the stitching of the two together in the same song. I quite like "Black Moon," however, given its pregnant pause riff and then a convincing money chorus to lighten the ponderous atmosphere. And granted, I suppose, despite the weak writing, there definitely is atmosphere to the album, literally rising up from the echo chamber drums and enveloping Martin in a fog like that which shrouds the hill of the headless cross.

Rating: 5

_Tyr_

Here's one of those records I sort of respect, sort of ridicule, but ultimately have little use for whichever way I happen to be leaning during the slight and waning light of any given day of doom. The ridicule of course comes from Sabbath being Vikings, and the respect comes from the same thing, but mostly on the musical front, 'cos _Tyr_ feels epic and ambitious compared to the churlishness of _Headless Cross_. And because of that, plus the dramatic album art, it's also got this cachet of underground cool, underscored by an impenetrability borne of its smothering, heavy, thick production. Which all gets out of hand for "The Sabbath Stones," a ridiculous pounder of cliché doom precepts, whereas "Jerusalem" almost crosses over into convincing. Indeed the whole middle of the album is an oppressive muddle of Manowar metal, and so the relief of "Feels Good to Me" is welcome, the band surprising with its Zep-ishness, Tony proving that he's got moves more worthy than simply reproducing Ronnie's dragon-hearted melodies. _Tyr_ closes with a perky galloper that rouses the oarsmen on this Viking ship to nowhere, "Heaven in Black" showcasing Cozy as battering ram, not to mention coproducer of the album.

Rating: 6

_Dehumanizer_

As much as I've spent years trying to turn academic admiration of _Dehumanizer_ into reflexive headbanging heaven, it's never happened, even if I'm surprised at how often I play the damn thing. Of course the reason I play it so much is that there are no hooks, so you're never hooked but always looking. I've come to the conclusion as well that recording with Mack wasn't such a hot idea, the songs already being trashy enough that there's no reason to belittle or beat them up even more. "TV Crimes" and "Time Machine" are kick-ass songs though, both sinister, hyper, tense, savage, and evocative of the overall premise of the album: that the band had better keep up with grunge or hard alternative or in touch with world events within whatever lyrics Geez and Ronnie are going to scratch out (and yes, Geezer was a mite involved). The reputation of "I" has grown over the years, fueled by the band's endorsement of it through its firmness in Heaven & Hell's set, and sure, it's pretty good, yet not hugely huggable, nor much of a pick over, say, "Buried Alive" or "Computer God." I dunno, I've been somewhat perplexed at the guys' rallying around this album so much since the formation of Heaven & Hell, and even more perplexed after _The Devil You Know_ decisively turned out better than _Dehumanizer_ , given that, frankly, it was a 50/50 shot whether we'd all hear it and then quietly start romanticizing those glorious _Dehumanizer_ years. No, with _The Devil You Know_ sounding very much like a fixed, expensive, well-written version of it, _Dehumanizer_ unfortunately slips into that zone where we start shuffling our feet and speaking up that maybe we were right about it in '92 after all, that it kicked its own ass rather than ours.

Rating: 7

_Cross Purposes_

_Cross Purposes_ finds Tony back dealing the lesser hand he's been dealt—that is, back to cobbling together a band fronted by Tony Martin. Adding some sizzle, however, is the fact that Geezer's the bassist and, no matter how much he was probably whacked over the head with a yardstick to keep fills to a minimum, Bobby Rondinelli manages a modest level of flair we don't get out of Cozy—okay, he's exactly the drummer you'd get from a crosshatch of Powell and Appice. Nice to see Geoff Nicholls on board as a full band member as well, giving Sabbath its second unequivocal five-man lineup, _Headless Cross_ being the last, _Tyr_ not quite. Alas, fans, myself included, had very little appetite for a Tony Martin record after _Dehumanizer_ , and the material on _Cross Purposes_ doesn't help the cause. Opener "I Witness" is quite robust, however, Martin turning in a Coverdale croon over a fast rocker scrambled by a cool old school bass line from Geez; "Back to Eden" sports an interesting chorus bridging blues and pop; and then "Psychophobia" is admirably strange, turning, twisting, resolving. Much of the rest however...you can almost see the guys sitting around going through Tony's tapes and grabbing riffs and duct-taping them together, switching gears when they've accumulated enough of one type, forgetting all of those abstract things about making songs with charm and personality.

Rating: 6

_Forbidden_

The Body Count connection—guitarist Ernie C. produces; Ice-T does one quick rap—is a red herring, a diversion from the fact that _Forbidden_ is wholly uninspired, the fault of the band itself. Or maybe it's a canary in a coal mine that the band is rudderless, panicking for purpose and direction. In any event, _Forbidden_ feels like an album that was a struggle to write, no fun to record, with no excitement at its prospects amongst darting uncomfortable looks between the noncohesive team building it. On the positive, like _Cross Purposes_ , Tony Martin's lyrics are mature, universal, thankfully not the spooky crap of _Headless Cross_ , notwithstanding the fact that they are delivered lifelessly and oddly gruffly, without the ambition for the soaring Martin was forced into on his best album, _The Eternal Idol_. And yes, the production is dull and hollow, matching Cozy's typically block-chocky drum performance. We know Tony likes flat-headed 4/4 drumming and that's what he gets from Cozy, bonus being a lack of groove (see "Can't Get Close Enough" and "Guilty as Hell"). High spot: melodic pop metaller "Rusty Angels," which is a smart tale about a graveyard of fighter jets, demonstrating a level of lyrical maturity from Martin as well as a dimension to Iommi's song construction with respect to melody that we rarely hear during the Martin era.

Rating: 5

_The Devil You Know_

No real surprises up and over the template set by the three new tracks on _The Dio Years_ , _The Devil You Know_ is a dark collection of well-written, well-considered tracks of signature doom, a little too tilted toward slow tempos for pretty much every Sabbath fan and commentator who's voiced opinion upon it. It's interesting in that really, Ronnie has spent a lot of time in the sludge ever since _Strange Highways_. Tony has as well, although maybe less unexpectedly compared to Ronnie and not even, frankly, as obviously. Ergo _The Devil You Know_ is bravely (foolishly?) much closer to the maligned _Dehumanizer_ than to the universally beloved _Heaven and Hell_. So it's not surprising that it closes with a mountain of immovable doom, "Breaking into Heaven," yet it's a bit of a confused wrinkle that it opens that way as well, "Atom and Evil" being, straight-up, a downer! Second track, "Fear," isn't much of a pick-up, but the album's first biting riffs are imbedded and glaring. To my mind, the record opens proper with "Bible Black," and more so toward this feeling of introduction, that acoustic intro is devastating and devastatingly sorrowful, given Ronnie's hopeless and resigned voice as he slowly brings the tale to life. This is a brilliant song, a smart story shrouded in riffery and performance and insistence that makes you forget that the album is still—still!—moving like an elephant mourning the death of a soul mate. "Double the Pain" is the first chugging sledge, and thereafter ensues a headbanger's enjoyment of the groove laid down by Vinny and Geezer, aided gorgeously by Mike Exeter's crushing acuity at the leaden knob job. Back to the grind (of life) with "Rock and Roll Angel," a title that mixes two of Ronnie's Dio band themes sub to what he's perennially pinned down by, namely dungeons, dragons, wizards, rainbows, and castles. This one's got one of a treasured handful of the album's impossibly melancholy yet melodic choruses. "The Turn of the Screw" picks up the pace with a surprise dropout to bass—a good rock 'n' rollsy one and an interesting subtext to the album, namely its modest yet recurring celebratory moments. Which brings up a point: Ronnie is on fire lyrically on this album, but it's an intense and intensely poetic pessimism that fills up the black world these songs create brick by brick. In any event, "Follow the Tears" is another pool of solidifying alchemy, but fortunately, it's framed by the two fastest songs on the album, "Eating the Cannibals" and "Nevermore," two headbanging rockers yet songs that are again so filled up with fuzz and fat drums and cymbals that sound like they're downtuned along with Tony. It's a near indescribable mix, especially at the drums, that Exeter has achieved—the personification of power, thick as tree trunks, you know, of big old trees, not little saplings. I've debated and discussed the merits of this album with all manner of Sabbath fan, and what falls out of it is almost always the same conclusion, one I'm in total agreement with: There's little flash from anything on here, few songs—maybe other than "Bible Black"—that really rise above, and yet the pride of workmanship and quality of the writing is of such a uniformly high level, that even if one can't get excited about _The Devil You Know_ , it's an album highly respected and reached for and played and played until it insinuates itself like poison into your system. In other words, if _Heaven and Hell_ and _Mob Rules_ are instantly welcomed into the heart, this one's a grower that has to be assimilated academically through the head, clinical depression a possible or even probable result, en route from an almost guaranteed sense of world-weary cynicism.

Rating: 8
25

What I Think Pt. 2

Sabbath's Live Albums Reviewed and Rated

_Live at Last_

Given the dodgy cover art, as well as its seven-years-back track pack, I don't think too many were fooled that this was an official live album from the boys. Still, _Live at Last_ is a fascinating document depicting the Sabs kicking up a fraught storm of heavy metal just as critics were starting to forge the term. The sound quality of the thing is really not so bad, main positive being Tony's demonic guitar sound, a crunching distraction from the rest of the downer rock madness of the palette, which is a quarter way to boot, but a wicked pleasure once you submit. It's the track list that is a blast, though, as much as for what's thankfully missing as for what's devilishly on board. Glad there's no "Iron Man," "N.I.B.," or "Black Sabbath" (although we do get a white-knuckle "Paranoid" closer) and even more ecstatic over the clanging presence of "Tomorrow's Dream," "Killing Yourself to Live" (freshly birthed with different lyrics, not even on record yet, as we're talking _Vol 4_ tour here), "Cornucopia," and even "Wicked World." Plus there's the "mystery song" (see chapter 6), a medley of riffs old and new, a jazz jam, and a drum solo. Finally, what adds to the charm is that this is a warts-and-all release, with the listener finding out that when Sabbath was on fire, even sort of three years into their existence, there weren't that many warts, with Ozzy doing a pretty accurate job of his hard task as well.

Rating: 7

_Live Evil_

An amusing puzzle of a sleeve adorns the Sabs' first official live album, Black Sabbath arguably missing the boat by not putting out an official double gatefold spread in the golden (and evidently exclamatory) era of live albums kicked off by the likes of Kiss's _Alive!_ and Peter Frampton's _Frampton Comes Alive!_

No complaints with this album for nigh on twenty years, but now, being able to A/B (C/D) with newly released 1980/'81, 2007, and '09 sets, I can hear _Live Evil_ 's shortcomings, which are essentially all the vagaries of a hockey barn show, along with nefarious knob-job treatment by interested parties. Ergo, Vinny seems (comparatively) lost and muddy, Ronnie mixed back, Geez adequate (and overbearing on "War Pigs," for example), with Iommi's guitars kerranging out of the thing full blast, drilled with midrange. Still, the performance is fiery, belying the positive side of the stadium rock/hockey barn vibe, namely that this is a band fired up on the adrenaline of doing rather well in the marketplace and on the night. It's also cool remembering how _Live Evil_ was the band's first sanctioned live album, which really played up the freshness and power of present-day takes on ancient songs, "N.I.B." being particularly powerful and in fact an easy trumper here over the version on the _Hammersmith_ disc. Also contextually, _Live Evil_ in its day was A/B'ed with _Speak of the Devil_ , and I remember totally digging them both, even if _Live Evil_ got the short stick presswise, enthusiasm for it dampened by the fact that Ronnie and Vinny were already out of the band when it was issued. They were simply different, with, again, much of the excitement here coming from Ronnie doing Ozzy-era tracks, even if his overselling of "Black Sabbath" and "Iron Man" always sounded a little cheesy. As well, I must state that _Speak of the Devil_ was always a little more enjoyable from a drummer's perspective, Vin not grooving as well here as he would in later years, while Tommy Aldridge played like a monster, not to mention the fact that Vin is somewhat shackled by too live a live mix. Final comment: This is one boring set list, although to be fair, as the first Sabbath live album, double record notwithstanding, there was a lot of ground that had to be covered in terms of trotting out the hits. Highlight? Well, I mention this in the "I don't hear a single" chapter, but it's those satanic grunge chords Tony hits during his savage solo at the end of side three's extended "Heaven and Hell."

Rating: 7

Tony rocks Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens in the early '80s.

_Cross Purposes Live_

Love how raw and combative this thing sounds, the Sabbath lineup consisting of Iommi, Martin, Butler, Rondinelli, and Nicholls blasting through a Hammersmith show with considerable aplomb, highlight being opener "Time Machine," cool 'cos we get to hear Tony Martin on it but also because of Rondinelli's gorgeous sense of time and his Bonhamesque drum mix. Apparently Martin was sick for many of these dates, but you'd never know it 'cos he sells it well. I dunno, I almost hear a sinister guitar- and bass-gutting here like on _Born Again_ and I'm lovin' it, the black 'n' blue of it all immensely helping songs like "I Witness" and "Headless Cross" achieve metalness versus the cloistered originals. The other Martin-era compositions you'll never hear unless the guys get back together (and even then, you could likely forget it) are "Psychophobia" and "Cross of Thorns." Bad choices I'd say, but after all, the guys were working the _Cross Purposes_ album. Still, something from _The Eternal Idol_ with Bobby drumming and with this carnal atmosphere...that would have been a treat. Cool move closing with "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath," but alas, Martin ducks the notes. Secret weapon overall however would have to be Bobby Rondinelli, who proves as much with his whirlwind performance on "The Wizard," in particular, the rapid snare rolls of the intro. Note: _Cross Purposes Live_ was issued as a twinned CD and video pack (and in 2003 as a DVD), with the CD shorter than the video by three tracks, namely "Anno Mundi," "The Mob Rules," and "Neon Knights."

Rating: 7

The fortuitous bonus enveloped within this low-key release was hearing the interpretations of various classics by lesser-known players every bit as talented as the gents comprising the two classic lineups of the band.

_Reunion_

As is the case with all of these live albums, there are faults or exaggerations, although few are egregious to the point of distraction. Come _Reunion_ , my number one complaint would be too much bass (more so the wow and wallow of the frequency rather than Geez and his playing) and too much treble out of the drums. To be sure, a massive sound is achieved, the surging madness of the crowd here watching history in the making, helping swell the proceedings with enthusiastic insanity. Ozzy is perfect in the mix and mayhem, singing great, but man...lay off the swearing and just the general predictability of the stage raps. It's all a bit much. Okay, o'er to the track list, it's almost as if the guys made a conscious decision that if we've got to cover off all these hits we're all so sick of, then the others are going to be truly other. Hence, bloody second track in, it's "Behind the Wall of Sleep," which must have sent the diehards into a frenzy. And then there's a massive stadium rock slog through "Electric Funeral" and even the proggy and melodic "Spiral Architect," Oz wobbling a bit on this one, but hence his charm. On to disc two, Ozzy, like Tony Martin, has to duck the notes of "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath," so frankly, it's hard to enjoy. But then there's "Orchid" and "Lord of This World," followed by highlight of the whole trip, "Dirty Women," a magic moment and a bold celebration of the Ozzy's last quarter in Sabbath's quarter. Another one for the geeks and freaks. And the rest of disc two? Fast-forward through the worn and worn-out super hits (partly because two bands have been playing them forever, namely Sabbath without Ozzy and Ozzy without Sabbath) en route to a tantalizing pair of new studio songs, "Psycho Man," being hard to stomach but "Selling My Soul" hitting that sweet-and-sour spot between melody and doom (Geronimo riffing, as it were), Ozzy surprising with charm of his own come the singsongy chorus.

Rating: 8

_Past Lives_

_Past Lives_ is a hastily expanded version of _Live at Last_ , the unauthorized Meehan/NEMS package that rankled the band greatly, contributing to the decision to do _Live Evil_ three years later. But what we have here is the band wrenching back the tapes, cleaning them up, making them official, making them their own. It's still a bit hodgepodge, though. The first disc is the _Live at Last_ material from March of '73, sounding bolder, more professional, and then disc two is material from '70 and from '75, both clumps sounding about as rough as the original _Live at Last_ tapes. The 1970 stuff is a big who cares, save for a surprisingly professional and powerful playing of "Hand of Doom." The core of the '75 material is key, however, with three stone-cold _Sabotage_ classics getting an airing, namely "Hole in the Sky," "Symptom of the Universe," and, most surprisingly, "Megalomania." Hallowed ground, those, and a joyful triptych to trip to (note that it's all the real songs of _Sabotage_ 's side one, in order), more hallowed because Ozzy's vocal range is relentlessly stretched, with the Oz man rising to the challenge and turning in the best captured live performance of the entire but admittedly ragged and sparse live Sabbath catalogue. Yet as impressive as it is, it doesn't quite last, Ozzy blowing it out and having to drop a register as the torture of doing "Megalomania" finally wears him out. But man, this is major metal being forged (for the record, at Asbury Park Convention Hall on August 6, 1975). Undoubtedly, this '75 batch is a highlight of _Past Lives_ , academically speaking, but perhaps the lasting joy resides in the improved quality of the '73 material, that bunch crossing over from curio into music that is not hard on the ears. _Past Lives_ came in two guises, one pretty standard, in jewel case, and a special-edition digi that included a four-panel gate, a pick, and a poster.

Rating: 8

The compilation albums start to stack up as the band's legendary status is reaffirmed through the imitative riffery of stoner rock, doom metal, and grunge bands throughout much of the '90s and beyond.

_Live at Hammersmith Odeon_

For an archival release issued 20 years later (numbered and limited to 5000), this is a surprisingly crisp and clean production job, allowing for supreme enjoyment of the band's energetic, optimistic set. You can almost feel the small-venue vibe of the thing, everything tight, urgent, more than enough mids and highs, Vinny and Ronnie quite well represented versus the guitar-and-bass bulldozer that is _Live Evil_. And make no mistake about its slimline digi and single-disc status—this is hefty like _Live Evil_ , weighing in at fourteen tracks and eight seconds shy of eighty minutes. The oddities (and furthermore, the tracks not on _Live Evil_ ) are "Country Girl," which frankly doesn't come off that convincing live, confirming and underscoring its status as controversial Sabbath track; and, even more bizarre, "Slipping Away," which swings nicely given Vinny's Keith Moon chaos added to the thing (and then it's somehow appropriate that Vin's drum solo comes off the end of the this one). It's a welcome moment both for obscurity and lightness. Packagingwise it's classy stuff, although I wish the reproduction of the tour booklet pages took full advantage of the CD booklet size. Trivia note: _Live at Hammersmith Odeon_ is culled from three separate dates out of a four-date stand at the venue, commencing December 31, 1981, and ending January 3, 1982, with none of the material from the last show making the cut.

Rating: 9

_Live from Radio City Music Hall_

Heftwise, this one fits in-between _Hammersmith_ and Wacken, which means essentially it's a perfect balance, although the fidelity isn't quite there, myself preferring the almost NWOBHM excitement of the _Hammersmith_ mix. In any event, I'd say Ronnie is at the height of his powers here, again, with a balance struck, and that is toward the Wacken set's free-form wackiness of interjection but within check. What's most cool about _Radio City_ is the track list, with three _Dehumanizer_ samplings and two of the three new Heaven & Hell songs added to _The Dio Years_ , only "Ear in the Wall" omitted 'cos the band ran out of time, threatening to go afoul of Radio City Music Hall's strict union guidelines. Pity, 'cos "The Devil Cried" and "Shadow of the Wind" really put a drag on the mean/median velocities of this set, given we also get the semi-obscure "The Sign of the Southern Cross," not to mention "Lonely Is the Word," which is nonetheless highly welcome as the weirdest inclusion on here, Geezer having indicated as well that it was unrehearsed. Like _Neon Nights_ , _Radio City_ ends with "Neon Knights," and what a kick-ass version, this song being one of the most transformed of the catalogue, as it moved from studio to stage.

Rating: 8

_Neon Nights: 30 Years of Heaven & Hell—Live in Europe_

Documenting one of Ronnie's very last shows, Wacken, July 30, 2009, _Neon Nights_ finds the band in huge, heaving stadium rock mode, surging through these songs recalling the heft of _Live Evil_ but charmingly loosened up, Ronnie being the most adventurous with his position, playing with his phrasings, throwing in vocal licks...it's almost an eccentric performance and definitely too much at times but loaded with dimension and pathos. Tony is the rock of the band, with even Geezer allowing some flash. Aside from Ronnie, Vinny's got the next biggest chest of surprises, letting fire his fifth sense fills with military precision, taking gorgeous shots often not on the studio work (e.g., "Children of the Sea," the hugely rhythmic solo section of "I" and the rapid-fire tom-fillery of "Falling Off the Edge of the World"). I think really, though, there's a viciousness of attack here from all corners, Tony soloing intensely every chance he gets, but really, the whole thing personified by Ronnie, who almost sounds as if he knows something is wrong as he slashes into these songs resolute and grim, "Fear" being particularly thespian. Fave raves would be "Bible Black," which swings compared to the origami of the original, and "Time Machine," which likewise grooves but with heavier boots, given the weirdly new identity of the band with the new name, the thing essentially vibing like a truncheon for luncheon from _The Devil You Know_. And the track list, man, I would say on paper, "Follow the Tears" might be the only "meh" play, but again, Vinny saves the living hell out of it by playing so gorgeously and then having all of his drums and cymbals recorded like strong ale. And the close is incredibly strong, with "Die Young" fronted by a soulful yet electricity-drenched guitar solo, and an incredible eighteen-minute "Heaven and Hell" on which everybody gets to shine and jam like we're back _On Stage_ , this most dangerous version full of twists and turns, risks taken (and not always paying off—the blistering verse riff is undercut by an ill-chosen Vin rhythm), but holding your attention as it goes way beyond the rote call-and-response of older, more structured versions of it. Then, as we say our goodbyes at this final meeting, identity-cohesive and imposing, it's an incredibly thick Heaven & Hell band steroidal boost on "Neon Knights," massive mountain groove, thick, glad, sad, a brutal good night.

Rating: 8
Timeline

"We've All Grown Up."

Important Dates in Sabbath History: The '90s

1990

**Feb.–June 1990.** Recording sessions for _Tyr_.

**Aug. 6, 1990.** Release date for _Tyr_ (UK Cat. # EIRSA 1038; also on UK picture LP EIRSACV1038; U.S. Cat. # X2 13049).

**Aug. 28, 1990.** Geezer plays with the Dio band in Minneapolis, breaking the ice for what would be a reunion of the _Mob Rules_ lineup.

**Sept. 1, 1990.** First date of the _Tyr_ tour, at home base, Wolverhampton Civic Hall. On Sept. 8, both Geezer and Brian May appear for the encore, at Hammersmith Odeon.

**Nov. 28, 1990.** _Tyr_ tour ends, all dates having been in the UK and mainland Europe only.

**Dec. 1990.** Geezer rejoins the band, replacing Neil Murray. The lineup is briefly the two Tonys, Geezer, and Cozy, with Geoff Nicholls as keyboardist/fifth wheel.

1991

**Jan.–mid-1991.** Ronnie clashes with Tony over plans to reunite the _Mob Rules_ lineup, but to keep present skinsman Cozy Powell as drummer instead of Vinny. Ronnie won't rejoin unless the drummer is Vinny, his bad blood with Cozy going back to their time together in Rainbow. Meanwhile, Tony Martin is kept on a short leash, in case plans to reconstitute the _Mob Rules_ lineup blow up due to ongoing tensions. Tony Martin demurs, as he has high hopes for his _Back Where I Belong_ solo album. At some point, Ronnie also plumps for Simon Wright as a prospective drummer for the project.

**Summer 1991.** The lineup—Dio, Appice, Butler, Iommi—stabilizes.

1992

**1992.** _The Black Sabbath Story—Volume 1: 1971–1978_ and _Volume 2: 1978–1992_ are issued, by Castle/Sanctuary, both selling well, both being fairly early examples of band documentaries. The first volume is much talked about at the time given its inclusion of a snippet of "Song for Jim" plus the rarely seen conceptual video for "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath." _Volume 1_ would achieve platinum status in the U.S. for sales of 100,000 copies and _Volume 2_ would go gold for sales of 50,000 copies. As well, same year, Castle release on CD _Black Sabbath_ (Cat. # CA196) and _Master of Reality_ (Cat. # CA198). There's also a CD reissue (second CD issue) of _Headless Cross_ (Cat. # 00777 7 13002 26).

**Feb. 2, 1992.** Black Sabbath's "Time Machine" is included on the _Wayne's World_ soundtrack album, this version produced, surprisingly, by a resurfacing Roger Bain and Tom Allom.

**June 22, 1992.** UK release date for _Dehumanizer_ (Cat. # EIRSCD 1064; also on LP), which marked the return of Ronnie James Dio and Vinny Appice. June 23 marks the first date of the _Dehumanizer_ tour, in São Paulo, Brazil.

**June 30, 1992.** U.S. release date for _Dehumanizer_ (Cat. # 9 26965-2).

**July 1, 1992.** Castle issues a compilation called _The Collection_.

**Nov. 13, 1992.** Ronnie's last show with Sabbath, until the Heaven & Hell era. On Nov. 14 and 15, Rob Halford subs for Ronnie James Dio in Costa Mesa, CA, singing live with Sabbath. Ronnie refused to open for Ozzy Osbourne, amidst rumors that Sabbath were getting back together with Ozzy.

**Nov. 18, 1992.** Black Sabbath is honored with a star on the Rock Walk on Hollywood's Sunset Boulevard.

1993

**1993.** Recording of _Cross Purposes_ , at Monmow Valley Studio in Wales.

1994

**Jan. 31, 1994.** Release date for _Cross Purposes_ (UK Cat. # 07777 13222 2 8; U.S. Cat. # 72435-30413-2-8). The tour commences Feb. 8.

**Apr. 13, 1994.** Sabbath's show at the Hammersmith Odeon is recorded for release on CD and DVD as _Cross Purposes—Live_.

**July 11, 1994.** Last show of the _Cross Purposes_ tour with Bobby Rondinelli on drums.

**Aug. 27, 1994.** Black Sabbath plays the first of four South American dates, all with Bill Ward on drums. Sabbath, for a time, features a lineup consisting of the two Tonys, Geezer, Bill, and Geoff Nicholls, although Bill is soon to be replaced by a returning Cozy, Geezer by a returning Neil Murray.

**Oct. 4, 1994.** _Nativity in Black_ , a Black Sabbath tribute CD, is issued, and is eventually certified platinum. It is one of the more hyped and successful tribute albums, and sparks a craze for tribute albums that continues unabated.

1995

**Jan. 31, 1995.** _Paranoid_ is certified 4x platinum.

**Mar. 1, 1995.** Release date for _Cross Purposes—Live_ (Cat. # 7243 830069 2, 477806 0).

**June 4, 1995.** First date of the _Forbidden_ tour, Cozy Powell back on drums (later to be replaced by Bobby Rondinelli). Neil Murray is the bassist.

**June 8, 1995.** Release date for _Forbidden_ , which marks a reunion of the _Tyr_ (and the _Headless Cross_ tour) lineup (Cat. # 7243 8 30620 2 7).

**Aug. 3, 1995.** Last show with Cozy Powell, at Universal City, CA. Powell is replaced by a returning Bobby Rondinelli in time for the Aug. 19 European date.

**Dec. 14, 1995.** Last date of the _Forbidden_ tour, with many cancellations along the way.

1996

**1996.** _Vol 4_ is reissued by a company called Power Sound, as _Children of the Grave_ and with a different cover (Cat. #PS-SR 6011-2). The album contains as a bonus track, a live version of "Children of the Grave."

**Summer 1996.** Tony Iommi works with Rob Halford, toward a possible album. Also around this time, material with Glenn Hughes was recorded that would eventually be officially released as _The 1996 DEP Sessions_.

One of the silver linings of the Birmingham stand was the surprising number of deep album tracks the band unearthed for the occasion.

**Feb. 28, 1996.** UK Castle reissues (remastered CDs of) _Black Sabbath_ (Cat. # ESMCD301), _Paranoid_ (Cat. # ESMCD302), _Master of Reality_ (Cat. # ESMCD303), _Vol 4_ (Cat. # ESMCD304), _Sabbath Bloody Sabbath_ (Cat. # ESMCD305), _Sabotage_ (Cat. # ESMCD306), _We Sold Our Soul for Rock 'n' Roll_ (Cat. # ESMCD331), _Technical Ecstasy_ (Cat. # ESMCD328), _Never Say Die_ (Cat. # ESMCD329), _Heaven and Hell_ (Cat. # ESMCD330), _Mob Rules_ (Cat. # ESMCD332), _Live Evil_ (Cat. # ESMCD333), _Born Again_ (Cat. # ESMCD334), _Seventh Star_ (Cat. # ESMCD335), and _The Eternal Idol_ (Cat. # ESMCD336).

**Apr. 29, 1996.** I.R.S. issues a compilation called _The Sabbath Stones_ (Cat. # 7243 8 37532 2 2) as the last of a contractual obligation Tony had with Miles Copeland and I.R.S. The band at this point is essentially inactive.

**Oct. 1996.** It is announced that Tony Martin has left Black Sabbath.

**Dec. 1996.** The two Tonys dispel rumors of Martin's ouster and reveal that the two are working together again.

1997

**Mar. 1997.** Rumors persist that the original Black Sabbath lineup is reforming.

**May 24, 1997.** Black Sabbath plays the first of many Ozzfest '97 dates, the lineup being Ozzy, Tony, Geezer, and Mike Bordin, in place of Bill.

**June 16, 1997.** _Sabotage_ and _Technical Ecstasy_ both receive their gold certification in the U.S.

**June 30, 1997.** Last show with Mike Bordin on drums. July 1 marks the only Black Sabbath show with Ugly Kid Joe's Shannon Larkin on drums.

**Nov. 7, 1997.** _Never Say Die_ receives its gold certification.

**Dec. 4 & 5, 1997.** The classic Sabbath lineup of Ozzy, Tony, Geezer, and Bill plays two shows at the Birmingham NEC, recordings of which are released almost a year later as _Reunion_.

1998

**Apr. 5, 1998.** Cozy Powell dies, crashing his Saab 9000 at 104 miles an hour. He was on his cell phone, the weather was bad, his blood alcohol level was over the legal limit, and he was not wearing a seatbelt.

**June 3, 1998.** Black Sabbath begin their European tour, with Vinny Appice on drums, after Bill suffers a minor heart attack during rehearsals for the tour. The tour ends June 30.

**Oct. 20, 1998.** _Reunion_ (Cat. # 69115) is issued, on CD and DVD. It is a live set that features a reunion of the classic '70s lineup, as recorded live ten months earlier. "People ask me why I haven't done another Black Sabbath album," says Ozzy, a dozen years later. "We have tried, but there are two things. We've all grown up. Most of us don't drink anymore, most of us don't smoke, most of us don't take dope. All of us don't take dope anymore. We are all different. We used to go down to the pub in the old days, have a few beers, and go jam. Tony would always come up with something. I've been away from Black Sabbath twice as long as I was with them. It would've been dead easy for us to go, 'Whatever we write, we can put out. Who cares? It's Black Sabbath.' I couldn't do that. If it ever does happen, I want to get to a point where people will go, 'Fuckin' 'ell, they still have it.' What's the point in doing it if you're not going to be any better than you are already doing?"

Tour laminates can often be quite whimsical. This cartoon rendering also describes the band as "unstoppable."

**Oct. 30, 1998.** Black Sabbath perform "Paranoid" on _Letterman_ , their first live TV performance in twenty-three years.

1999

**Jan. 4, 1999.** _Reunion_ is certified both gold and platinum on the same day. Likely the double-album rule applies, where each disc counts as a record sold.
26

Caught in a Heavy Metal Time Machine

Two Soundtrack Stories from the Ronnie Era

"The Mob Rules" and "Time Machine" together form an odd wrinkle of coincidence in the Sabbath saga, both being recorded for soundtracks, then recorded again for the album at hand. The details are as follows.

Back in late 1980, an animated sci-fi movie had been in the works. _Heavy Metal_ was to be a celebration of the much beloved French fantasy magazine known as _Metal Hurlant_ , also available in a U.S. version called _Heavy Metal_. A now red-hot Sabbath had been suggested as a possible contributor to write a song for a penultimate battle sequence. Sabbath said yes and had picked Startling Studios in which to write and record the one-off song.

Startling Studios was in the palatial home of Ringo Starr, in Tittenhurst Park. The home and studio, however, had been built for John Lennon and Yoko Ono, and when they lived there, the recording facility had been operated under the name of Ascot Studios. On December 8, 1980, on the plane back from the U.S. to begin the sessions, Sabbath got the news midflight that John Lennon had been shot and killed, a tragic turn of events that cast a pall over the visit to this storied home with its many reminders of John and Yoko, including the white "Imagine" room with the white piano, his-and-hers light switches in the bedroom, and a guitar-shaped swimming pool.

In any event, the song got recorded, production and engineering credit going to Martin Birch, Can-Am Recording Studios incorrectly credited as the locus of production.

"There was a studio in the San Fernando Valley, California, that they were going to buy," clarifies Vinny. "They were going to buy the studio, called Can-Am, and you know, I don't even know if we recorded in there or not. Maybe we did, but if we did, then it would make it three times, but I don't remember that. So something happened where the deal got screwed up, the deal didn't work out, and somebody wound up with the board that was in there. I remember there was a board involved, and we were trying to get the board. It was a crazy situation, a business thing where somebody screwed up on the money. Somebody went flaky on it.

"But yes, as far as the other times, the original recording of 'The Mob Rules' was for the movie _Heavy Metal_. We were on the _Heaven and Hell_ tour, I had just joined the band, and Warner Bros. asked us to write a song for the movie. We had a couple days off, went over to John Lennon's house. He wasn't there, of course, because he'd just gotten killed. But we happened to go to his house and there was a studio there, which was owned by Ringo at that point. We set up in their living room, wrote the song, recorded it, and that's the version that's in _Heavy Metal_. Then we went back to L.A. and we recorded it there for our album. Same arrangement, of course, but maybe we played it slightly different."

"The Mob Rules," all 2:43 of it, was used to open side four of the original double vinyl and does feature prominently in the film. Black Sabbath is also listed as the first band on the album cover, although this was a fortunate accident of winning the alphabetical order. Pointedly, next on the "bill" are Blue Öyster Cult, who provide "Veteran of the Psychic Wars" from their own Martin Birch–produced sessions. Additional incidental electronic music by Geoff Nicholls was also cooked up, used in the film in various spots and, in truncated version, later used as "E5150" to open the _Mob Rules_ album, the only portion of the album not recorded at the Record Plant.

Sabbath embarked on a short UK tour with A II Z, after which they meant to record a second version of "The Mob Rules." The plan was scrapped, however, as Vin explains when the band tried to set up shop with their own recording studio. Ronnie's addition to the story is that the band were unhappy with the guitar sound they were getting, Vin having no recollection that that was part of the problem. Anyway, as Vin tells it, off to the Record Plant go the guys, and the band record "The Mob Rules" for a second (third?) time, as well as the rest of the album, which emerges in November '81, three months after the launch of the movie and its soundtrack album, in effect making "The Mob Rules" an advance single.

Despite hard rock fans flocking to the dirty and distorted strains of grunge, the grit and grind of _Dehumanizer_ didn't quite reignite the fires of the long-dormant Sabbath fan base.

Pan forward ten years, and much the same thing happens with _Dehumanizer_ track "Time Machine," which winds up on the soundtrack album to the hit headbanger farce _Wayne's World_ , Ronnie happy to do it given that he always got a chuckle from the "Wayne's World" skits on _Saturday Night Live_ from whence the idea germinated. In terms of the movie, the song makes it in, albeit for about ten seconds, which is actually substantial, as these things go.

Back to the machinations of the band, though, the situation this time is that the revived Dio version of the band had already worked up some songs, "Time Machine" being one of them. What happens is that the soundtrack features an advance demo version of the track, produced by hot metal producer Max Norman, who would be replaced by Mack come time to make the album proper.

Explains Vinny, "Max came in and it was suggested that, 'Oh, Max Norman, he did Ozzy, producer, popular, okay.' So he comes in, and just the way...Max is a great, great producer, but he just didn't jell with Tony—especially Tony. I remember sitting in the room, and Max and Tony talking, and Max having a paper written with different chords to play. And you don't really do that with Tony. I mean, Tony almost invented the guitar, you know? He's telling Tony, 'Oh, go here, go to G, go to A.' I watched this and went, 'This is not going to work.' There are certain ways to work with Black Sabbath, and that's why I fit in very well with them, because I didn't push. I observed how they worked and I listened and wasn't aggressive or pushy or trying to do anything like that. That's the way they work, and I knew that wasn't going to work. So that was just 'Time Machine,' and the next day, Max just wasn't there. That's the way that works too [laughs]. When somebody did the wrong thing, you didn't see them the next day [laughs]."

Max, Mack...not a big difference between the two versions of "Time Machine,' other than a spot of lyrics plus the fact that the Max Norman demo has a more conventional drum sound and thus perhaps grooves a little better while sacrificing somewhat in power or "size." The Max Norman version would be issued as a bonus track on the U.S. issue of _Dehumanizer_ , track eleven, while the album version shows up as track six. So again, Sabbath winds up with an advance single, given that the _Wayne's World_ soundtrack (which also features Cinderella, Alice Cooper, BulletBoys, and Queen) comes out four months ahead of _Dehumanizer_ , although oddly, the actual lead single launched from the album would be "TV Crimes."
27

Slack Babbath

Bands Named After Black Sabbath Songs

Obviously we're being a little goofy here. I mean, some of these bands are not likely to be deliberately named after Black Sabbath songs. And I did resist the urge to draw to your attention that the Backstreet Boys are clearly named after "Back Street Kids" (well, okay, I didn't). As well, the fussy prog-tinged pop metal band Nightwing precedes the song "Nightwing" by a decade, and although Swedish post-NWOBHM frightsters Oz are clearly named in homage to Ozzy, "Ozzy Osbourne" is not a Sabbath song, although maybe one day it will be (check out Oz's blistering and demonic homage to the gatefold of the first Sabbath album, "Turn the Cross Upside Down").

Similarly, there's a droney stoner rock band called Earth, who I'm pretty sure found great significance in that that was Sabbath's name back in '69. Similarly again, let's not forget that there's a trace of tribute to Sabbath in the band names Blue Öyster Cult and Judas Priest. I've also left tribute bands out of the discussion, legitimate known coverers such as Into the Void, Sabbra Cadabra, or Back Sabbath or Slack Babbath, for example. And then we've got an almost, none other than Van Halen briefly considering Rat Salad as the name of their fledgling unit.

It's no surprise that it's the earliest Sabbath material that is most mined for names, given the increasingly legendary status of the band's songs and albums as we reach back in time. So we have Warning, a killer French band from the early '80s, with a sound that evoked an AC/DC-ish version of prime-time NWOBHM (too bad they sang in French, because their debut is a classic). There's also Iron Man, a Maryland-based doom band that started out as a Sabbath cover act with roots in the band Rat Salad. Wizard are a power metal or "true" metal band known as Germany's answer to Manowar. Obviously with Wizard (as well as Warning), it's a stretch making the connection to the Black Sabbath song; in fact, if anything, this is more a nod to the fantasy world created by Ronnie. We've also got the curious case of Warpig, an obscure Western Ontario act from the early '70s with a slightly wobbly early Deep Purple Mk. II sound on the one album they ever issued, a self-titled. Also borrowing from _Paranoid_ , there's Italian progressive death metallers Hand of Doom

Moving forward into Sabbath's third and fourth albums, we get After Forever, a Dutch symphonic metal band led by female vocalist Floor Jansen. Biggest in terms of link to the Sabbath sound, we have St. Vitus, the legendary early doom band from L.A., featuring Scott "Wino" Weinrich, who years later also gave us post-Obsessed stoner rockers Spirit Caravan, a band branded with a name that is clearly a nod to "Planet Caravan," given what we know of the Sabbatherian sound of all of Wino's projects.

There are actually two Under the Suns, one a classy prog rock/prog metal band with one album on Magna Carta. The second is a richly Sabbatherian and gloriously sludgy doom band masterminded by drummer Mike Smail. This band's intense _Master of Reality_ –steeped magic is no fluke, as Smail hails from one of the great unsung early doom bands of all time, the imposing Penance. Nods to _Vol 4_ are made by Snowblind, a Greek power metal band with three albums to their name, and Supernaut, a two-album Australian glam/punk band from the '70s, most notable for coughing up Chris Burnham to the Saints for most of the '80s. One record forward, we have Spiral Architect, a fairly high-profile Norwegian prog metal group, appropriately named after a proggy ol' Sabbath number.

Closing our discussion, we move into the modern era, starting with Mob Rules, a German power metal band with many quality records to their name. I like the idea that Mob Rules play rough 'n' tumble power metal, and so they are named after an album that is actually talked about as a proto–power metal album in some circles. Additionally, we have Seventh Star, a Florida hardcore band (okay, I really doubt these guys worship at the cult of Glenn Hughes) and then Headless Cross, a Midlands-based traditional metal band—clearly more of a connection here. Finally, there's Tyr, a highly respected and prolific folk metal band from the Faroe Islands.

As a closing missive, a similarly pointless exercise focusing on Judas Priest might just prove that band more influential in this manner of paying one's raise-the-horns respects. Tyrant, Sinner, Running Wild, Ripper, Starbreaker, Exciter, Savage, Killing Machine, United, Grinder, Hellion...and that's just a quick survey without drilling too deep. Furthermore, most of these sync up better in terms of musical style being related to the mother band, raising the prospects that Priest was indeed a motivation toward the choosing of these metal-mad monikers.
28

"They Wrote Every Single Good Riff...Ever."

Praise for the Sabs from the Nativity in Blackers

We used to have a magazine called _Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles_. Tim Henderson was boss and I was right-hand man and editor in chief. We lasted fourteen years and 113 issues, but way back at issue #5, October/November '94, when we were definitely no more than a zine, we gathered up some quotes from various rockers who were featured on the _Nativity in Black_ tribute album, which are relayed and replayed for you here. All told, it was a pretty serious and seriously star-studded album, the effort put into it rewarded by the thing going platinum—pretty crazy for a tribute album. Anyway, here are some big stars of metal circa '94 giving props to the grandfathers of doom, as well as an indication as to what song they contributed to on the record.

"I remember going through some of my father's things after he passed away and I found the first Black Sabbath album in his collection. I was really young and I didn't know what it was, but I liked the cover. So I put it on and I totally freaked out. I've been a Sabbath fan ever since."

—Max Cavalera, Sepultura ("Symptom of the Universe")

"We call them the godfathers of heavy metal. I've been a Sabbath-head since I was a little kid. Sabbath was the first band that made me want to play music. When I was about twelve, we'd hang out in the projects, smoke pot, and listen to Sabbath. Geezer Butler was one of my main inspirations. 'After Forever' was actually the first song I ever learned to play. I think every band who is heavy and don't give any thought to Sabbath are weak and full of shit. A lot of bands who are on this compilation have a big following, but their fans might not come from a hard-core, old school Black Sabbath background. I think this might turn a lot of people on to Sabbath and let them know where the roots of today's heavy metal music comes from."

—Evan Seinfeld, Biohazard ("After Forever")

"When I first heard them I was blown away. I couldn't believe how heavy it was."

—Billy Graziadei, Biohazard ("After Forever")

"They were melodic, they were heavy, they were angry, they were depressing, and they were pioneering for the time. I've always loved Sabbath and we usually screw around with Sabbath songs at rehearsal. You can hear the influence. Everybody is playing really slow now with the dirgy feel. I think that Sabbath are directly responsible for all metal, hardcore, thrash, and goth music. They were the quintessential metal band."

—Pete Steele, Type O Negative ("Black Sabbath")

"You listen to a band like Sabbath and it was like an anchor. The stuff is cool, good, and it's simple."

—Bruce Dickinson, ex–Iron Maiden

(with Godspeed, "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath")

"Sabbath are without a doubt the very first heavy metal band to ever come into existence. Once this tribute album comes out, it will force people to not only look at what Sabbath has achieved, and what they've meant to the metal world, but also how they continue to inspire new music. For a band to make it through the '60s, the '70s, the '80s, and now the '90s and still be looked upon as a leader is a tremendous accomplishment. It really says a lot about today's modern musicians, carrying on the force of Sabbath. The track I worked on was 'The Wizard.' The combination of the words, the vocal melody, and the entire vibe of the song...it's potent. The music will live forever. It will always have a place, any moment in time. There will always be something there for people to grasp onto."

—Rob Halford, Fight, ex–Judas Priest

(with/as Bullring Brummies, "The Wizard")

With so many metal subgenres borrowing from the musical vocabulary of Black Sabbath, the time seemed ripe for an overt celebration of the band.

"As a kid growing up, I lived in a real conservative neighborhood where everybody had short hair and they were all into getting a good education and being successful. But I had this one friend who had every Black Sabbath album and every day after school we'd go to his house and hang out, take a few bong hits, listen to Sabbath, and try to decipher the lyrics. I really got into it because it wasn't safe; it was like this whole other world that you could really sink your teeth into. You could just turn down the lights and just crank it. It was almost religious in a way. If it wasn't for Sabbath, I probably wouldn't be a musician. Tony Iommi is the ultimate riff-merchant."

—Klaus Eichstadt, Ugly Kid Joe ("N.I.B.")

"Everybody knows that Black Sabbath started everything and almost every single thing people are playing today has already been done by Black Sabbath. They wrote every single good riff...ever. There's one easy way to figure out how Black Sabbath has lasted. There's only certain bands that get a reaction, even though you're playing a record that's twenty years old. Sabbath are one of them."

—Rob Zombie, White Zombie ("Children of the Grave")

"When I was in my formative years as a guitarist, musician, and all-around rock dude, Black Sabbath was the gauge by which me and my friends measured the heaviness of any music that came out. Of course, there could be none heavier than Black Sabbath."

—Marty Friedman, Megadeth ("Paranoid")

"Black Sabbath is the only band whose records I've actually worn out!"

—Mike Bordin, Faith No More ("War Pigs" [live])

"My first real concert was on my twelfth birthday in 1972, seeing Black Sabbath on the _Paranoid_ tour. That concert pretty much changed my life. It was in downtown Baltimore and my dad drove us to the show. I just had this feeling of doom. I thought for sure they would have to stop the show as I had never seen anybody play instruments like this before. The way that Bill Ward was pounding his drums, and the way Geezer was pulling on his bass, I thought, in my mind, they were going to destroy their instruments. As we drove away, the encore was still ringing in my ears—'N.I.B.' For people who never saw Ozzy, you've never seen Sabbath. Personally I didn't really like anything Sabbath did without Ozzy. I would never pay money to see Ronnie James Dio and Black Sabbath. At this point in time, with all the ups and downs, they should either reform with Ozzy or fucking forget it."

—Scott "Wino" Weinrich, the Obsessed

(with/as Bullring Brummies, "The Wizard")

We close with a little spot of intrigue that was also part of the original article. It read: "Scott 'Wino' Weinrich, longtime Sabbath fanatic and doom junkie from the Obsessed, got right along with Fight guitarist Brian Tilse, and is found string-bashing on 'The Wizard,' along with Butler, Ward, and Halford. In actual fact, guitarist Tony Iommi and Ozzy Osbourne laid down tracks for an all-out Sabbath reunion cut, but label politics presided and both Iommi and Osbourne's takes were omitted. The occurrence has actually caused an intense rift in the Sabbath camp, leading to the exit of Butler and Ward for good. Says Wino, 'Iommi and Ozzy had laid tracks that were on tape for that version. The whole real original Sabbath were supposed to be on it. The only reason that didn't come to light was weird record company tricks. It makes me feel really bad being in the studio, doing it and basically bumping Iommi's tracks.'"

"I've never met Tony Iommi," remarked Wino, reflecting back on the experience in a later interview for us, in what amounts to a fleshing-out of the tale. "But I did have a chance to play on that Bullring Brummies thing. That was pretty interesting. I didn't actually get to meet any of them. I got to play guitar on the track with Halford and Geezer and them, and that was fantastic. Unfortunately, my role in that particular song was basically playing Iommi's tracks because they couldn't use them for various record company bullshit reasons. At the time, it was pre-Sabbath reunion and everybody was still at each other's throats. So my role was basically, Tony had his tracks on tape already, and my role was basically, go into the studio, listen to Tony's tracks, lay down tracks that are exactly like it, because we couldn't use Tony's. I almost didn't want to do it because of that, but how can I turn that down? But I never met any of them."
29

Fancy a Blow?

Guest Cameos on Black Sabbath Records

Of note, not all of these are cameos per se. Rather, some would fall into the category of brief membership, quasi-membership, and partial membership. In any event, here are some "guests" in the house of Sabbath—let's just go with that.

Rick Wakeman from Yes plays keyboards on _Sabbath Bloody Sabbath_ 's "Sabbra Cadabra." The album was recorded at Morgan Studios in North London, and Yes just happened to be next door recording _Tales from Topographic Oceans_ , so Wakeman, social animal that he is, to relieve the boredom, started hanging out with the Sabbath guys, one thing leading to another. Geezer talks about how Tony had been trying to play a keyboard part the band wanted on the album for the longest time. Meanwhile, Ozzy was actually not getting on with Yes and had stuck a bunch of stink bombs in their air conditioner, gassing the studio and almost killing Yes. While Yes was exiled from their digs, the Sabbath guys met up with Wakeman in Morgan's bar and told him their problem, which Rick summarily solved in minutes by playing the part himself.

Moving forward, Gerald Woodroffe plays keyboards on _Sabotage_ and _Technical Ecstasy_ , Jezz's next big gig being with Robert Plant. As well, _Technical Ecstasy_ 's "She's Gone" includes strings arranged and conducted by Florida's Mike Lewis, who has also worked with Rod Stewart, KC and the Sunshine Band, Dr. Hook, Lionel Hampton, and the Bee Gees, the last who would of course provide the Miami mansion that Sabbath would use for the recording of _Heaven and Hell_.

The last album for Ozzy, _Never Say Die_ , features brass arrangements by Will Malone, keyboards by Don Airey and harmonica by John Elstar, who was brought in to play harmonica to replace Ozzy's vocal line previously intended for "Breakout." Elstar also played harmonica for Highway (who toured with Sabbath), Kim Fowley, and Pretty Things.

As we cross into the Dio era, Geoff Nicholls plays keyboards on _Heaven and Hell_ , _Mob Rules_ , and _Live Evil_ , as well as _Born Again_ , _Seventh Star_ , _The Eternal Idol_ , _Tyr_ , _Dehumanizer_ , _Cross Purposes_ , _Forbidden_ , _Reunion_ , _The Dio Years_ (although, significantly, not on the new studio tracks, so this is merely an archival credit), and _Live at Hammersmith Odeon_.

With respect to assorted cameos from the mid-'80s forward, _Seventh Star_ includes two bassists in the credits—Dave Spitz and Gordon Copley. _The Eternal Idol_ credits Bev Bevan with percussion. As well, both Dave Spitz and Bob Daisley are credited as bassists, but the tracks are actually all Bob. Ray Gillen can be heard laughing on "Nightmare." Queen's Brian May turns in a guitar solo on "When Death Calls," from 1989's _Headless Cross_ , while Ice-T provides a short rap on "The Illusion of Power" from 1995's _Forbidden_.

Finally, into the band's incarnation as Heaven & Hell, Scott Warren, of Dio band fame, plays keyboards on _Live from Radio City Music Hall_ as well as _Neon Nights: 30 Years of Heaven & Hell—Live in Europe_. In closing, the invaluable Mike Exeter (also the record's engineer) plays keyboards on _The Devil You Know_.
30

"Have You Heard About Vinny?"

Producer Thom Panunzio Talks Reunion

Thom Panunzio is now an esteemed record exec, but he worked his way up engineering and producing an increasingly impressive and diverse roster of stars (and even cooler underground legends), including, at the hard 'n' heavy end, Blue Öyster Cult, the Dictators, Iggy Pop, Deep Purple, and Motörhead. He's also provided tambourine services to the Del-Lords, the greatest band to ever craft music in a magical genre known very specifically as "rock 'n' roll."

Here's a li'l story which finds Thom at a major moment in Sabbath history (I was going to say pivotal, but it's not like _Reunion_ pivoted to much, other than a million live shows), smack in the middle of a concert maelstrom that threatened to break down without some timely intervention....

"Okay, let me try switch gears," begins Thom, taking a deep breath after a bunch of cool stories on the making of Deep Purple's _The Battle Rages On..._ . " _Reunion_ was '97. I remember being adamant about it being the original members because I knew that it was important because of Sabbath's legacy. But you know what it was? It was the other way around. I'd already been working with Ozzy, I had done all the _Ozzfest_ records; at that point there were only a couple, but I did the ones after that. I was very close to Sharon, and, you know, I was their guy. And so when it came time for her to put Black Sabbath back together, she said to me, 'I want you to be involved with this; there's going to be a live concert in Birmingham, England, where Sabbath is from, and I want you to come over and produce it.' And that's what I did. But what happened was, I got there, and I walked into the arena where they were rehearsing, or getting ready, set up, whatever, and Sharon was there, greeting me, and she walked up to me, gave me a big hug and a kiss, and said, 'How are you, how was your flight, would you like some...' She treated me like gold; she was the greatest. She said, 'Would you like a cup of tea?' So English and proper too. And I said, 'Yeah, that would be great.' 'And we have a problem. Bill...I don't think Bill is going to be on the record. Do you think you can overdub drums, somebody else later?' And I said, 'What?!' [laughs]. We're going to play...and this is a big arena, maybe twenty thousand kids or something, and you know, first of all, nobody plays like that guy. He's got his own way of playing the drums. I go, 'How can we possibly do that?!' And she goes, 'Well, I have Cozy Powell,' who is passed away since, and Vinny Appice, who is a very good friend of mine. I started out with him; he was part of the Record Plant house band when I started there.

"So Vinny and Cozy were on their way. Vinny was on a plane from America, as we were speaking, riding in coach, because they couldn't get him a first-class ticket—Sharon flew everybody first class—with the drum pad on his lap, with headphones on, learning the songs, because she didn't think Bill was going to play. Bill was...he didn't have any real management, and he had a girl who was one of the riggers helping him, managing, and I forget what his problem was, but he wasn't going to...he wasn't going to be on the record. Maybe he didn't feel he was getting enough money or whatever it was, but he wasn't going to be on the record. But he was going to do the show. So Sharon said, 'Can you overdub...' in case he didn't do the show, or in case his health wasn't good enough to do the show; which is why she had a few guys coming in. And I said, 'You know, that's going to be...you can't do that. You're going to have the drums and all the other mics, you're going to have leakage, you're going to hear it in the arena, in all the other mics.' You can't overdub somebody unless they played exactly what you played, and even then it would be impossible, and nobody plays the way he plays.

"And she says, 'Oh, we have a problem.' And I said, 'Where is he?' And she said, 'He's outside.' So I went out and introduced myself to him, and he was a total gentleman, and basically, he was a little...like, you know, he hadn't been in the business for years. He didn't understand. But I said to him, 'What are you doing these days?' And he says, 'Oh I've got a band and play with my son.' And I said, 'Where do you play?' And he says he played in some club where they live. And I said, 'And that's the only place you play?' And he said yeah. And I said, 'And you're going to walk away from doing this record?!' I said, 'Bill, you're crazy, man. For your own self and your career, you have to be part of this. This is your band, you have to be the drummer, not only at the show...if you play the drums in the show, this has to be the record. You can't overdub somebody. I would do that, that's not right, and I'm not interested in doing Black Sabbath with anybody but the original members.' Basically I convinced him to do it again."

Crazy story. But this Cozy Powell angle was news to me...."You know what? Maybe he didn't come, but she had him in the wings, waiting. Or she mentioned his name. I know Vinny was on the plane, and Cozy was in England, so maybe he didn't have to get on a plane. Or it was, 'I can call Cozy.' 'He is on his way' or 'I can call Cozy.' She had already...Sharon covers herself; she's a businesswoman."

But Vinny was definitely onboard as insurance (something Ozzy had told me directly, adding, "In case Bill breaks an arm or has a heart attack or something."). "Yes, Vinny was there. And I'm not sure about this, but Bill had some trouble later on with his health, his heart or something, and maybe even Vinny played then; I don't remember. Henry Rollins, was there, who was a big Sabbath fan, and Whit Crane from Ugly Kid Joe, who did the sound checks for me. Ozzy didn't do the sound checks—it was Whitfield."

But yes, Bill had indeed suffered a minor heart attack, later joking with me during a _Reunion_ interview in Toronto about how he now had to "lay off the ice cream."

Backstage passes, especially tour laminates (given to staff and other inside workers), are often miniature, intense works of art. This one isn't.

"Well, I'm not sure he had any health problems beforehand," ventures Thom. "Maybe Sharon knew that maybe he wasn't in good health, but the only thing I was aware of was that he wasn't going...he didn't want to be on the record. And so maybe Sharon knew. I didn't know Bill; I'd never met him before. I knew them from the album covers, but I could've walked out the door and walked right past him if she didn't tell me he was the guy with the long coat on.

"Lovely guy, right?" says Thom of Bill. "Lovely guy. And he was so reasonable when I talked to him, but for whatever reason, I don't think he understood. I had to get through to him the importance of it. I think when we he talked to me, I was an outsider, and I think the light went on. 'What?! Am I crazy, not to do this?! What else am I going to do? Go back to Long Beach? Just play. I can make some real money, as well as have a real memory here.'

"It was really interesting, because I'd never met any of them except Ozzy," chuckles Thom in closing. "So I remember walking up to Tony Iommi. All of a sudden Tony appears on the stage, and he's checking his guitar and working on his guitar sounds and stuff. So I walked up on the stage and I walked up to him and said, 'Hey Tony, I'm Thom Panunzio, your producer' [laughs], and shook hands with him. And he says, 'Oh, hey, Thom, great to meet you! Oh, have you heard about Vinny?' And I go, 'What?' He goes, 'Didn't you hear?!' And this is the first time I'm meeting this guy. He says, 'Didn't you hear? He was in an accident and lost his arm.' 'Are you fucking kidding me?!' He's standing there with a straight face. I almost started crying. Total prankster. Total prankster. Incredible, incredible guitar player [laughs]."
31

At Cross Purposes

Black Sabbath Songs That Sound Like Other Black Sabbath Songs

Really, after so many years, albums and incarnations, when you've come to be a writer who starts with a riff first and then works his way up to song, as Tony has become and as many metal bands are (notably Metallica), you're bound to write something with strong whiffs of reminiscence of earlier glories. Here are a few of those pairings of new with old, although to Iommi's credit, he manages to not repeat himself very often. I suppose if I started comparing all the slow doomy things to one another and, God forbid, leaping over to the man's solo material, I would find more, but my eyes glaze over at such a task. By the way, one would think _The Devil You Know_ would be rife and riddled with revisitations but that's inspiringly not the case.

The earliest that I'm really feeling this idea is actually commendably well into the catalogue, namely the _Born Again_ album, with the song "Trashed." Popped in pole position, fast, rollicking, and hummable, this one bears many similarities to "Neon Knights" and, to a lesser extent, "The Mob Rules." Both "Trashed" and "Neon Knights" are built on aggressive chugs sweetened or lightened by a melodic lick, a release valve to the heads-down nature of the chug. Same album, "Stonehenge" bears much resemblance to "E5150," the similarity underscored given that the latter came one record before the former. In any event, both make use of modern keyboard gizmo technology, as opposed to other soft instrumental bits from Sabbath, which more often than not play up Tony's less heralded acoustic guitar skills.

Move forward to _The Eternal Idol_ , and the title track's verse meanders and creaks very much like that of the dirgy parts in "Megalomania." With "Glory Ride," the opening riff is a nice reminder of the rootsy rock 'n' roll melody of the "Shock Wave" riff. On _Headless Cross_ , "Black Moon" has got a hooky riff rife with pregnant pauses set over a gallop, the structure reminding one of "Evil Woman" and, even more so, Deep Purple's "Black Night," ironically enough! As well, the moment I heard this album's title track, I was annoyed at how the structure unimaginatively mimicked the structure of "The Shining," first track on the album one record back, namely come verse time, big Geronimo chords giving way to gothic keyboards over a pert drum beat, Tony Martin throwing cliché Ronnie vocal melodies o'er top.

Look deep into the _Tyr_ album and hints of repetition rattle around "Anno Mundi" and "The Law Maker." On the former, the opening mellow electric picking rides the same mournful melody as the intro to "Children of the Sea." Come "The Law Maker," this energetic, quick-paced rock 'n' rollsy number sounds an awful lot like "Turn to Stone" from _Seventh Star_. As well, one might put forth the argument that "Feels Good to Me" feels like a makeover of "No Stranger to Love."

Up into Ronnie James Dio's return to the band, "Master of Insanity" isn't so much a nick from older Sabbath, evoking more so Led Zeppelin's "The Wanton Song," and, with more of a connection, "Lady of the Lake" from Ronnie's last album with Rainbow.

With Tony Martin's return, Tony Iommi finds himself treading old ground once again. As with "Anno Mundi," _Cross Purposes_ ' "Cross of Thorns" starts dark and mellow and then Tony strikes a "progressing" or "advancing" chord structure that sounds quite similar to that of the former. Into the _Forbidden_ album, "Can't Get Close Enough" hangs its hat on a stiff, lethargic version of the triumphant and swinging verse riff of "Megalomania" all those light-years ago, and "Guilty as Hell" recalls "Voodoo." The circular riff of "Get a Grip" seems to be a borrowed bit from the more repetitive and hypnotic "Zero the Hero," which Tracii Guns has also told me was the inspiration for the riff on Guns N' Roses' "Paradise City." Additionally, "Sick and Tired" lives and dies on the same big, bluesy stripper-pole metal beat as "Heart Like a Wheel," both tracks examples of Sabbath doing anything remotely close to anything in the blues or boogie realm. Finally there's "Shaking Off the Chains," this clumsy, geometric rocker echoing the same three-legged feel of "Psychophobia," disconcertingly only one record ago.
32

"No Matter What Name You Get Behind It, the Fans Are Going to Know."

The Birth of a Band Called Heaven & Hell

So, so sad that we've lost Ronnie. Forever the elder statesman of metal, the strongest voice, the nicest guy...it's indeed a crippling, brutal irony that for the longest time, he was the wise old man of metal, but now, Ronnie does not live to see actual old age. Ronnie would have liked to create more Dio albums and he would have liked to wrap it all up in an autobiography he'd picked at for years (in some late-breaking news, Wendy Dio is indeed going to finish off what Ronnie did and release it to the world).

But there's one thing we can rejoice in, and that is that the man went out in a blaze of glory, a frenzy of activity, and a level of living tribute few get to see. If time was cruel to Ronnie, it was almost as if he laughed back at it, controlled the timing, putting a punctuation mark on his career that seemed so bold, beautiful, and deliberate, that you'd almost think there was some evil or divine prescience there.

Of course what I mean by this is that is that in Ronnie's final two years with us, he and his Sabbath pals saw issue of two live albums (an additional one came out after his death), a box set, a compilation with three new songs, plus a weighty, well-regarded album of all new material called _The Devil You Know_ , all of it toured with unflagging intensity, grace, and distinction up and down North America and Europe, one trip into Japan, and then back to Europe for celebrated festival season, good night.

In any event, this chapter examines the early days of the Heaven & Hell phenomenon, through interviews held with the guys through January 2007, with a second chapter immediately following focusing on Ronnie's triumphant swan song album, _The Devil You Know_.

"It all was really predicated on the fact there was going to be an album released, Black Sabbath— _The Dio Years_ ," Ronnie told me back on December 19, 2006, three months before the newly named band's first tour dates ever, in western Canada. "Everything stems from that. We did a show in Birmingham, in England, Tony's hometown, and Tony came to the show, a couple years ago, or a year and a half ago [note: October 20, 2005, Carling Academy, as part of the _Holy Diver Live_ tour]. I lose track of time after a while. But Tony came to the show, and that's the first time I had seen him in about twelve years, and I think that was maybe an icebreaker, I guess. And perhaps on Tony's part. But I was glad he was there. There was no underlying current of 'Let's do this; let's do that,' although we did talk in the bar before we did the gig, about how we were going to do this album, and it would be certainly more productive if we could write some more songs for it, so it wouldn't be just another rehash, 'Oh, here's something they can make money on.' But again, it was all predicated on doing this new album, the new songs for the album.

"We never talked about playing together again, either," continues Ronnie. "We only talked about seeing whether there was any kind of time frame to be able to write the songs. That was going to be the overriding concern. So that's what we talked about. There was no mention about 'Let's get together and play again.' Again, I think everything stems from the songs we did. Writing the songs together, Tony and I, I think we just remembered how easy it was for us, and how good we were at writing songs together. So after we did three of them, it really just flowed out. It took a lot of time because I had touring to do, and I had to keep going back to England to implement these things. But in reality, it took almost no time to write three great songs. So I think that was when the seed was probably planted."

The three songs of which Ronnie speaks are "The Devil Cries," Shadow of the Wind," and "Ear in the Wall." These were presented on _The Dio Years_ , issued April 3, 2007, as the last three tracks after thirteen catalogue chestnuts celebrating Black Sabbath's records that included Ronnie, namely _Heaven and Hell_ , _Mob Rules_ , _Live Evil_ , and _Dehumanizer_.

"I think it was probably management at the end of the day," answers Ronnie, about who first suggested the guys get together and tour. "I would imagine that the record label would be involved as well. They certainly would like to see this thing supported that way—that would certainly help. But it didn't come from us. It didn't come from any one particular person. Nobody said, 'Hey, are we going to tour?' It never happened that way. It just seemed to progress from writing the songs, and it seemed like a viable thing to do it this time."

Amusingly, Mr. Iommi seems to have been daydreaming about touring with Ronnie when he should have been concentrating on Ozzfest! "I think we had been thinking about it since the last tour actually," Tony told me five days prior to the above chat with Ronnie. "I was talking to Geezer...I think Geezer mentioned something about doing something with Dio again. And it sort of just formulated as time went on. I can remember, I think Ralph, from my management office, called first, and suggested we...because we were putting the CD together, from the record company. They talked about that. And they thought it would be an idea to do a couple, three new tracks, which we did. And that's how it really started. Well, we'll get together and see how it goes with the writing. So Ronnie came over to England, came to my house, and we worked in my studio here, and it really did jell. It was really great, just to see each other again and whatnot. But in fact, before that, I went to see Ronnie in Birmingham, at a gig, and we met up in the afternoon, and I went to see him on the night, so that was our first meeting for a long time, and it was just nice."

"It was mainly—well it was—Tony and Ronnie," is Geezer's take on how the project came together. "I came in at the last minute. Tony went to see Ronnie when Dio played Birmingham, earlier last year, in February or something. And they just talked about those two doing something together, and they put together three songs from there. And then I got involved in November. They asked if I would be interested in contributing bass and touring, and I was up for it, so I went from there.

The greatest hits project that birthed the band Heaven & Hell.

"I completely stay out of all that," laughs Geezer, asked as to the level of paperwork involved in a venture like this. "I just say yes or no and let the managers get on with it. No, it's gone really smoothly so far. And we spoke to Sharon. In fact, we were at Sharon's Christmas party in London, and she's okay with it. We got quite close to her, Gloria and my wife, we told her before anybody else, really, that we were thinking about doing this. And she said, 'Well, everybody's got to earn a living.' She's fine with it."

With respect to calling the band Heaven & Hell, Tony comments, "I think it doesn't confuse things then. In some ways, I know we're doing a Black Sabbath, _The Dio Years_ , so that's a bit confusing. But it is the same band we had as that. But I just thought it would be easier to go out as Heaven & Hell. It doesn't cause any conflict, you know?

"They haven't said anything about it," answers Tony, asked if Sharon or Ozzy had anything to do with the choosing of this name over, say, Black Sabbath. "I own the name, so I could go out as Black Sabbath. But I just thought it would be best to do that, and then if we do the Black Sabbath thing later on, people will know who that is, you know? I think our fans will know who this lineup is. If we go under whatever name that is. Sharon seems to be okay about it. In fact, I saw Sharon two nights ago. She came over here for dinner. And she's not been opposed to it at all. And again, we're not going out as Black Sabbath."

"You know, I have nothing to say about that," remarked Ozzy at the time. "It's none of my business. I don't wake up in the morning and go, 'Fuck, they're calling themselves what?!' Everybody has to make a living. It's what they do. I don't have anything to say about it either way. Tony and I are really good friends now and he told me what he was going to do and I said, 'That's fine.' I don't have the right to say anything about Ronnie James Dio. In actual fact, I think for his age, he's a much stronger singer than I ever thought he was. He's got a definite style. He's made it quite clear to the press that it's not a lasting thing. I wish them luck."

And really, like Tony sez, spry working musician that he is, he's got another band he can tour with called Black Sabbath. Why not have two bands?! "Well, I'm sure at some point we will tour, yeah," figures Iommi, this time talking about the band with Oz. "Again it comes down to the time factor and what we're going to be doing. Certainly I'd like to do an album. I always felt, a while back, we should have done an album, but we didn't. It's almost got to point where I don't say anything now. We just wait to see what happens."

Some had speculated that another angle addressed here was to not cause confusion with the band that just got inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame...."No, I certainly wouldn't think it was because we got into the Hall of Fame. I just think it would save confusing people. People know what they're getting with Heaven & Hell. Black Sabbath could be, 'Who's that going to be now? What singer's this going to be?' I think people will know with Heaven & Hell, that it's Ronnie singing. And the fans will know. As I say, no matter what name you get behind it, the fans are going to know.

"I mean, it's a separate thing. That's why we wanted to do what we're doing now, going out as Heaven & Hell and not infringe on the Black Sabbath thing so there is no comeback. We kept the Black Sabbath thing with Ozzy, and we want to do something where we stand out our own. You know, we don't have to go out and play 'Iron Man' and 'Paranoid' and all those. We're under Heaven & Hell and we're doing all the stuff we did with Ronnie, and we quite enjoy that. Really good. Because some of it got neglected when we were doing the Ozzfests and all that, because we played 'Iron Man' forever. And it was a great challenge, I think. I thought it was a really different thing to do. Do a different name, not playing old stuff. We jumped in the deep end and it really worked."

Asked if Ronnie had any sort of relationship with Sharon, Tony indicates that "Ronnie doesn't see Sharon. We see her occasionally. I still talk to Ozzy a lot. I still talk to Ozzy once a week or so. He calls up and I call him; we stay in touch. Find out what each other are doing and that. So there is no bad vibe with anybody. That's the great thing there. We all get on well, so there are no complaints of any kind, really."

Somewhat at odds with Tony's conjecture, Ronnie says, "I think it's probably because they finally got elected to the Hall of Fame, which took so long to do. And they went in with Ozzy and Tony and Billy and Geez. And I think certainly in their mind, I think it put a period at the end of Black Sabbath, that way. And maybe it was better to just carry on into something a little bit fresher and not have to keep hanging back on the name again. At the end of the day, Martin, what are they going to call us? Black Sabbath. Doesn't really matter. A rose by any other name still smells as sweet.

"I think that's probably in the back of some people's minds," speculates Ronnie, on whether thoughts of keeping Sharon happy might have entered into the name game. "You know, once again, I'm not in the business of creating problems with this. I would like to have it work, and let's have it get under way and have it work the way I think it could. If that means that's the reason were calling it this, as an appeasement on someone's part, well, so be it. But I would think yeah, probably. It probably makes a lot more sense to put some finality on it; then there is no problem with calling it Black Sabbath. And they can carry on and do another reunion if they have to. It's not a problem, because as I said before, you can call it whatever you want to. They're still going to call us Black Sabbath. It's just what it is. It just is."

And frankly, instinctively, the name is righteous. As I said to Ronnie that day, it ascribes a level of freshness, a shot of adrenaline, as if it's a new or rejuvenated band firing on all cylinders.

"Yeah, I agree. I don't know if there are any other titles we could have called the band, but Heaven & Hell certainly works on a few different levels. One, that was our first success with me in the band, and that's exactly what we've gone through, with all these years, heaven and hell, with this band. But I think it's good because that album is such a blockbuster and it's always remembered, that it does put a little, 'Oh, that's who they are' tag on it."

And Geezer's take on the shiny new name? "I just think it's a bit confusing, as to the original Sabbath being back together for what, ten years or something, and then we got into the British Hall of Fame last year and the American Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, so I think it just established that version of Black Sabbath as, like, the ultimate one, really. And I just think it would be too soon to go out as a different form of Sabbath straight after that. And I always wanted to be called something else, really, right from the beginning. But Warner Bros. wouldn't let us.

"It was a fairly closed subject at the time," says Geezer, asked if this was the case right at the beginning, when Ronnie joined in '79. "But we suggested it to Warner Bros., and they said, 'You are contracted as Black Sabbath, and that's what we're going to get.' We didn't have any other names in mind because Warner Bros. just wouldn't even think about a different name, in 1980."

At this point I mentioned that Sharon, oddly, had put out a public statement saying that later on in the year (meaning 2007) there would be a Black Sabbath tour with Ozzy and an album out. I wondered if this was discussed with Mrs. Osbourne.

"Yes, it has been mentioned about a fortieth-anniversary tour, which is another reason again. It would be ridiculous going out as two Black Sabbaths in the same year [laughs]."

One might wonder: why Vinny Appice and not Bill Ward? Although one need not wonder too hard, even if, as you will shortly surmise, Bill was indeed considered, however briefly, at the outset. But sure, bringing on Vinny made the most sense to the sensible. First off, Bill had done drummed a ton of duty with the classic lineup version of the band to celebrate _Reunion_ from '97 clear up into 2005. Sure, this proves he could tackle a tour healthwise, but it also means that the fans had just gotten a big dose of Bill so the novelty becomes diminished. As well, Vinny's on three Dio-era Sabbath albums and two tours, while Bill is on one album and no tours, meaning Vinny has much more "right," not to mention that three quarters of the songs, Bill's never drummed them. Plus Vin and Ronnie...well, they go together like two Italians in Heaven & Hell.

"Well, to be honest, Martin, I don't really want to go into that," says Tony, when asked the question. "Bill's just such a great friend of mine, and I don't want to open wounds and say Bill this and Vinny that. It just didn't happen, you know? Bill's just got his own ideas of what he wants to do, and there's just great respect for each other, and I don't want to talk about him and I don't think he wants to talk about it either, really. It's just nothing really happened. It's just Bill came along, and then we had Vinny."

"Well, Billy wasn't really going to be able to tour," ventures Ronnie. "He had some problems. And once we got to the point of actually recording the songs, at that point we were probably pretty firm that we were going to tour. When Bill couldn't tour, he said he would play on the songs and not tour, and it didn't really make any sense to us. We didn't want someone who didn't play on the new songs and have a 'The other guy wasn't good enough' thing. And the other choice was Vinny. And of course Vinny played on three of the four albums we did as Black Sabbath. So he was the obvious choice, and a great choice too, of course. He's a great player, and he certainly knows what to do inside this band, and he plays that way. Because Bill wasn't going to tour.

"I think Bill just said...I don't think he wanted to commit to something that long. I think he's still doing his own album; he had things to do. I just don't think he was ready to make the commitment we were talking about, which is going to be a year. I think that might have frightened him off a bit."

"You know what? No one has told me in any detail," comments Appice on the matter. "But usually with somebody in the band, it could be a personality thing, it could be musical thing, it could be both. So I really don't know what the details are. But it's got to be one of those three. And I think Bill...you know, I love Bill, he's one of my idols growing up, and I always listened to Bill and I'm so glad to be associated with Bill all these years, to play those parts that he played...Bill has never really had to play someone else's parts on songs, so this would've been a challenge where he would've had to learn a lot of the songs that I played on. And I don't know, Bill is...he's never had to do that before. Because all the stuff he's played, because it was so legendary, was all the old Sabbath stuff, and the _Heaven and Hell_ album. So he never had to learn _Mob Rules_ or something like that. So this was probably the most challenging tour he's had come up. He did some of the _Heaven and Hell_ tour. I don't know how much; I did most of it. But still, that was still old Sabbath songs and some _Heaven and Hell_. This would've been a whole new thing. It would've been a lot of songs. He would've had to sit down and learn _Dehumanizer_ songs. So I think it would've been a challenge for Bill, and I don't know if he was up for it or what. Also he could've played it. He's a great drummer. But that was something new, I think."

"I'm actually not sure why," weighs in Geezer. "Because that was all done before I even got there. Bill had been and gone, so I don't know if Bill wasn't into it or what."

Ronnie continued to be gracious a host through his final tours, granting interviews along the way, always enthusiastically promoting the band.

So now that we had a lineup, how was everybody getting along? "We didn't really have to patch anything up, really," says Ronnie, always one to put best foot forward rather than foot in mouth. "It was never like that. I'm a realist. Once it was over with me, with Sabbath both times, I just carried on with my life. And that's what you do. You just shrug your shoulders. But no, it's still pretty sweet, and you carry on. I didn't harbor any grudges against them. I didn't hate them. It wasn't difficult for me to even think about doing this. So in answer to your question, they haven't changed a bit. They're exactly the same way they were before; I'm exactly the way I am. You have to remember, we went through a lot together and we had a lot of success together as well. And that's a pretty hard bond to break. So, once again, going back to the songs, that was so important that we wrote that material. Because once again it showed to all of us how good we were at it. It was always a bit of sadness for me that Tony and I couldn't write together, because we did it so well, and really quite effortlessly most of the time. But once we wrote the songs, it became this...what they haven't been doing for years now: playing with Ozzy. And those are songs that really go somewhere melodically, and it made them work harder and it made me work harder, all those things that musicians really like to do. Those songs drove it back home to everybody. So there was never a problem personally. And once again, I think the music, the things that we wrote, and the enthusiasm and excitement about the songs, just tied up any loose knots. But once again, they were exactly the same.

"There really weren't ever any demands put on anyone," says Ronnie, referring to his manager's plumping too hard for their guy. "'Now that I'm in the band, we'll do it this way.' No, it's not like that. I think if you do that, you upset the applecart already. It's tough enough to get all of us back together again, and it's not easy on the management either. At least the four of us think the same, but a lot of times they don't, because they are looking after their clients. So I think it's got to be very, very difficult for all of them. But for our case, we just don't see any problems between us. We are a band and we just deal with it musically. But it's all the other things that are hovering over you that are the problems. And they become our problems too, but that's why we hire managers. But no, there were no demands put on anyone. There will come a time, you know, couple times, when people just don't want something to happen—and that does happen. You know, 'I don't want this thing to come about,' and someone else might say the same thing, and it just gets ironed out. It's not a problem. It's a matter of "Do we want to do this or do we don't want to do this?' What are we going to let get in the way and what are we not going to let get in the way? It's on its course now, so, it's pretty impossible for a lot of things to get in the way. So we pretty well had it sorted out."

"I think, initially, it was like nothing had happened, to be honest, when I first got to see Ronnie at that gig," agrees Tony, with respect to personal relations between these old metalheads. "It was great to see each other and we just talked about 'Oh, it's great to see you,' and talked about old times. And then when Ronnie came over here, we were actually a bit nervous to start doing something again, because we respect each other. 'Oh, I hope we're going to come up with something; I hope it's going to work,' you sort of think in your mind. It was great, it really just fell into place. We had great respect for each other, so that was a big part toward it. We have a great vibe when we're together, to be honest. It was just really nice to see each other, and we had a good feeling about what we were doing. We can only hope that it comes over, really, when we go out and play.

"I think everybody gives and takes a lot more, to be honest," adds Tony. "I really felt that. I think you learn. We say, 'Oh, I'm learning more.' And you make mistakes. But you learn again, and we're doing that. I think everything is a lot easier, a lot more give and take, and certainly up to now it's been great. Right down the line. I can't complain. I think everybody has been really up for this, and the attitude has been great."

On the management and paperwork question, Tony says, "We're just going to go for it. I've left all that side to my management. The band really doesn't want to get involved managementwise. We'd like to just leave it to them, and we expect it to be sorted out. Well, I hope so [laughs]."

Geezer agrees—no hatchets to bury between the boys. "No, not at all. I mean, you have to decide before you even agree to do stuff like that. If you're going to come into it with a bad attitude, then it's pointless right from the start. So when I was asked if I wanted to do it, you know, I said to meself, 'I want to go into it positively, and stay positive. That's why I don't really want to get incredibly involved in the whole thing. I'm just basically going to turn up and do me job, and not worry about stuff like that, like I used to.' I found I could concentrate more on bass, because I didn't have to do the lyrics as well. Because before, the lyrics took priority and the bass was sort of second tier. With Ronnie, I don't even have to think about the lyrics. I just concentrate on the bass. And Ronnie's singing, I can't believe it. Even when I went into the studio and Ronnie was singing, I just couldn't...you know, I forgot the strength of his voice. Especially when you're standing there next to him in the studio—it's amazing. It really made me appreciate him more than ever, I think. And the thing with Ronnie is he's so quick as well. He'll put a track down, note-perfect, all in tune, singing these incredible harmonies like I've never heard anybody else do. He really is a great singer."

Most potential for problems would have been between Vinny and Ronnie, with Ronnie on record as having been upset when Vin left Dio to do the Sabbath reunion. "No, actually, I'd seen Ronnie and talked to Ronnie since we split up," explains Vin, "and we talked for quite a while on the phone, and I've called him on his birthday, and I've seen him at some shows in L.A. here, and we talked. There was never really anything where we totally cursed each other out or anything like that. He was just a little hurt when I left, and we talked about it a little bit. And it was just like old times. It was just like reminiscing, and all the people that we know together. You start doing that, 'Oh, what's this guy doing?' Just catching up on everything. It's pretty incredible. And we just got along great. But we had been together so long before that, we know each other so well, that it's like it never even happened. And the same with Geezer and Tony. Obviously, I've seen and played with them more in the last couple of years, but everything was cool, like nothing ever broke up. Which, sometimes getting away from people, makes it a lot better when you see them again and work together again."

The rockiest of the three new songs is called "Ear in the Wall," the song crushing at upper-midpaced speeds, Vinny and Geezer laying down a grinding rhythm bed. Explains Ronnie, "That's about a guy who's got to be the most paranoid character who's ever lived. He sees an ear in his wall, so he panics and calls his friend, says to his friend, 'Look, I can't speak to you to tonight. Let's speak in the morning, because what's happening is that I've seen an ear in my wall.' And to the next person, he says 'Look, I know you've heard this all before from me.' You know, he's obviously pretty deranged and this is the only person who will listen to him, the person he's trying to contact. And he says, 'I've cried wolf before, and I know that puts me in a different place to everybody, but no, this time I can prove it.' So eventually, in the last verse of the song, the guy turns out...because the narrator says to him...this fool might actually see reality. So there's a little teaser in there someplace. So the guy turns up, and he takes him into his home where the ear in the wall is, and he starts berating him, because he can't see the ear in the wall. Well, obviously not, because there probably isn't one there—there isn't one there. And he finishes the song by saying, 'I'll turn on the lights so you're sure not to fall. It's next to the eye on the wall.' And that's how nuts he is. There's not just an ear there, there's an eye too. So that's the song—'Ear in the Wall.'

"I think these songs sound like what they're supposed to sound like," continues Ronnie, speaking generally. "They sound heavier than hell. They sound giant from Tony's perspective, as far as that huge guitar sound he has. Geezer plays amazing on it, great as he always was. His signature playing. Vinny is a monster; he plays the same way. And I write the same way. This is one of those things where it all works. I think they could easily be...any of these three tracks could be on _Heaven and Hell_ , and _Dehumanizer_ , and _Mob Rules_ as well."

In terms of production, Ronnie says, "We did them in Tony's studio, which is a good digital studio, with Pro Tools. He's got a great little studio there. And we had an engineer named Mike Exeter, who is really, really good for Tony, and when I first worked with him, he was great. Good ear, really knows his craft—with Pro Tools that help a lot. That can be a stickler at times. But as far as production goes, I don't know, maybe we'll give it to Tony because he was there. I wasn't, and he was there in the studio doing it. It doesn't really matter to me. If I was involved in the production, I would maybe do it somewhere else probably, and I would be much more on top of it. But at this particular point, I was very well satisfied with what I heard. The sounds were all there, and I'm sure it will be great at the end of the day. But once again, it's pure Sabbath songs with Ronnie Dio, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and Vinny Appice."

Speaking of Vinny, here's his take on how the sessions went down, from the first clue something would be happening, through laying it down.

"The first call was, let's see, it was the week of Thanksgiving, and it was from Wendy Dio, which was interesting. Actually, even before that, what happened was there was some publishing deal that came up, and I had to contact Wendy. I hadn't talked to Wendy in a while, probably eight years, and I said, 'You know what? I've got to contact her, in regard to this publishing thing, so we can put our heads together on this.' So I talked to Wendy then, and that was about two months ago, so it's ironic that we actually touched base with each other, and everything is cool. And then the week of Thanksgiving she called, and the exact conversation was, 'Hi Vin, it's Wendy. Listen, it's not working out with Bill, and I want to know if...' and as soon as she said 'if,' the phone got all crackled, the cell phone. I thought, 'Aw, great.' And then she came back on and she went on, and I said, 'Wait a sec; you said "if." I didn't hear everything when it was cracking up.' And she said, 'It wasn't working out with Bill, would you want to do it?' First she wanted to know if I would do it, and I said sure, absolutely, great. And then she said, 'Can you leave tomorrow? For England. They're recording a couple tracks for the new CD that's coming out.' And I said sure, absolutely. And the next day I was on a plane, went over to England to record a couple songs with them."

Asked for his impression of the three new songs, Vinny says, "When I heard them, it was just like, I love all the heavy, loud stuff. I mean, that's all I ever play. So when I heard these, I was like a kid in a candy store. Heavy-ass Sabbath riffs, you know, just massive-sounding. And what I heard was with a drum machine, and there was some scratch bass on there and mainly some guitars. There was some vocals on some of them, and they sounded great, and I just had a big smile on my face. They were so heavy. They were so heavy, and they sounded kind of modern too. And it was interesting, that day, I actually got one of the tracks. I mean, I got into London, drove two hours up to Birmingham, felt like crap, jet lag, long flight, but once I got over to the studio at Tony's house, we started reminiscing and having a good time, and I thought, 'Let's try get a drum sound. All right, I've got a drum sound, let's try...let me track.' They left the room, and me and the engineer wound up getting one track that night [laughs]. So it was awesome, and once the drums were on there, it sounded just like where we left off with _Dehumanizer_. It just kicked butt. And then once Ronnie did his vocals...everybody is just playing better than ever. Ronnie is singing better than ever, the lyrics are great, so I was very blown away by the whole thing and Geezer's playing great."

Ronnie throws the horns to his adoring fans.

Photo by Brandon Marshall

I wondered whether Vinny flew over packing a set of drums or whether they went ahead of him.

"No, no, no," laughs Appice. "I got over there and there was a set of drums there, which, ironically, belonged to Cozy Powell. So, it was cool using one of his kits, keep the spirit alive, doing something like this. And it's a great-sounding kit. I just got in there and tuned them up. We adjusted a couple of things, went for a drum sound, got a cool sound. It only took about half an hour. Tony's studio is in the house, kind of, not a basement, but it seems like a basement. It's a really nice little studio; he's got a nice drum room and a nice control room. Some sliding doors, so the rooms are totally separated. And there's a lot of room for amps, and a lot of closets and things. So we got an amazing sound, cool sound. Tony's place...he's got a lot of old Sabbath pictures, gold records, it's really cool, actually. A lot of old pictures of us together I hadn't seen. Just like a full history on the walls. Really cool."

Turns out that the set Cozy Powell had left behind was all that Vinny needed to get the job done.

"Sure, because I usually record with four tom-toms, plus I'm a one-kick player, so everything is there. Usually the snare is a problem, but there was just one snare there, so we tuned it up, and then it just sounded great. Really good. Actually I was only up there four days. We got the songs done; that only took a couple of days, and we had one day off, which, Ronnie and I, we drove around Birmingham. We used to live there when we were doing _Dehumanizer_ , and we went and visited the old stomping grounds, and the old curry place. And the guy there actually remembered us, which is hilarious! We walk in, and he's, 'Oh!', and we remembered him—that's even funnier. And that's been fourteen years. And the next day we did photo sessions and then we drove to London and we were out of there. So not much time to do much. It's a cool hotel we stayed at, out in the country, an old mansion.

"I didn't play with anybody," laughs Vinny, asked whether any jams took place. "I played to the click track. I mean, that's the way it is these days. You never get to play with people and see them. I basically played to the click track, where Tony had most of his guitars done, and then once I was done, then Geezer put his bass on and Ronnie put his vocal on, and we did it like that. So what we'd do was, I would just work with the engineer and go through the song, and just get it the way I thought it should sound, the way I wanted the drums to sound on there, with all the parts and stuff. And then once we were finished, we would call everybody in and they would listen to it, and if there were any problems, they thought something should happen or change a drum part, we would do it right then. But they loved pretty much the way it came out, and there were no changes, really, just one or two little parts."

Vinny's playing on the Heaven & Hell songs is markedly more restrained than with older Sabbath and especially Dio. "I did find him more restrained," agrees Ronnie. "I think he purposely did that. In fact, I know he purposely did that, because Vinny, you know, had occasions where he's kind of gone over the top, and he didn't want to do that, certainly on these recordings. I think we all felt the same way about the recordings. We didn't go mad. There are no keyboards on any of these tracks. They're all guitars, bass, drums, and voice. But there aren't tons of vocals on it, and choruses and things like that, choirs; it's kind of like what you hear is what you get. It's so damn heavy that it's what Sabbath is supposed to be, or, let me put it more accurately, what Heaven & Hell is supposed to be."

"Vinny is quite a different drummer from Bill in a lot of ways," adds Tony on the topic. "And in a lot of ways he's like Bill; he's tending to pull more toward Bill. Because at one time, Vinny used to put a lot of things in—almost too much, at times. But certainly now, he seems to think about it and put the things in that are needed for the song, as opposed to trying to get all your bits in."

"I kind of went with what I heard on those songs," agrees Vinny. "Sometimes less is more. The songs are so heavy and open, instead of doing fills, you know, filling it up too much, I kind of laid back a little bit and got into the song and then when there is a fill, it really stands out. There are some fills in there [laughs]. There's always fills in there. But I just felt the song that way, you know? That's just the way it came out. And I think the production might sound more like _Mob Rules_ / _Heaven and Hell_ , and the songs sound more _Dehumanizer_ , real heavy and aggressive. Really strong melodies. I was really blown away with the melodies Ronnie came up with, and the lyrics. Because the riffs are so strong, beneath it, and then there are these great melodies, which makes the whole song come alive."

"Shadow of the Wind" is about as heavy and Sabbatherian as one can get, this one lumbering and looming large. "'Shadow of the Wind' could really be explained a lot of different ways," figures Ronnie. "There is no shadow of the wind, so you're dealing with inconsequential things here. So that kind of simile I really like a lot, as you know from all the things I've written. But this one is more about a guy who used to be a severe drug addict, who went into rehab to solve his problems. So it's really the drug talking to him through this whole song. And the guy has decided that I guess he's going to have another go at it. So the drug says to him, 'This time I'm back and I'm stronger, and the first one is always free, and it lasts much longer.' So it's a much better drug than it used to be. 'You can bet your sanity.' So anyway, it's about the needle, or something, slipping under the guy's skin. And that's 'Shadow of the Wind.'"

A lot of doom here, and yet, as Vinny has pointed out, there's always a strong sense of melody, especially on this one's gorgeous yet sorrowful mellow break late in the event.

"I think a lot of it has to do with the way that Tony and I write," figures Ronnie, asked to compare why that would be versus other incarnations of Sabbath. "I've always been a player, which is important to me, not just a singer. So I get a chance to play. So when we write, I play bass, and Tony plays guitar, and in this particular instance we had a drum machine. It's probably something that Tony doesn't get a chance to do very often, which is to play with someone who he's going to be writing a song with. I mean, obviously Glenn Hughes, I'm sure, did the same thing. But this is a different situation. I don't write the way Glenn does. I write the way _Heaven and Hell_ was and _Mob Rules_ was, and the way _Dehumanizer_ was, and the way these three songs are. Which is something that really pleases Tony. He likes the way we write together. It's just one of those magical things that happens. It happened with Ritchie Blackmore and myself and it happened with Tony and I, on so many different occasions. I think what it does, you know, it just really piques his musical interest, and the same with Geezer. These are songs that really go somewhere and have to go somewhere, and again have melodic content, because we think of them together, we go to places that suit both of us, and therefore it will suit Geezer and Vinny in this case. So it's that, and also the fact that we wrote some great songs before and haven't been able to play them in twelve years. I think we all miss that, but we discovered once again how pleasurable it was to write together, both on my part, and Tony's and Geezer's and, with respect to Vinny, playing them."

"It was a different way from the old style of writing," reflects Tony, also asked to make a comparison. "When Dio came in, I started writing different things, and it worked—I like that. With Ozzy, Ozzy would sing a lot on riffs. And with Ronnie, Ronnie would sing on the chord, you know, he would always...he can sing on chords. It was just a different style of writing—it made me go somewhere else, both with riffs and with songs."

"The Devil Cries" is another slow and crushing track, the hammer to "Shadow of the Wind"'s anvil, the two together underscoring the comparisons to the _Dehumanizer_ material that would start to surface in press accounts.

"I don't look upon hell as everybody else does," explains Ronnie, asked for an interpretation of "The Devil Cries" lyrically. "I look upon hell as probably a little world down there where the same things are going on as here. There's a structure; there's a devil who is like the president or king or a ruler—ultimate ruler, in that case. But people talk down there. There's a lot of suffering going on, I guess. But they do converse and they have days...I'm getting too far into this—it doesn't say this in the song. But I'm just trying to give you my perspective. The first line of the song is 'One fine day in hell,' and that will set you up pretty well, I think. And on this day, the devil gathers everyone together and he tells a story. Because as I say, things happen down there. Everybody gets a chance not to suffer for a while, and they listen to the story. And he says one guy he knew lied to him so well about...whatever he lied to him about—I don't go into it on this one—that he made the devil cry, so he sent him back to heaven. So now the guy realizes that, if you get an appointment with the devil, and you can make him cry, he'll send you back to heaven. I think it's only happened the one time I mention. So he finally gets an appointment, and he says to the devil, he tells him about how hard his life has been, and all the pain he had been through, and all these horrible things, that he felt horrible. And the devil smiled and was just about to laugh and then the guy said, 'Then I told him that I love you,' and then the devil cried. You're talking about a guy who got out of it because he was in love with somebody who was so despicable that even the devil couldn't believe how bad he was, so he cried and sent him back to heaven."

The gents of Heaven & Hell in the service of the heavy metal gods.

"Well, we've got one for everybody," laughs Tony, ask to sum up the three new tracks. "If somebody goes, 'Oh, they're all too slow,' we've got a slow one, a midtempo, and a fast one. So it should please most of the fans. The slow one is quite a heavy track, 'Shadow of the Wind.' Ronnie presented the first idea for that, and then I just came up with more stuff to go with that, and it's a really good track. Very similar to the old Sabbath style of writing. There's not loads of things on it. It's just really basic with the vocal. And then we've got 'The Devil Cries,' which is a midtempo one, which again is quite a powerful song. And I must say that Ronnie has done a fantastic job on the vocals on all of these. He really has, and the lyrical content and the actual melodies are very good. You know, the lyrics are all Ronnie's. He came up with them over that period, while he got the ideas. He got the ideas when he heard the initial riffs, and then wrote the lyrics. So no, Geezer hasn't done any lyrics. I don't think he really wants to, because he knows Ronnie can write lyrics. I don't think he involved himself. Anyway, so that's the midtempo one. That's an interesting track. And then we've got a fast one which is called 'Ear in the Wall,' and that's...a fast one [laughs]. Writingwise, more or less, we had the basic structure. When Ronnie came over to my house, we just put our structure down. And then Ronnie went back and I changed a few other things, put a few more things in them, sent him a copy of it so he could have a listen. And when it came back I added a few more things. So it was done that way, really. And when we started playing them, the structure was done."

Last word goes to Vinny, who at this point was just eager to hit the road. "I'm hoping we're going to play...well, obviously 'The Mob Rules' and 'I' from _Dehumanizer_ , and then maybe 'Computer God,' and of course 'Heaven and Hell'—I like them all! 'I' is a great song. We did that on the _Dehumanizer_ tour, and it went over so well. It was just a cool song. It's actually amazing, but everybody looked great and played great. There weren't any big changes, you know. Everybody does what they do. It's not like somebody went off in a different direction, myself included. We always played the music we played, rather than jump on a bandwagon into something else. I believe that once we start rehearsing, this is going to kick total absolute ass. There are no weak links in it. This is the stuff I play best and this is the best band in the world to play it with [laughs]."
Timeline

I Must Have the Bible Black

Important Dates in Sabbath History: The '00s and '10s

2000

**2000.** Black Sabbath wins a Best Metal Performance Grammy for "Iron Man." UK Sanctuary mini-LP sleeve CD reissue of _Black Sabbath_ (Cat. # CMTCD003), _Paranoid_ (Cat. # CMTCD004), _Master of Reality_ (Cat. # CMTCD005), _Vol 4_ (Cat. # CMTCD006), _Sabbath Bloody Sabbath_ (Cat. # CMTCD028), _Sabotage_ (Cat. # CMTCD029), _Technical Ecstasy_ (Cat. # CMTCD030), and _Never Say Die_ (Cat. # CMTCD031).

**Mar. 16, 2000.** _We Sold Our Soul for Rock 'n' Roll_ is certified 2x platinum.

**June 6, 2000.** _Nativity in Black II_ is issued.

2001

**May 22, 2001.** First date of the original lineup of Black Sabbath together again for the second time (since the two Birmingham shows documented on _Reunion_ ). These are Ozzfest dates. The tour ends Aug. 12.

**July 26, 2001.** _Master of Reality_ is certified 2x platinum.

2002

**Aug. 20, 2002.** Sanctuary issue _Past Lives_ (Cat. # 06076-84562-2), a two-CD expanded version of the semi-official _Live at Last_.

**Oct. 22, 2002.** Rhino/Warner issue a two-CD compilation called _Symptom of the Universe: The Original Black Sabbath 1970–1978_ (Cat. # R2 73772).

2003

**2003.** Tony Iommi ranked #86 by _Rolling Stone_ in their "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" feature.

2004

**2004.** Tony is ranked #1 by _Guitar World_ in their "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" feature. UK Castle/Sanctuary reissue _Black Sabbath_ (Cat. # SMRCD031), _Paranoid_ (Cat. # SMRCD032), _Master of Reality_ (Cat. # SMRCD033), _Vol 4_ (Cat. # SMRCD034), _Sabbath Bloody Sabbath_ (Cat. # SMRCD035), _Sabotage_ (Cat. # SMRCD036), _We Sold Our Soul for Rock ''n' Roll_ (Cat. # SMRCD078), _Technical Ecstasy_ (Cat. # SMRCD037), _Never Say Die_ (Cat. # SMRCD038), _Heaven and Hell_ (Cat. # SMRCD072), _Mob Rules_ (Cat. # SMRCD073), _Live Evil_ (Cat. # SMRCD074), _Born Again_ (Cat. # SMRCD075), _Seventh Star_ (Cat. # SMRCD076), and _The Eternal Idol_ (Cat. # SMRCD077).

**Apr. 27, 2004.** After a bunch of semiofficial compilations, a large box set is issued by Rhino called _Black Box_ (Cat. # R2 73923).

**July 10, 2004.** First date of Black Sabbath at Ozzfest 2004 dates, featuring the original lineup. The tour runs until Sept. 2.

**Aug. 25, 2004.** Rob Halford sings for Sabbath a third time, subbing for Ozzy, who was having throat problems.

2005

**2005.** Black Sabbath inducted (by Brian May) into the UK Music Hall of Fame, as is Ozzy, as a solo artist, at the same time inducted by Angus Young.

**June 6, 2005.** First date of Black Sabbath, the original lineup, playing Ozzfest 2005.

**July 9, 2005.** Last date of the European leg of Ozzfest 2005, U.S. leg starting on July 15, Ozzfest 2005 ending on Sept. 10.

**Oct. 20, 2005.** The Dio band plays Birmingham. Ronnie and Tony get together that afternoon and evening, and plans for a reunion of the Dio-era lineup are informally discussed.

2006

**2006.** Negotiations and band meetings take place to reconstitute the _Mob Rules_ / _Dehumanizer_ lineup of the band under the new name, Heaven & Hell.

**Mar. 14, 2006.** Black Sabbath enters the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. On the same day, Rhino/Warner issue _Greatest Hits: 1970–1978_ , to celebrate the band's induction (Cat. # R2 73365).

**Nov. 2006.** Vinny gets the call from Wendy Dio, Ronnie's wife and manager since the inception of Dio, asking him to join Heaven & Hell. "Tony's management called me originally to ask Ronnie if he would work together with Tony on one of Tony's solo albums," explains Wendy. "We were quite happy with the Dio situation and it didn't come to pass. And then they called again, talking about a situation possibly of getting together Tony and Ronnie and calling it something else. At that point, it wasn't a Black Sabbath/Heaven & Hell situation. And then nothing came to pass, and then the record company called and said they were going to put out the Black Sabbath _The Dio Years_ , and was there any unwritten material in the vault anywhere? And I said no, there isn't. And at that point Ronnie goes, 'Well, then maybe we should write something.' So it was only going to be a one-off, and Ronnie and Tony got together and they were going to write two songs, and ended up writing three songs, and then at that point, we were talking with Gloria Butler and Geezer, and then Bill came into the situation, but it didn't work out with Bill. He didn't want to tour and I don't know what...musical problems. And then I called Vinny, and then Vinny came back into the fold."

2007

**Mid-Feb. 2007.** This was the original anticipated release date for _The Dio Years_. The band rehearses for a major tour.

**Mar. 11, 2007.** First date of the Heaven & Hell tour, in Vancouver, BC, supported by Megadeth and Down. Mar. 30, 2007. Heaven & Hell perform at the Radio City Music Hall. A recording of the show is released as a CD and DVD five months later.

**Apr. 3, 2007.** Warner/Rhino issue a compilation called _The Dio Years_ (Cat. # R2 116668). It features three new tracks by the new Heaven & Hell lineup. "It's not something I'm really concerned about," says Ronnie, "only because I didn't have chance to go in and remix it. I don't think Tony had a chance to go in and remix or remaster it either. It was left to someone else. It was left to the people at Rhino to do, who we believe in. So it wasn't a matter of saying yes or no to the tracks. They were all good tracks and some are from live performances and some are from recordings. I look at it as, well, if it was done at some point, it was good enough to be there on tape, which probably was in those days, and we can't argue about them. I know that my performances were okay and it seems that everybody else's were as well."

**May 1, 2007.** Rhino Handmade issue _Live at Hammersmith Odeon_ (Cat. # RHM2 07735). Limited to 5,000 copies, it sells out quickly and is now a collector's item.

**Aug. 28, 2007.** Heaven & Hell issue _Live from Radio City Music Hall_ on CD and DVD (Cat. # R2 243708).

**Nov. 18, 2007.** Last date of the first Heaven & Hell tour.

2008

**July 22, 2008.** The Dio years material is issued as a box set called _The Rules of Hell_ (Cat. # 460156), a title concocted by Geezer: "I wanted to mention _Mob Rules_ and also get in _Heaven and Hell_. I came up with about ten different titles—we were all coming up with titles—and the record company thought, 'Put _Mob Rules_ and _Heaven and Hell_ together, and come up with _Rules of Hell_ ,' and that's the one the record company liked, so we went with that." _Heaven and Hell_ (Cat. # 460156 A), _Mob Rules_ (Cat. # 460156 B), _Live Evil_ (Cat. # 460156 C), and _Dehumanizer_ (Cat. # 460156 D) make up the box set.

**Aug. 6, 2008.** The Metal Masters tour features Heaven & Hell, Judas Priest, Motörhead, and Testament. It's a three-week jaunt through the U.S. (plus a Toronto date) ending on Aug. 31 in Mountain View, CA.

**Oct. 2008.** The Dio-era albums recently out in box set format are now put up for sale separately: On CD: _Heaven and Hell_ (Cat. # R2 515958), _Mob Rules_ (Cat. # R2 515959), _Live Evil_ (Cat. # R2 515957), and _Dehumanizer_ (Cat. # R2 515956). On vinyl: _Heaven and Hell_ (Cat. # R1 03372), _Mob Rules_ (Cat. # R1 03605), _Live Evil_ (Cat. # R1 23742), and _Dehumanizer_ (Cat. # R1 26965)

2009

**Mar. 30, 2009.** UK Sanctuary deluxe two-CD reissue of _Paranoid_ (Cat. # 1782444) and _Master of Reality_ (Cat. # 2701106).

**Apr. 28, 2009.** Heaven & Hell's full-length studio album _The Devil You Know_ is issued (Cat. # R2 518862; Cat. # for the Walmart version: R2 519468; Cat. # for the U.S. Rhino two-LP version: R2 519252).

**May 5, 2009.** Heaven & Hell embark on a tour in support of the new studio album, supported by Coheed and Cambria. On June 3–6, Heaven & Hell play Sweden Rock, followed by the Waldrock festival, Bergum, the Netherlands, on June 13 and Hellfest in Clisson, France, June 19–21.

**2009.** UK Sanctuary CD reissue of _Vol 4_ (Cat. # 2716857), _Sabbath Bloody Sabbath_ (Cat. # 2716846), _Sabotage_ (Cat. # 2716664), _Technical Ecstasy_ (Cat. # 2716550), and _Never Say Die_ (Cat. # 2716533).

**July 2, 2009.** UK Sanctuary deluxe two-CD reissue of _Black Sabbath_ (Cat. # 2700817).

**July 30, 2009.** Heaven & Hell play Wacken. It is the last recorded concert by the band. The performance is later immortalized by the CD and DVD issue of the concert.

**Aug. 29, 2009.** Heaven & Hell conclude the tour for _The Devil You Know_ , playing Atlantic City, NJ. It would be Ronnie James Dio's final performance.

**Nov. 29, 2009.** Ronnie is diagnosed with stomach cancer.

One would have to consider _Paranoid_ as Black Sabbath's "gateway" record, the album most likely to serve as an introduction for potential new fans.

2010

**May 4, 2010.** Plans for Heaven & Hell to tour with Iron Maiden in July and August are officially canceled, due to Ronnie's declining health situation.

**May 16, 2010.** Ronnie James Dio passes away at 7:45 A.M., Central time.

**June 29, 2010.** Eagle Vision's much celebrated _Classic Albums_ series issues _Black Sabbath Paranoid_.

**July 24, 2010.** The three surviving members of Heaven & Hell perform a tribute set at the High Voltage Festival, utilizing two guest singers, Glenn Hughes and Jorn Lande. All proceeds go toward the Ronnie James Dio Stand Up and Shout Cancer Fund.

**Nov. 2010.** Wendy Dio announces that Ronnie's autobiography had been mostly completed before Ronnie's death. Says Wendy, "Ronnie had written, was writing, a book, right up until a couple of days before he passed, an autobiography, and he finished about three quarters of it, and I had already gotten an agent for him, and so they want me to finish it. So I will finish it, and it will come out in 2012. I haven't actually gone back and read the last part because it's too soon for me to do that—the memories are too precious. I will do it, but I think he got up to the second part of Sabbath. What he would do is handwrite everything and then he would send it over to me and my assistant would type it up. That's how we worked. So we read chapter by chapter, until the last months, of course."

**Nov. 1, 2010.** Universal Music issues expanded two-CD reissue editions of _Seventh Star_ and _The Eternal Idol_. The main additions are, for _Seventh Star_ , a Glenn Hughes–era live CD, and for _The Eternal Idol_ , the version of the album featuring Ray Gillen on vocals. _Live at Last_ and _Past Lives_ are also reissued in remastered editions.

**Nov. 16, 2010.** The band's Wacken performance from '09 is issued as _Neon Nights: 30 Years of Heaven & Hell—Live in Europe_ (Cat. # Arm250462), on CD and DVD, the track listings being the same, save for the CD omitting "E5150" and "Country Girl." Notes Sabbath expert and Roadrunner legend Monte Conner, "Playing it now. It has stereo rhythm guitars. At first I thought it might be like at shows where they sometimes have the one guitar channeling both sides of the stage with a different EQ on each side to kind of fake stereo, but sure enough, when the solos come on, there is a rhythm track under them. I don't mind this because on live albums with one guitarist, it can sound like crap if the guitars are right up the middle, like _Live Evil_ —that is _not_ a good mix: very small and congested, because you have vocals, bass, and guitars right up the middle. Anyway, I think this is the first time I have heard Tony do this. Odd to do it this late in the game. The mix is heavy and solid but the drums are kinda undermixed—you miss the crack of the snare a bit. But overall, I likey."
33

"It Hasn't Been a Very Happy World for a While."

Heaven & Hell Unleash The Devil You Know

We can all take away whatever magic we personally drew from Ronnie's last years with us. For some, it will be a penultimate live show, the last experience hearing and seeing in the flesh Heaven & Hell, as the band with the fresh name and fresh coat of paint surprised us all by getting out on the tiles so much, connecting with so many fans and indeed bands that grew up on the Sabs and who are now part of the history of heavy metal themselves.

But to my mind, I think the most important thing Tony, Geezer, Vinny, and Ronnie got done is one last massive studio album, _The Devil You Know_ being that sledge of a statement, emerging in 2009 on this writer's birthday, April 28.

"It's actually a surprise," begins Geezer, holding court on August 13, 2008, backstage at the Molson Amphitheater, Toronto, in advance of the band's set on the Metal Masters tour, which also included Testament, Motörhead, and Judas Priest. "Because, as I probably told you before, this was only going to be a one-off tour. Well, it was originally going to be just _Radio City_ , put out a DVD of that particular lineup. But that had such an incredible response, we ended up doing the whole world tour. And at the end of it, everyone was getting on really well, so we thought, 'Well, while it's going well, let's take the next step and try writing a new album.' And we sat down together for about six weeks and came out with six brand-new songs. So we're doing this tour, and then we're going to go back in and finish writing, and then record the album."

The classy, restrained triumph that would be Ronnie James Dio's last studio album perhaps goes a little overboard graphically speaking.

So put in perspective, here we were eight months before the launch of _The Devil You Know_ , and the guys had already gotten well along. "Yeah, this is in the last few months," notes Geez, who says he can't say much about the songs. "Not a lot at the moment, no, because we don't know which ones are going to end up on the album. But you'll know that it's us. There are no great big surprises on there, just good stuff, good heavy stuff. Six done, and we're hoping to do another four or five."

But Geezer considers these new songs demos at this point. "Yeah, well, Tony's got his studio in England and Ronnie has a studio in L.A. We've been backward and forward between both studios, and what we're doing is, we're going to get like eleven songs written, and then go through them with a fine-tooth comb kind of thing, and get them really tight."

Asked whether there was a producer picked, Butler figures, "No, we don't need to. We're working with a really good engineer at the moment, who's been working with us—Mike Exeter. He did Tony's last solo album and worked with us on the three new songs on the 'best of' album. He engineered the three new songs, and the good thing about him is he's really fast, which is what we need."

Meanwhile, it was business as usual, with very few changes to the set list versus the '07 jaunt. "On this tour? Yeah, because it's such as short set that were doing, we're only doing seventy-five minutes. And originally, we put 'Ear in the Wall' and 'Time Machine' in the set, but the first night we ran over on time, so we couldn't go on and do 'Neon Knights.' So now we had to drop 'Ear in the Wall' so we can put 'Neon Knights' back in. So there's only 'Time Machine,' really, that is a change from the last tour."

"Once again were calling this Heaven & Hell and not Black Sabbath," noted Ronnie on the set list philosophy, back in '07. "And we're defining a kind of line in the road, which is better for us. We certainly have enough material to do. I think the Ozzy thing has been done. All you had to do was to go to every Ozzfest, and you got those, and that's the guy who sang them. I did them in the original days because we only had one album. We only had _Heaven and Hell_ , and we couldn't fill all the time considerations with just that album. And at that time, it was still Black Sabbath; it was Black Sabbath with a different singer. And it made sense to do the things that Sabbath had been known for. We didn't do a full slate of Ozzy songs, but we did enough to fill the time slots and we did the ones we thought were important, like 'Paranoid' and 'Iron Man.' But this time we have more than enough material and more than enough, perhaps, vision not to do those.

"There's a song off of _Dehumanizer_ called 'I' that I like a lot," furthers Ronnie, asked to think deep catalogue. "I like that album just generally. If it was up to me, I would do most of it. But no, once again, my own band has kept all this music alive for a long time, and we will continually go in and do a different Sabbath song. I have that luxury, so I've done kind of most of them. There's not really anything that I'm going to petition for. It's more of a case of a sitting down and figuring out what we want to do."

How about "Slipping Away" or "Country Girl?" "We've done 'Slipping Away' and 'Country Girl' before, so it's not that we haven't touched upon those. But yeah, they are all choices. But I don't want to impress myself upon them and say...I mean, there are some songs that I think we should absolutely do, and I will impress myself upon those. But there are others where I may go, 'Should we do this one?' 'No, let's not.' 'Fine.' And I'll go with that. But we'll make our decisions, talk about what we want to do and what's feasible. Once again, we're just approaching it as how much fun it's going to be to play those songs again, in their entirety, and with the same people who played them, and to present ourselves on the stage this way again. And I'm sure, that's just how Tony and Geez and Vinny feel too. We've always been proud of the songs we had done together, and we've always been proud of the fact that when we played them, people really liked them."

"On the last tour, when we started off in Canada, I got bronchitis," says Geezer, asked about his health this time out. "And I just couldn't get rid of it for the full length of it. Eventually, we got to Australia and it turned into pneumonia, and I just couldn't get rid of it at all. So I was on all kinds of antibiotics and everything. But you know, hopefully I won't get that this time."

Amusingly, before this all started, back in January '07, Geezer told me his main problem was "I've got really fat, but that's about it. Because I haven't done anything for a year [laughs]. I'm just about to, tomorrow, go up to Monmouth Mountain, to go skiing and get myself fit. That's about it. I go for walks and stuff. I don't do anything heavy, in case I hurt any fingers or anything." Skiing had been only a recently adopted hobby for Butler, Geezer classing himself as "terrible," adding, "I'm always frightened, like I said, of breaking anything, especially before a tour. So I keep it really simple. I hope I won't be talking to you from the hospital next time [laughs]."

"He always goes on; he always says something," laughs Tony about Geezer and his "moaning." "I think you have to sort of get yourself sorted, otherwise you collapse [laughs]. Especially at our age, to get out and do it, you've got to keep yourself in some kind of shape. I like to try to get myself sorted certainly a month before I go out, or six weeks. I think, 'Well, I've got to get out and play and pay more attention to everything.' I don't get a personal trainer. I've got a mate of mine who is a personal trainer, but he came over once, and said, 'Oh, why don't you come over?' And I said 'No, I don't need all that.' I mean, I've done it for so long over the years; I don't need to be doing stuff like that. That's what I did before I'd got into music. So I sort of know what I need from my body to keep in shape. I was into a lot of weight lifting and everything before I'd got into music. Because I was going to do...I used to do karate like five times a week. I used to love all that sort of stuff. I did boxing, because that's what I thought I was going to be doing. I didn't expect to be in a band. I thought I was going to do something that had do with physical contact—contact sports."

"I ran, and I was a baseball player," adds Ronnie, same subject. "You know, I just walk every morning, three or four miles, get my lungs in action. And other than that, no, I don't do anything. I don't exercise. My voice...I don't warm up, ever. I've just been able to do it at this level, over time. A lot of it is a matter of technique. I've got a strong voice and I know how to use it. Some days...I hope it's not going to go soon."

"Ronnie has always amazed me anyway, with what he does," chimes in Tony, on Ronnie's ability to sing so accurately, passionately, and powerfully at his age. "How he can go on and sing like that...and he doesn't warm up or anything. He just walks on and sings. Absolutely great at that. So everything amazes me with this band, all around, really. We can say that about each other. How are we still doing it at this age? But you do it because you enjoy it, and with Ronnie, he enjoys it, it's part of his life, he loves to go out and do it. He's a pure professional. He doesn't want to cancel shows or anything. He wants to go to do it. It'd have to be pretty rough for him to cancel the show."

"I only eat once a day; sometimes I don't eat at all," continues Ronnie, the irony of these statements tragically rife now, considering his death from stomach cancer shortly thereafter. "Very bad with that. It's certainly not anything I recommend to anyone. But I get into my routine and I'm just...I'm not hungry, I don't want to eat, for no reason, and I just eat a meal in the evening and that's it. You know, I should have a better diet but I don't. You know, it's silly to stuff yourself. Silly also to not eat all day long, but it's also silly to stuff yourself with a giant meal, especially if you're going to bed in a couple hours. I just make sure I have something, because at that point you get hungry. I just make sure I have something in my stomach, because I have work to do. I think a lot of it is just my natural metabolism, probably. So I would think yeah, I would think my caloric content is down quite a bit. But I probably make up for the lack of calories by eating a high-calorie meal [laughs]. I'm not a vegetarian, and I don't eat vegetables. I don't believe in vegetables. Fish or meat and that's it. Or potatoes or something like that. So I get enough of what I need, plus, again, a lot of it is being a little bit cautious about what you put in your body, and walking all the time.

"Only that we've written them, really, and they're great," is the way Ronnie introduced the prospect of new material, same day, same place as my chat with Geezer, namely Toronto, August 2008. "And the writing process has been wonderful—very pleasant, extremely productive. And we did it at my house, which made me a lot happier because I could be home. No, it was great; the songs were great. I think it's a gateway to what's going to be a hell of an album, a really, really good album. Truthfully, I don't remember what I wrote. It's been a while since we've done it, and I remember a couple of the titles, of course, but I don't want to give titles away. Lyrically, now, I say it's better to wait till it's finished. There may be something wonderful in there, but I like to be a little bit more secretive about it. It's better to have people salivate for it, so salivate, guys.

"It will be released, I would assume, in the first part of the year, probably March," figured Ronnie, estimating a little earlier than the actual issue date, as it would transpire. "Because we're going to South America in March, and the tour will encompass all of the places we haven't been, and a lot of the places we have been. We've toured America quite extensively over the period of these releases that have been more compilations than anything else. So I think it's time for us to stay away from North America a little and let people desire it a little bit more. So we'll do South America, as I said, probably Russia; we've been to Japan and Australia, and I think we'll go to the Middle East this year. And of course a lot of festivals in Europe—Wacken festival, Sweden Rock, those kinds of things. So there are a lot of places to play; it'll be a long tour."

Fast-forward seven months, and the release of _The Devil You Know_ was most assuredly at hand, which is why I was able to get Tony on the phone for a little celebration of said event, Iommi beginning the proceedings by breaking down some of the complicated logistics around making the record.

"I think in my studio, we put together the basic 'Breaking into Heaven' track—that was the first one. But mainly, at my studio, this time, I just put a lot of stuff down on CD, a lot of ideas, and went off to L.A. with quite a bit of stuff, really. And the idea was, we all thought we would do a CD—Ronnie would do one and Geezer would do one—of their ideas. So we met up at Ronnie's house, his studio, and just went through the CDs of what we've got to work on, and we picked out a particular riff we wanted to work on. Or I might've done half the song, and it just needed some more parts, and then we would start building them up, really, one track at a time. And we were at Ronnie's house for about six weeks, I think, so we wrote some new parts, and we'd probably done about six tracks then, at that point."

Asked what we might hear on an ideas CD from Geezer, Tony says, "It's just bits of riffs, really. Geezer tends to go in and play riffs, and it might be just twenty minutes of playing. He would play guitar on the pieces he would present. Ronnie would do the same. He would play guitar, put some riffs down. But Ronnie, on a couple of them, he put some ideas for the vocal as well so you could see where it was going. And then you narrow it down to pick a couple of riffs. 'Oh, that's a good one; we'll use that.' That's how he tends to do it. With mine, I tend to work it out more, and pick out ones where I knew it was quite suitable. Whereas Geezer would play quite a few things. And he had quite a few good riffs on it, and Ronnie did as well. It was pretty healthy, to have so much stuff that we could go through and use."

Despite various ailments, Heaven & Hell embarked on a rigorous tour schedule—the world was fortunate to experience so many magical Ronnie James Dio performances before his untimely demise from stomach cancer on May 16, 2010.

"It was very much different from the way we'd done it before," seconds Ronnie. "We've always gone into a rehearsal studio, turned on all the amps, and pounded it out. I think we found we needed to try a different way this time. We had a bit more of a long-distance relationship in the beginning of it all, so this time we went into the studio, my studio, a recording studio, a demo studio, and we just did it face-to-face, just the three of us, only just using the amplification through the recording system, so we didn't blow our brains out. And it was just wonderful. We were able to do it so well face-to-face, but of course, before that, yes, we put together some ideas when we were away, to get into the writing process together, and that really helped so much. Tony had about fifteen things, Geez had about twelve or thirteen, and I had the same, and we just listened to everything and decided on what we liked best. 'That will work.' 'Yeah, I like that.' So we just decided to work on the things we liked from all the presentations that each person had. And that's the way we did it.

"On my demos, I played everything on it, with the addition of the drum machine," says Ronnie, also asked who tended to do what to their personal demos. "So yeah, I played everything, just like Geezer did, and obviously Tony did as well. Geezer played guitar on his. I think there was even one solo somewhere. It's not going to be used. I mean, he's not Tony. It's like my bass parts—we're not going to use them, because I'm not Geezer. And none of them are drummers. But we could do things with drum machines, and obviously we have a good sense of rhythm. So we would put really simple things out so there was a backbeat there, and on mine, I like to mess with fills and everything. But they're pretty bare-boned. But again, you need a basis. And sometimes the ideas you have in there, they're stuck in there for the wrong reasons. But everybody plays enough just to get by."

Then it was off to the fabled Rockfield in Wales, to cut the tracks in a proper, full-service old school environment.

"Right, well," says Tony, "we had done six weeks at Ronnie's, writing, and then we had a break, and then went on the Metal Masters tour with Priest for a month. Then after that, we'd done another six weeks writing at Ronnie's, and then we went into a rehearsal room and played them all live, and made sure we got them all pretty well how we wanted them. And then we came over to England, to Rockfield studios in Wales, to record. Because we wanted to basically have it all prepared and walk in the studio and play them and tape it.

You see, the good thing about Rockfield, really, for us, it's out of the way, we can all live together, we can all stay there—you've got all of the accommodation and everything. So you don't get bothered as such. You don't get a lot of people dropping by, because it's very quiet there. And that's what we wanted. We wanted to get somewhere where we could concentrate on what we were doing. If we'd done it in L.A., we would've been all over the place. But it's nice to go someplace were you can't do a lot, and get doing what you're supposed to be doing."

Still, bloody hangers on...the guys couldn't get away from one Robert Plant! "Yeah, Planty dropped by," laughs Tony. "He came over one day. Just talking about general things, what he's up to and that."

"Yeah, he came by, but I was at the grocery store," adds Ronnie. "His son was recording there. His son was doing something for two or three days, during the time we were there, so Robert had come down to see his son, and he stopped in the studio. Like I say, I wasn't there, but I think Geez and Tony saw him. In fact, Vinny and I were both gone.

"This was the second time," continues Ronnie, asked about fun times in Wales. "We'd done _Dehumanizer_ there. You know, the only thing that really happened that was extremely funny was Vinny had a habit of drying—well, a good habit—drying his hair off every time when we were recording, because he sweats so much. So we...he came up to me and said, 'My hair dryer is broken,' and I said, 'Okay, you can use mine,' went and got my hair dyer, and in the meantime, Tony's tech says, 'Let me look at his hair dryer and see if I can fix it.' So he went and looked. It was a wire disconnected. He reconnected it and we poured a bottle of—whatever the container is called—of talcum powder, in the back of the hair dryer, and went into the studio. So we went out and did the track, and we'd forgotten all about what we had done. We finished the track and we were excited about it, and finally Vinny came in and looked like Casper, the Friendly Ghost. Talcum powder just went everywhere all over him. You've got to do something to relieve the tension. In the old days we probably would've set each other on fire or killed each other or something. But we've grown up so much, and we just enjoy each other's company, and we enjoy taking the mickey out of each other."

"While we're playing, he can be writing lyrics down," continues Tony, asked about Ronnie's lyrical modus operandi. "Whenever we rehearse or whatever it is, you can see him jotting stuff down. And when we were at his house, he actually would disappear for half an hour and then come back, have a listen, go again, and he's just writing ideas, making notes, and when we'd come back the next day, or to work on the song again, he would have an idea of what he's going to say. And so he would sort of stay up until, I don't know, two or three o'clock in the morning writing lyrics. But it was a real band effort. He shared what he was going to do with everybody, and, 'Do you like it?' like we do with everything when we write the music. Everybody has to like what we do. Otherwise if somebody doesn't like a particular riff or doesn't like a part, we don't do it.

"There's no rainbows," laughs Tony, asked about the differences he's seen in Ronnie's lyrics since the old days. "But no, I actually like the lyrics he's done on here. There are some tongue-in-cheek ones, so I think, yes, good, what he's done."

O'er to Vinny, I asked Tony whether Vin was still the guy who keeps track of Tony's riffs, juggling his countless cassettes, sifting the good from the merely mortal. "Yeah, well, he doesn't have that job now. We fired him," laughs Tony. "No, Vinny was...I actually took my engineer over with me that works here at my studio, and he came over, and he actually had done the engineering on this album. So we had him there. So Vinny was redundant on that side of it, so we could actually have Mike do a rough thing on the computer. He would take it all down, and it worked out that way, really."

I inquired of Ronnie whether he felt that there was a vibe within the ten new _Devil You Know_ songs that was different to that of the three tracks the guys did for _The Dio Years_. "Oh, well, that was really the stimulus for it all," figures Ronnie. "I think once we embarked upon doing an entirely new album, we completely forgot about those things. Those were something we had done, once again, and proved to be very pleasurable for us to do, and eye-opening, and how well we can do this again? Once we started to do the album, I think we completely totally forgot about that, because we are now embarking on another ten songs we have to write, and really, what do they have to do with the other ones? Nothing. But their importance was that they got the ball rolling."

And what about _The Devil You Know_ as a title? "That was Geezer's title. I don't think we were really that concerned about it, to tell you the truth. So we usually let Geezer do things like that, because he's got a great way with words. And when it was presented, I just went, 'Fine, great.' You could call it _Mayonnaise_ as far as I was concerned. To me what was important was what was inside of it. It just didn't matter, you know, the title. And I was happy Geez did it. Obviously that's important to him too. So it was just a title that we used. It wasn't Mayonnaise; it was better than that, a better title than Mayonnaise."

"Yes, Geezer came up with _The Devil You Know_ ," confirms Tony. "And there are some others he came up with, some funny ones, but that one really appealed to me straightaway, and the same with Ronnie. We said, 'Oh yeah, that's good.' Can't remember any others, and if I could, I wouldn't tell you, because it's Geezer's typical humor [laughs]."

And with that title went some incredibly wicked cover art reminiscent of the H. R. Giger abomination reprised for Celtic Frost's _To Mega Therion_. Says Dio, "We just presented it to the guy who had done the cover for _The Dio Years_ —I can never remember his name. Great guy, Japanese guy. And I think he farmed this one out to...the guy who did the artwork I think was Finnish or Norwegian, Per Haagensen, I think his name was. And so we had let the record company do it. We said basically, 'We'd like to try this guy again; he did a great job,' and we submitted it to him and then what you see is what was approved."

Indeed, Masaki Koike at Phyx Design is credited with art direction and design and Per Øyvind Haagensen with the cover illustration.

"Yep, I think it was somebody who worked for him. He was busy; I mean, he'd won a Grammy for his art, so I think he perhaps did that. But I know how really involved in it he was. He was really excited about the things he does for us, and when we did the last photo session, he came down and said it was so good to see us. And he said he hadn't done the artwork yet and he couldn't wait to get to it. So I'm sure with his overseeing it, it was going to be something we would really liked."

_The Devil You Know_ opens with a slow bulldozer of a track (and there are quite a few of those on here!) that is about as doomy as Heaven & Hell could ever possibly get. Turns out that Ronnie can stake some degree of claim to the actual riff on this one.

Yes, 'Atom and Evil,' let's see, I think that was probably it as far as full riffs that we decided to do. Other parts are vocal parts, melody parts, and a change here and there." And given that Ronnie dove right into the music on this one, it's actually one of the few demo tracks he ventured full lyrics for as well. "Yes, only on one—just on 'Atom and Evil.' You know, I didn't want to start impressing on them all of the ideas I had right away, in case they needed to be changed, or a break needed to be changed or whatever. So I did that one because I worked on it for a while and I liked it and thought it would really work. And it was easy for a nice presentation like that, rather than just bits and pieces. So I did that, and once again, I wasn't trying to impress my full psyche on them all, so when we started to write, so with all the ideas we hashed out, we were all happy with what we did together. 'You do that, I do that, we're still working on that.'"

Older and wiser, for the Heaven & Hell project, the Sabbath guys put past petty arguments in perspective and got on with the task at hand.

Immediately, one notices the crushing drum sound bestowed upon the record and, indeed, how everything fits so well in the mix. "Well, the band produced it, with Mike Exeter, the engineer," offers Tony. "And Mike did the one bit of keyboards we've got, because he's a keyboard player as well. And then after we recorded the album, we went to Wyn Davis in Los Angeles, and he'd done the mixing of it, and I think he probably touched the drums up a bit. But I mean, the sounds are mostly there, as we had done them."

One also notices that Vinny's drum performance, as with the earlier three new tracks, is quite restrained with respect to fills, something laid quite bare on slower tracks like "Atom and Evil," "Follow the Tears," and closer "Breaking into Heaven."

Opines Iommi, "Yeah, he does sometimes get a bit fast with rolls and stuff like that, but maybe he didn't want to do it this time. We might've come across...sometimes when we were actually putting a track down, he might've gone a bit over the top to try something, and he would decide himself, 'Well, I'm going to keep it a bit more simple.' And we'd record it again, and he would do it a bit more simple."

"I think Vinny had learned early on, when he joined the band and we started to record things, that most of us didn't like overbusy work," adds Ronnie. "I certainly didn't mind it in Dio. That was a different thing; we were creating something totally new and I just let him have his way, and it worked. But Tony and Geez come from a little bit of a different train of thought, and I think it's the right train of thought, that the backbone of it all is Geezer and Tony. I mean, not to say Vinny isn't brilliant too. But you know what I mean by that. So knowing what their wishes were, I think he honestly laid back a little bit and didn't overplay. That's an easy thing to do when you're as good as Vinny, because there are a lot of holes, a lot of spaces, and the natural tendency is to fill them all the time. But no, I think this time he took it a bit easier.

"I think we write as products of the time we live in," reflects Ronnie, prompted for an assessment of the worldview he presented lyrically on this sense-bludgeoner of an album. "And let's face it, it hasn't been a very happy world for a while. So when we were in the writing process, we were being affected by what was going around us socially. In my case, because I put words to things, there are some, I think, more pessimistic attitudes in this particular piece. And you must remember too that it seems to be—or at least let's hope now—that we've got somebody that we have a connection with as a president, and somebody who has really kind of brought us all together, almost on a global scale. So at this point I probably would've written something a little bit more optimistic. But once again, this is at the time when we did that. And my view was the fat cats and the people who are controlling our lives continually made the wrong decisions and put us into this place. So a lot of this is my railing against...not necessarily government. I'm not a political person, but I've always felt that very few people control everything that happens in this world; people control the oil and all the CEOs, giant conglomerations, and so it's that kind of thing I'm talking about."

One of Ronnie's favorite lyrics, and one that fits this train of thought, is "Eating the Cannibals," Ronnie's Swiftian tale set to an up-tempo and rock 'n' rollsy track with a melodic twist.

"'Eating the Cannibals' is a very simple idea," says Ronnie, "that we've been devoured and eaten and gotten fat on the flesh and bones of the common man for such a long time. But I thought, 'Well, I think I'm going to open up a restaurant and serve them, cook them, so the common man can get fat on them, or least get some meat on their bones.' So that's what it's going to be: eating the cannibals. And that's kind of a pervading idea through this album."

Massive album closer "Breaking into Heaven" serves as a tidy bookend to opening track "Atom and Evil," the two creating a sludge sandwich with much of the fireworks occurring between these two plates of steel, if I may horrible mix a few metaphors.

Says Dio, "'Breaking into Heaven' is also a very straight song, not so politically oriented, but it certainly could be, or could be socially oriented. Because it's about the angels who were once thrown out of heaven, which I guess became Lucifer's guys, wandering the earth for many millennia—in the song, anyway. And all this time they're plotting to get back into heaven and have a war in heaven, sort of throw the angels and throw all the supposedly good people out, and take back what they've missed by having nothing on earth. And you know, that really speaks about the same thing as people who have been oppressed and terribly dissatisfied, and revolting against it. So there's a couple examples of that."

One of the more immediately accessible tracks, given its forward and hefty chug, is "Double the Pain," keeper, perhaps, of the album's most grinding groove.

"That song is actually about someone who really loves to whine and moan," offers Ronnie, "someone who needs his pain. There are people like that who have to be beaten down before they are happy, and it's a song about someone like that. So the very last line says, 'Double the pain; I thought I saw him smile. Double the pain; let's kick him for a while.' So it's all through the song, trying to define ways to make him suffer a little bit more, until finally in the very end, it still looks as if he's a bit happy about something, so you wanna kick him again. So it's about that. It's about someone who enjoys pain."

But the big song on the album, the main radio track as it were, would turn out to be "Bible Black," its mournful and death-drenched lyrics taking on rich resonance given our loss of Ronnie.

"I like 'Bible Black' a lot, because it's so Dioesque—it really is," explains Dio. "A lot of what I'm saying inside the song goes to this mysterious place, and so it does have a little mystery and fantasy involved. And I like it just because of the story. Once again, it's very difficult to write an entire idea in a song, because you don't have enough time. And in this case, 'Bible Black,' I could write a book about it. But you don't have the luxury of that, so, it's just about a guy who...and I write about people, as you know. So this is about a guy who is pretty miserable, humdrum job, every day goes to his job, every night comes back home to his small room. And one day he goes back to his room and does the usual, sits down and reaches for a book, and this book is all bound in black leather, and upon reading it, the first page that he read said, 'You have found the answer,' the next page that he read said, 'I wish that you were dead.' And the warning comes out: 'Put it down, you won't come back, you're reading from the Bible black.'

Tony and Ozzy both came to be known for their signature eyewear.

Photo by Brandon Marshall

"And that's the song, to set it up, obviously, that this is what the guy was doing. And as the song goes on, they find him naked in the rain, didn't know what happened, just had no idea what was going on. But one thing he did know, he said, 'Let me go, I found religion, and the light has made me blind. Give me back...I must have the Bible black.' So he's addicted to this book, and the book takes him to these places that get him out of that life that he hates so much."

All told, _The Devil You Know_ lives up to expectations, which of course were high, tracks like "Neverwhere" and "Turning the Screw" helping to write the narrative that Heaven & Hell weren't going to "overlove" us with the dirginess Tony and Ronnie seemed to have a tolerance for over most. Yet there's a singularity of purpose and sound and lyrical vision to the composite of these tracks that places the album somewhere between _Mob Rules_ , _Dehumanizer_ , and every last Dio album from _Strange Highways_ forward, save maybe for _Killing the Dragon_.

And, sadly, we all know the story from here. Heaven & Hell would, immediately, upon release of _The Devil You Know_ , throw themselves into tour dates, rocking us regally from May through the end of summer, unknowingly performing their last concert ever on August 29, 2009, in Passaic, New Jersey. On November 29, it was announced to the world that Ronnie had been stricken with stomach cancer, the disease taking him on May 16 of the following year, a remarkable life of music eerily and succinctly complete.
34

"That Was The Whole Journey, Right There."

Neon Nights: A Goodbye Gift to Ronnie

As discussed elsewhere, there would be one final Heaven & Hell album, a double live set, issued on CD and DVD titled _Neon Nights: 30 Years of Heaven & Hell—Live in Europe_, recorded at the band's triumphant showdown at the legendary Wacken festival in Germany, 2009. Upon its release, I conducted a Q&A with Vinny Appice about the project, the following conversation taking place November 10, 2010.

_It's a pretty crazy and complicated and elongated version of "Heaven and Hell" you guys do on here. Is that something you had to rehearse to get down that way?_

"No, it's something that developed over the whole tour. We jammed, and we elongated Tony's solo, which led to more jamming, and then some of the parts developed. Some of the jamming parts that we touch on developed into actual parts that we wanted to keep. And then we kept those as reference points within the solo and actually played them every night. And then what happened was it got longer. That was a particularly good night. We were jamming, Tony felt good, and it got longer and longer and longer."

_What are the highlights of this project for you from a drummer's perspective?_

"Well, I used a giant, giant DW kit on the last tour, and that's what's on the video. And the nice part is that the camera work on this video, you know, there were a lot of flying cameras around the stage, and it really made the kit look 3-D and huge. It's like a second story added to the stage, you know? [laughs]. So I'm really happy about that."

_Now, playingwise, you definitely get to shine on this thing. Do you find that you don't get the same sort of "rein it in" comments that you would typically get putting the songs together in the studio?_

"Sure. In the studio it's always so much more confined. You're playing to the studio, you're listening, and you can't go too crazy with it, whereas live, as you play it on the tour, the song develops and develops and you start coming up with new parts and it develops into a bit more of an aggressive thing versus the studio version of it."

_At the end of the night, though, do you ever get pulled aside by Tony saying, "Vin, you were way out there on that tonight"?_

"Only once in a while. It's like, 'Man, there were some fills out there...' Once in a while; and then I laugh and I say, 'Hey, you want some more?!' It's all in good fun. But most the time Tony is just, 'Vin, you played good,' and he's telling Ronnie, great. All in all, it was really a nice tour."

_How would you describe Ronnie's performance on_ Neon Nights _?_

"Ronnie's performance on there is absolutely brilliant, you know? When I first heard this CD and saw the DVD, when we were doing a little bit of the mixing, it was like, 'Wow, he sang his ass off on this thing!' It's just an amazing performance by Ronnie. And before the show, as with the other shows, he complained of having some stomach pains, you know, quite often. It's just amazing that he would just tell you that and then go out and crank it out like that and sing the way he sang."

_So there were shows where he was definitely telling you he wasn't feeling well?_

"A lot of the shows, yeah. Actually, at that point of the tour, I threw my shoulder out from playing that big drum set. I had to get surgery, so I was in pain. Tony Iommi had tendonitis in his hand, so he was in pain, and Ronnie had stomach cancer brewing. And so while the intro tape was playing, me, Tony and Ronnie are standing there and we're all complaining. I'm going, 'My shoulder hurts,' and Ronnie, 'Man, my stomach,' and Tony's hand is hurting. So we would go through all that, and then, amazingly, we all went on and played the way we always played."

_Which songs on_ Neon Nights _do you feel were transformed the most from the original studio versions to the way Heaven & Hell played them into the summer of 2009?_

"Well, 'Heaven and Hell,' because of the elongated guitar solos and the jams, but even 'Voodoo.' We did that one a lot, and that got elongated. And 'Bible Black' became more of a strong song, by playing it live—we did different things in it, made it more aggressive than the studio version. A lot of the songs become stronger. But 'The Mob Rules' kind of remained in the same format, with the same arrangement."

_The one that seems most transformed to me in terms of being beefed up seems to be "Neon Knights." That one just seemed to get somehow more vicious over the years._

"Oh yeah? Well, that's probably just the way it's played—more aggressive, because the arrangement is the same. We've always played the same arrangement, but the aggressiveness was probably increased as we played it. I think years ago, we used to play the songs a little faster. We used to play them sometimes too fast, I thought, which was just the adrenaline and the excitement. Now, this tour, and the last tour, we actually started the songs off with a metronome. It didn't last through the song; it just counted me off. We would take the tempos off the record and write them down, and then put them a little bit faster, a tiny bit faster, and then before the show, my roadie would give me that as a count-off. So we played it closer to the tempos of the song, which felt better for us—we didn't go crazy so much."

_How would you contrast the setup, the situation, the execution of the Radio City Music Hall show and CD/DVD versus the_ Neon Nights _set?_

"Good question. The Radio City gig was only about eleven shows in from the beginning of the tour. So we weren't really as tight as a band as we were with this one. So there it was more nerve-racking, and we didn't get to do much of a sound check, because of the union laws that they have over at Radio City [laughs]. You know, we would just start playing the song, and in the middle of it we had to stop because it was a union break. We couldn't even get to the ending, which is what we needed to rehearse, that kind of stuff. So we just had to stop, which just left us hanging until we went on with it. So there was a lot more pressure. Whereas the Wacken set was recorded in 2009, a couple of years later. We had played so many shows already that the band was tight—we didn't even do a sound check. We just went out and played, and that show just kicked ass, and it was much tighter, with a lot less pressure, and the band was just free to play. It was just one of those shows where you just go out and you know it's all going to work."

_Another recently released live album was the_ Live at the Hammersmith Odeon _set you guys put out in 2007. How aware were you guys, pulling into London end of '81, into '82, that there was a burgeoning metal movement afoot called the New Wave of British Heavy Metal?_

Vinny Appice: the engine room of Heaven & Hell.

Photo by Brandon Marshall

"Do you mean a metal resurgence kind of thing? I don't think we were that much aware of it. The thing with this band is that we just did everything that we did—our way [laughs]. We always did the same thing. So it's nice when times change around us, because we're okay, it was big, and there were periods where it wasn't as big, and then it's big again, and finally it becomes, 'Oh, you guys have been around so long—you guys are the legends.' So we never change. Everything was changing around us, which is nice for that to happen. This way you don't sell out and go, 'Oh, maybe we should play country _and_ western' [laughs]."

_Contrast this experience with the making of_ Live Evil _. What went down with the producing of that record?_

"I haven't heard that record in so long, but I get so many e-mails, especially from drummers, saying 'What did you use on _Live Evil_? What is the sound on that? What kind of cymbals?' Pretty interesting. _Live Evil_ , from what I remember, is that we recorded a lot of shows for it; you've got to consider, if you record five or six shows, you've got a lot to choose from. And _Radio City_ is one whole show, and I know Wacken festival, there was hardly anything that needed fixing. And the weird thing is, no one hit a bum note or a bum beat, so there was hardly anything to fix. But look at the difference, you know, the pressure. You do one show, you've got to use everything, whereas years ago, we did a lot of shows and could put it together. And the production, we actually all went into the studio, we were all trying to mix, it was mixed by the band, whereas this one was more sending files back and forth and having a listen. Tony would listen and have comments, and then we mixed it, in L.A., at a studio in Redondo Beach. I think they both still sound good, but I haven't heard _Live Evil_ in a long time. I do remember hearing a lot of bottom end on it, so I remember it as being very fat."

In closing, Vinny and I talked about how long the trip had been, how much had happened since the first gig he ever played with the band, back at Aloha Stadium in Hawaii on a stormy night in 1981. Although many of those memories are recounted in our chapter on the Black and Blue tour, we'll close here with a particularly poignant comment from the man on the silver riser....

"You know, before that show, we had about four or five rehearsals, and the first time I came down and played with the guys, it's ironic, because the first song we played was 'Neon Knights,' with Ronnie, and that's the last song I ever played with Ronnie. That was the whole journey, right there."
35

"Always."

Despite Heaven & Hell, Ronnie Never Gives Up on Dio

I've always found it interesting that Dio—and in fact all of these guys—took these bands they were in as projects to knock down within given time frames. Most pertinent and poignant among these, given the sad event of Ronnie's passing, is the way in which Ronnie never gave up his band Dio. Heavy in the midst of Heaven & Hell hoopla, he would, if asked in press interviews, forthrightly discuss plans for the next Dio tour or Dio album, keeping that little engine that could (it was once a big engine, bigger than Sabbath, frankly, for about five years starting in, say, early 1984) in the public consciousness, all the while unwittingly adding to the charm of that franchise.

"I've done some writing myself," said Ronnie in December 2006, for example. "I've probably got five or six things myself, some material for the next Dio project. But unfortunately all the time that has been taken to be going back and forth to England...man, I went from England to Japan, Japan back to here, home again, and then two days later left back for England again. Went from England and did some more shows, for five days, went back to England. So I was on this jet-lagged roller coaster that you just wouldn't believe. And it took a lot of time to do it, because I had commitments in the meantime. Tony had a couple commitments in the meantime. So it meant that we couldn't just start on say January 1, and go until January 30. It had to be kind of in between. But once again, we were lucky enough that when we started the project, when we first went over the two things that we put together, we were like 'Whoa, this is great! I can't wait to get back to these.' So the anticipation was going to be there anyway. Now we can finish these things, now we can record them, now we can write, now we can mix. So with that kind of perspective looming up ahead of you, which is a good one, it just made it easy for us to take it along as we did, as much of a pain in the ass as it was for me, travelwise."

Not that we'd expect it any other way, but Ronnie gave it his all right to the bitter end.

Photo by Brandon Marshall

Indeed, the unwritten story is that leading up the getting Heaven & Hell off the ground, and even knee-deep in the project, Ronnie toured exhaustively, celebrating 2004's _Master of the Moon_ , the album that would be Dio's last. That jaunt started in Russia on July 16, 2004, the band playing intensively through August 14. Then it was off to South American dates, five of them, before the month was out. Back in the U.S., twenty-four shows were logged (we're now into the _Holy Diver Live_ situation, where the band performed that classic debut live and in sequence) before the guys played Mexico, Puerto Rico, Japan, and then went back to Europe in early June through October of '05, extensive Russian leg included. Shows in 2006 were scattered, totaling under thirty, but still, Dio found themselves taking it to fans all over the world.

Into 2007, as a full-fledged member of Heaven & Hell, Ronnie said of Dio and the prospects of an album, "We haven't talked about that at all. What we've talked about is doing Heaven & Hell as a project, for a year. I mean, I still owe my record company another album, and I certainly want to do one. I'm not going to lose the deal without any problem. That's not going to happen. So I look at it as, this is what we're doing. We'll see what comes after it. Obviously, we could do a full Heaven & Hell album very, very easily. We're getting pretty good at it. But that's something we'll have to talk about down the line, because I've got other commitments myself.

"There will be Dio plans, of course," said Ronnie, August 13, 2008, in the middle of the Heaven & Hell Metal Masters tour. Again, the unwritten tale is that between Heaven & Hell legs, Ronnie took Dio on tour in Scandinavia (plus one Spanish and two UK dates), May 27 through June 21. These would be the last Dio dates ever. "But because we're doing this project now," continued Ronnie, "and we've probably got four to five more songs to write, I would think, and they were talking about touring for all of next year. Then we can work on doing the Dio project. Because just before we started this tour, I did a Dio tour in Europe; we did some of the festivals there.

"I've got about six or seven pieces I wrote after we finished this album," Ronnie explained, during my last chat with him, on April 1, 2009. Of note, later in the year, right about the time of the announcement that Ronnie was ill, Ronnie had expressed plans for a late-2009 Dio tour, at which time a new song called "Electra" would be unveiled.

Ronnie as a front man combined loads of charisma with infinite vocal prowess. And more importantly, he always looked like he wouldn't want to be anywhere else but right there, in front of his fans, forging metal for them.

"So yeah, my plan was always to do _Magica II_ and _III_ ," continued an always ambitious and enthusiastic Ronnie James Dio, again, never one to doubt the legitimacy of that great band called Dio. "And I can still do _Magica II_ and _III_ , so I'm embarking on that kind of writing. So after we finished the Sabbath album, the Heaven & Hell album, I still really need to do that. So I'm putting them all right toward _Magica_ , which is certainly a different kind of situation from Sabbath anyway, so I don't feel like I'm cheating anyone. But should we need an extra song, I've got a couple. But yes, I'm planning on doing that. When that will happen is when I have some time away from what we're doing. Certainly toward the end of this year, when we finish touring, then we'll sit back and figure out what's going on, Simon, Craig [Goldy], Rudy [Sarzo], Scott, and me. Tony, Geezer, and Vinny know I want to do this, and I know Geez wants do something. I don't know what Tony wants to do. But we'll need some time away anyway. So we'll see what happens with Dio at the end of this. I mean, I love that band. I love the band and playing in it and I have no plans to ever stop, whatsoever. There will always be Dio. Always."
Appendix 1

"'The Rebel,' Take Million Twelve"

Black Sabbath's Early Demos

When Sanctuary put together their swell reissue program for the Ozzy-era Sabbath albums, they opted for expanded versions of the first three albums, leaving the follow-up five as is (the yummy booklets notwithstanding). Tracks on the expanded versions were more or less culled from eight CDs' worth of demo material, of which overseer and archivist Steve Hammonds says, "You're still free to write about them, by the way. But don't play them for anybody."

"I was working for Castle, and I worked there for about thirteen years," explains Hammonds, on bringing highlights from these tapes to market. "So I graduated up to product manager and then label manager, whatever, head of catalogue. So I've always done the metal thing, because I was with _Metal Forces_ years ago, and all the other bits, and Sabbath came up on my remit to-do. And with the tapes, I was very friendly with a guy named Simon Platz, who owns Bucks Music, a publisher, and he was doing an audit on all the tapes in his archives. Now his father, David Platz...if you look up Bucks Music, they were the original publisher of all the Black Sabbath material. And I mean, when we found all these multitracks of Black Sabbath in the vault, they said, 'Do you want them?' And I said, 'Yeah yeah,' and I found out it had all this unreleased material on it; it was like a gold mine. I had to buy it, basically, and the rights weren't cleared until Universal cleared them two years ago. We had to do a new deal with the band, to clear them, and it took about six years to get where we are now [laughs]. I mean, it was going on and off, on and off...it's been an absolute nightmare. But yeah, it was an absolute gold mine, eight CDs' worth in all."

So with that, here's a look at what's on these discs. I've renumbered them from the original numbering system, to put them in chronological order, but other than that, I've reproduced the text exactly as printed on the black-and-white insert provided with each disc (e.g., no quote marks around songs, italics for record titles etc.). Following, in the "Notes" section, is a description/review of what is actually on these darn things.

Disc #1 (numbered 7)

Rough mixes from 1" 8 track 15 ips multitrack master tape from Trident Studios, 22/8/1969. Client: Tuesday Productions, Producer: Roger Bain, Eng: Barry, Operator: Bill. Reel BS0403 (635). 1. The Rebel T1—ct; 2. The Rebel T2—bd; 3. The Rebel T3—ct; 4. The Rebel T4—fs; 5. The Rebel T5—ct; 6. The Rebel T6—ct; 7. The Rebel T7—fs; 8. The Rebel T8—ct; 9. The Rebel T9—fs, no ID; 10. The Rebel T10—fs; 11. The Rebel T11—fs; 12. The Rebel T12—bd; 13. The Rebel T13—fs; 14. The Rebel T14—ct, no ID; 15. The Rebel T15—fs, ID'd T14; 16. The Rebel T16—bd, ID'd T15; 17. The Rebel T17—fs, ID'd T16; 18. The Rebel T18—ct, overdubs, Master? No ID; 19. The Rebel T19—ct, ID'd Retake 1. TH—SAS/13 Jan 2004.

Track 1 is a 2:59 take; track 2 is a :20 false start with some bum notes; track 3 is another good take at 3:00; track 4 is :05 of botched piano; track 5 is a good take at 2:50; track 6 is a good take at 2:56; track 7 is a :05 with a bum piano note; track 8 is a good take at 2:58; track 9 is an :08 false start; track 10 is :24 of Bill tapping on a piece of drum hardware or cowbell, plus a piano false start; track 11 is :15 of a piano false start; track 12 is a take that breaks down after 1:58 with an "Aw, fuck"; track 13 is :52 of messing about, with Ozzy saying, "We're going to do it this time, lads"; track 14 is a good take at 2:48; track 15 is a :07 false start; track 16 is a :19 false start; track 17 is a :04 bum piano note false start; track 18 is a 2:58 good take with overdubs consisting of doubled Ozzy vocals, leads from Tony, fairly quiet organ, cowbell (possibly not an overdub, if it's not Bill playing it), and angelic, choirlike backing vocals; track 19 is a good take at 2:53.

"The Rebel" is a cover, as is "When I Came Down" (retitled from the original "When I Come Down"). The unreleased instrumental "Song for Jim" rounds out the early non-LP studio rarities. Labeled a Sabbath demo, the song could be called an Earth demo, given that the band played their last gig as Earth in Kirkcaldy, Scotland, the next day after recording this track. Still, putting things a bit askew timewise, the band is said to have changed their name (or "decided" to), in early August on the ferry from, or to, the Star Club, in Germany. Chalk it up to a transitional period where both names might have been in use at once. Norman Haines, from Locomotive, wrote this track, as well as "When I Came Down." "The Rebel" was tracked at Trident, in St. Anne's Court in Soho, with Gus Dudgeon and Rodger (also spelled Roger) Bain handling the recording. Haines plays both organ and piano on the track, Haines being the keyboardist in Locomotive, which also includes Sabbath manager Jim Simpson. The song was recorded so Simpson had something to take round to labels in search of a deal. All told, "The Rebel" is a moving, classy, hummable post-psych ballad, with Ozzy singing in his odd low register. The production is quite good. Call it a total of eight and a half versions here, nicely demonstrative of the band working—and working hard—to get it right, when in fact most of these versions could have been presented as a serviceable enough track.

Disc #2 (numbered 3)

Rough mixes from 1" 8 track 15 ips multitrack master tape from Trident Studios, 10/Nov/1969. Client: Tuesday Productions, Producer: Roger Bain, Eng: Barry, Operator: David. Reel BS0404. 1. Evil Woman T1—ct; 2. Evil Woman T2—fs; 3. Evil Woman T3—bd, no ID; 4. Evil Woman T4—bd; 5. Evil Woman T5—fs, No ID; 6. Evil Woman T6—ct, No ID; 7. Evil Woman T7—bd, ID'd T5; 8. Evil Woman T8—fs, ID'd T6; 9. Evil Woman T9—ct, ID'd T7; 10. Evil Woman T10—fs, ID'd T9; 11. Evil Woman T11—fs, ID'd T10; 12. Evil Woman T12—fs, ID'd T11; 13. Evil Woman T13—ct, overdubs, Master? No ID; 14. Evil Woman—o/t fragment 1; 15. Evil Woman—o/t fragment 3; 16. Evil Woman—Master? (Copy of 13 with extra drum overdubs). TH/SAS—15 Jan 2004.

Track 1 is a 3:45 not-quite-tight instrumental take (all are instrumental until specified): "Right, just have a breather and we'll do another one"; track 2 is a :25 false start: "Once again, a shade faster than that"; track 3 is a :51 take that breaks down after the modulation; track 4, 1:35, breaks down after about a minute and a half: "Right, that was our fault, Sorry. Right. It's sounding really nice now. So this is the master, right? Here we go. You can kick me afterward"; track 5 is a :08 false start; track 6 is a 3:35 take; track 7 is :58; track 8 is an :11 false start; track 9 is a 3:36 take: "Gonna watch...from the guitar solo forward it got ridiculously fast"; track 10 is an :08 false start; track 11 is a :15 false start; track 12 is a :15 false start (the indication here is that the guys aren't hitting the opening notes in sync); track 13 is a 3:47 take with vocals as well as horn section and flute overdubs: "Right, I think that's the one, blokes"; track 14 is a :32 isolated horn section track; track 15 is a 1:43 fragment with full band then isolated horn arrangement and flute track; track 16 is a 1:59 fragment with all the abovementioned overdubs; track 17 is a 3:42 version with vocals, flute, and horns, plus some badly recorded bongo-ish drums massaged back in the mix.

"Evil Woman" is a cover, written by the band Crow. It was the band's first single, and Sabbath's only product on the Fontana label. It was part of the debut LP in the UK, but was replaced with "Wicked World" in the U.S. It's a solid, heavy composition that fits both lyrically and musically within what Sabbath was doing, really, through their first two albums, i.e. it's a song easily conceivable as a Sabbath original. Bill swings it nicely, Geezer gets to throw in a few nice licks, and, all told, the production is crisp and vital. Summary: Besides the instrumental takes, there are two versions on this disc "all dressed." Of note, the officially released version cuts back on the horns within the mix, both in location and in volume, plus the flute is gone completely.

Disc #3 (numbered 1)

Rough mixes from 1" 4 track 15 ips multitrack master tape from Regent Sound Studios, 17/11/1969. Client: Tony Hall Productions, A&R: Roger Bain, Eng: Tom Allom, Reel BS0406. 1. Beyond the Wall of Sleep T1—bd; 2. Beyond the Wall of Sleep T1—bd; 3. Beyond the Wall of Sleep T3—Master; 4. Black Sabbath T1—bd; 5. Black Sabbath T2—fs; 6. Black Sabbath T3—ct; 7. Black Sabbath T4—ct, Master (ID'd T3); 8. The Wizard T1, Master; 9. N.I.B.—Master; 10. Unknown o/t fragment.

Rough mixes from 1" 4 track 15 ips multitrack master tape from Regent Sound Studios 18/11/69. Client: Tony Hall Productions, A&R: Roger Bain, Eng: Tom Allom, Reel BS0407. 11. Sleeping Village Intro T1—fs; 12. Sleeping Village Intro T2—ct; 13. Guitar Link Remake T1—bd; 14. Guitar Link Remake T2—Master; 15. Sleeping Village T1—Master; 16. Warning Part 1—ct; 17. Middle section Remake—ct; 18. Part 2 T1—bd; 19. Part 2 T2—bd; 20. Part 2 T3—bd; 21. Part 2 T4—bd; 22. part 2 T5—ct. TH/SAS—19/Jan/2004.

Track 1 is a :34 take with interesting counterrhythm from Bill; track 2 is a :47 take, again with Bill proving his jazzy chops; track 3 is the 3:42 actual; track 4 is :53 of messing about with a false start, intro'd by the iconic bell; track 5 is bell and then laughing; track 6 is a 6:06 take (issued on the expanded 2009 version of the album), quite similar but different enunciations and accents from Ozzy; track 7 is the actual take used on the album, but without overdubs; track 8 is a 4:44 rough mix of the actual, prefaced by Ozzy saying, "It isn't 'Devil's Island,' it's 'The Wizard' [laughs]"—additionally, Tony uses a slightly different intro lick; track 9 is a rough mix of the actual; track 10 is a 2:45 jazzy song, all playing, with harmonica, and with a psychedelic vocal (and lyric) that is not Ozzy—some flute comes in right at the end; track 11 is a :20 fragment; track 12 is a 1:06 bit that adds in Jew's harp (played by Roger Bain) plus vocal; track 13 is a :42 bit of Tony acoustic that sounds like, at least partially, it was played on nylon strings; track 14 is :59 of similar solo, dark but quite beautiful, Tony on acoustic; track 15 is a 3:11 take; track 16 is a 7:10 warning take; track 17 begins with Tony tinkering, doing wiry solo licks plus the structured parts from "Warning"—full band bits are also included; track 18 is :41 but mostly silent with background studio chatter; track 19 is :21 of the same jammy bit; track 20 is :27 of the same; track 21 is :14 of same; track 22 is 1:28 of same, and then return to "Warning" verse with Ozzy singing.

In summary, there are only nine things on here that rise above inconsequential fragments, the highlight being track 10, an actual unknown "song," on which the band is clearly playing, but Ozzy is not singing. Again, sound quality is first-rate.

Disc #4 (numbered 8)

Rough mixes from 1" 4 track 15 ips multitrack master tape from Regent Sound Studios, 16 & 17/6/1970. Client: Tony Hall Enterprises, A&R: Roger Bain, Eng: Tom Allom. Reel BS0408. 1. Electric Funeral—backing track, no vocal; 2. Hand of Doom—backing track, no vocal; 3. Rat Salad—backing track, no vocal; 4. Fairies Wear Boots—backing track, no vocal.

Rough mixes from 1" 4 track 15 ips multitrack master tape from Regent Sound Studios, 16 & 17/6/1970. Client: Tony Hall Enterprises, A&R: Roger Bain, Eng: Tom Allom. Reel BS0409. 5. War Pigs—backing track, no vocals; 6. Single (Paranoid, with vocal, early lyrics?); 7. Planet Caravan (with vocal); 8. Iron Man—backing track, no vocals.

Track 1 is 5:02, a cool, no overdubs, instrumental version that lays bare some different guitar bits; track 2 is the same sort of thing, at 7:24, with some really rhythmically challenging work from Bill; track 3 is "Rat Salad" instrumental at 2:24, prefaced by a "Take 2: The sound is stunningly crisp"; track 4 is the instrumental backing track, 6:28, no overdubs, which really lays bare Iommi's track and allows for some different nuances to emerge; track 5 is the instrumental backing track at 8:11, a bit aggravating with no vocal and no overdubs; track 6 is the gem of the set, a 2:56 "Paranoid" with a whole different lyric, awkward phrasing, quite a mouthful, seemingly not quite worked out; track 7 is very cool as well, "Planet Caravan," at 6:16, with a high, gentle, untreated vocal—that is indeed Ozzy singing the song, but on this version, the weirdness of that fact is greatly magnified; track 8 is the "Iron Man" backing track without vocal, at 6:00.

In summary, there's nothing here you can't get on the expanded _Paranoid_ reissue, which most pertinently includes the alternate lyrics and vocal for "Paranoid" and "Planet Caravan."

Disc #5 (numbered 6)

Flat transfer from 15 ips BASF NAB stereo Dolby tape labeled 'Stereo Reductions'. Island Studios 19/6/70, Client: Essex Music, Producer: Roger Bain, Engineers: Brian / Bob. W / s No. 0289. Reel No. BS0411. 1. Paranoid T1—bd; 2. Paranoid T2—fs; 3. Paranoid T3—ct, Master; 4. Rat Salad T1—fs; 5. Rat Salad T2—bd; 6. Rat Salad T3—bd; 7. Rat Salad T4—ct, Master. TH/SAS—21 Jan 2004.

Track 1 is 2:07 with an abrupt stop; track 2 is a :23 false start; track 3 is a 3:09 full take (the last 20 seconds is silence)—all are virtually indistinguishable from the final; track 4 is a :22 false start without the fade-in guitar in the middle; track 5 is a :52 take cut off abruptly; track 6 is :58, which, like the previous, seems to be used as a testing ground to get that "volume up"/fade-in bit right; track 7 is the 2:29 master. Given that the eight bonus track on the expanded _Paranoid_ issue indicate dates of June 16 and 17, and this is June 19, none of this is included in those bonus tracks (although there is nothing here of note).

Disc #6 (numbered 5)

Flat transfer from 7½ ips BASF stereo tape, undated. No other information on box. Reel No. BS0410. Black Sabbath Live. 1. Start of recording; 2. Paranoid; 3. NIB; 4. Behind the Wall of Sleep; 5. Iron Man; 6. War Pigs; 7. Fairies Wear Boots; 8. Hand of Doom. European venue 1970 ? From references to new album and accent of announcer at end of tape.

Track 1, at 1:23, includes sound check of instrument levels plus the amusing nailing down of Bill's drum kit so it doesn't drift forward; track 2 is 3:12. Ozzy announces "Paranoid" as off of the new album. Tony hits a bum note. The sound quality is good, but Ozzy's vocals are isolated and high in the mix; track 3 is 6:38, and the sound quality varies; track 4 is 6:47 and Ozzy is, for a third time, very formal: "We'd like to do another number off our first LP. It's a number entitled..." Ozzy's vocal is impassioned, savage, and Bill and Geezer lay down a great groove; track 5, 6:12, has Ozzy delivering the exact same song intro patter and, in the track, offering some different vocal phrasings and quite a few different lyrics; track 6, 8:34, same spiel yet again, long pause before start. Vastly different lyrics, and even mostly quite different to the alternate lyrics version of the "Walpurgis Night" version officially issued on _The Ozzman Cometh_ —i.e., first and last verse essentially the same, middle two "break verses" almost completely different; track 7 is 9:21, and Oz is still introducing the songs exactly the same way. Long pause before start, no crowd noise at all, but you can hear Bill's snares. Bill's pretty wild with his timing. The song ends at 7:14 (nothing new has gone on inside of it), and the end is Ozzy's sign-off, and then clapping and eventually stomping for an encore; track 8 is 9:38, Ozzy announcing another track off the new album. Long pause, jamming-around noises, and then a pretty intense version, Ozzy singing with quite a sneer, offering some alternate lyrics in the speed-up section that are a little less ghoulish, a little more boy/girl and then pretty much all new lyrics through to the end. Then, not listed, the set ends with a truncated "Rat Salad," followed by the print-mentioned announcer, who signs off in both English and French.

In summary, a very interesting live recording, due to solid sound and a raft of alternate lyrics.

Disc #7 (numbered 4)

Rough mixes from 2" 16 track 15 ips NAB Dolby multitrack master tape from Island Studios, 1st Jan. 1970. Client: T.H.E, Producer: Roger Bain, Eng: Tom Allom, Howard. Reel BS0412. 1. Spanish Sid T1—ct; 2. Spanish Sid T2—ct; 3. Weevil Women '71'T1—ct, Master; 4. After Forever T1—ct, Master; 5. Spanish Sid T3—ct; 6. FX Loop 1, used on track 4; 7. FX Loop 2.

Rough mixes from 2" 16 track 15 ips NAB Dolby multitrack master tape from Island Studios, 25/5/71. Client: T.H.E, Producer: Roger Bain, Eng: Tom Allom, Assistant: Tony Platt. Reel BS0413. 8. Lord of This World T1—ct, Master; 9. Children of the Grave T1—ct; 10. Children of the Grave T2—bd; 11. Children of the Grave T3—ct, Master; 12. Into the Void T1—bd; 13. Embryo T1—bd; 14. Embryo T2—bd; 15. Embryo T3—bd; 16. Embryo T4—ct, Master TH/SAS—23/Jan/2004.

Track 1 is a raw, very cool and groovy 6:34 version of "Into the Void," with vocals and different lyrics—the sound is very electrified with strong, defined bass from Geezer as well; track 2 is another take, at 6:32, with mumbled, sketched-in lyrics; track 3 is an entirely new Black Sabbath song. At 3:16 "Weevil Women" (and no relation to "Evil Woman") is a punky, urgent rocker that sounds like something that could have been a direct, proto-metal classic on the debut, with a strange datedness that precludes its fit for _Paranoid_ or _Master of Reality_. This is available on the expanded reissue of _Master of Reality_ ; track 4 is the 5:22 master take, but Tony's guitar part stands out as a bit more psychedelic through the airy melodic section; track 5 is another proto-"Into the Void," this time at 6:15, with an amusing high scream in it, and fewer alternate lyrics; track 6, :27, is a rawer version of the sound effects used for "After Forever," where chanting can clearly be heard; track 7 is 1:20 of tape effects and sped-up voices that doesn't sound familiar as anything that was used; track 8 is the master with faint keyboards as well as weird slide guitar licks from Tony that were later removed. Ozzy's vocals have a clearer doubling effect; track 9, 4:50, is an early version with different lyrics, and huge guitar sound from Tony. Ozzy throws in an irritating "Save Me" (?) over the big punctuating chord bits; track 10 is a :35 fragment false start; track 11 is the master, at 6:18, with extra bits, including an actual melody, in "The Haunting," the ending sound effects section; track 12 is the master, at 6:24, but with Tony's "fills" less obscured in the mix in the lumbering intro; track 13 is a :12 fluff of "Embryo"; track 14 is a :13 fluff; track 15 is an :11 fluff; track 16 features Tony getting it right for the song's :33 duration.

Quite useful as a Sabbath disc to listen to, this one's got the shining jewel of the bunch, in "Weevil Women" '71, along with molten demo versions of some of Sabbath's greatest songs, with alternate lyrics, with a few weird overdubs later removed. Note: The reference to "1st Jan. 1970" pretty much has to be an error.

Disc #8 (numbered 2)

Rough mixes from 2" 16 track 15 ips NAB Dolby multitrack master tape from Island Studios, 25/5/1971. Client: T.H.E, Producer: Roger Bain, Eng: Tom Allom, Asst: Tony Platt. Reel BS0414. 1. Tony Coughing—Master; 2. Orchid—ct, Master; 3. Sweetleaf T1—bd; 4. Sweetleaf T2—first section' 5. Sweetleaf T3—edit piece; 6. Sweetleaf T4—ct (includes 1 x fs); 7. Sweetleaf T5—ct, Master.

Rough mixes from 2" 16 track 15 ips NAB Dolby multitrack master tape from Island Studios, 26/5/1971. Client: T.H.E, Producer: Roger Bain, Eng: Tom Allom, Asst: Tony Platt. Reel BS0415. 8. Solitude T1—bd; 9. Solitude T2—ct, Master; 10. Black Sabbath 'Live' in the Graveyard' T1—bd; 11. Black Sabbath 'Live' in the Graveyard' T2—bd; 12. Black Sabbath 'Live' in the Graveyard' T3—ct, Master* *Title 12 is the end section of the song 'Children of the Grave' which can be found on reel BS0413. TH/SAS—26 Jan 2004.

Track 1, 1:16, is Tony's cough in isolation plus a bit of dicking around and Tony going, "Rog? Rog? It's going through the earphones lighter"; track 2 is the master, at 1:38; track 3, :49, is take one, different lyrics, then a breakdown, with Roger punching in and stopping it; take 4, 4:00, take two, same alternate/early lyrics, Bill's snare and possibly one tom miked badly in the fills, then a breakdown at about 3:20, and some discussion and Tony playing a few licks; track 5, 2:22, is the band picking up where they left off, Ozzy still using the more pronounced boy/girl lyrics; track 6 is take four, with a false start, Ozzy starting with "I got it girl; you want it too," and then using the same boy/girl lyrics; track 7, the master at 5:59 (Ozzy: "C'mon, Smelly") includes the high part accompaniment from Tony immediately, rather than being introduced later, as would be the case on the final; track 8, 3:44, is a very raw and intimate version of "Solitude," featuring an untreated vocal (frontal in the mix, plus no swishy echo sounds)—it's Ozzy left in an uncommonly bluesy guise; track 9 is the master, but again, the swirly effects have not been added. Plus the bells are a little rough, compared to the more massaged-in final mix, which is actually quite ambitious; track 10 is a :09 attempt at the sound effects used at the end of "Children of the Grave"; track 11 is more of the same; track 12 is quite stunning, being the whispered "children of the grave" loud and clear along with creepy circus music and ebbing and flowing feedback from Tony.

In summary, given the quality of the songs on _Master of Reality_ , and the high fidelity of these demos, this disc's another one spinnable for enjoyment rather than pure academic purposes. "Sweet Leaf"—or the one-word "Sweetleaf"—as it's printed, is molten and raw and features quite plain and direct lyrics, while "Solitude" is quite a gem in this campfire version. Finally, the very Alice Cooper–ish closing montage demonstrates plainly Sabbath's stated purpose of scaring people.
Appendix 2

The Mob Drools

A Sampling of Black Sabbath's Collectible Records

Here's a collection of some of the highest priced and/or most collectible Black Sabbath records in existence (no boots or pirates, er, hopefully), with actual prices given for single examples of completed sales. One can assume that as prices go down, a major factor is condition, although there are many factors, such as when it was sold, whether multiple copies were up for sale at that time, etc. So yes, I've stayed away from descriptors that are too specific, most pertinently condition. As well, I've offered for your viewing a handful of the highest prices (maximum of five), which, one might assume, puts the condition of both the cover and media of these particular examples at the higher end of the scale. Also, I've provided a few pieces from a bunch of different eras, for variety's sake, 'cos if I didn't, we'd be too weighted toward the very earliest stuff, and that could get tiresome. Listing descriptions are a little loose, and not consistently ordered, but there's enough said, using these various record-collecting terms (PS = picture sleeve, etc.) to aid you in correctly identifying what these items are. All amounts have been left in the currencies of the sale at the time; GBP is Great Britain pound, USD is U.S. dollar, EUR is euro, and AUD is Australian dollar. These listings are courtesy of popsike.com, the best source for completed auction results. Enjoy!

_Black Sabbath_

_Black Sabbath_ LP, first pressing, black and white Vertigo label, V06: GBP 521, GBP 344 , GBP 343, GBP 343, GBP 331

_Black Sabbath_ LP, Japanese first issue with obi, Nippon Phonogram Vertigo SFX-7203, gatefold: USD 290, USD 225

"Evil Woman" 7", Japanese promo, Philips red label, PS, b/w "Black Sabbath," Nippon Phonogram Philips SFL-1282: USD 600

"Evil Woman" 7", Japanese, Philips blue label, blue, black and white PS, b/w "Black Sabbath," SFL-1282: USD 355, USD 350, USD 338, USD 316

"Evil Woman" 7", original Trident Studios label acetate in brown paper Audiodiscs sleeve: GBP 272

"Evil Woman" 7", UK issue, Fontana, b/w "Black Sabbath," TF 1067, white label promo, mono: USD 330, GBP 195, USD 255

"Evil Woman" 7", Turkish issue, PS, white label Vertigo, b/w "Wicked World," 6059 002: USD 325, USD 285

"Evil Woman" 7", first UK issue, blue label Fontana, TF 1067, b/w "Wicked World": GBP 200, GBP 104

"Evil Woman" 7", Norway, PS (green photo of band), Vertigo 6059 002, b/w "Wicked World": USD 225

"N.I.B." 7", Thailand, PS (blue and purple), P 112, also "Behind the Wall of Sleep," "The Wizard": USD 189

"Wicked World" 7", Japan, PS (band sitting, red background), Nippon Phonogram Vertigo SFL-1345, b/w "Laguna Sunrise": USD 148, USD 96

_Paranoid_

_Paranoid_ LP, first pressing black and white Vertigo spiral label, nonlaminated cover: GBP 770, GBP 620, GBP 515, GBP 510, GBP 496

_Paranoid_ LP, Swiss book club issue, custom cover, LP itself is first UK Vertigo issue: GBP 317, USD 301, USD 164

_Paranoid_ LP, Japanese original with obi strip, promo red label: USD 537, USD 182

"Iron Man" 7", Thailand, PS (tinted reproduction of gatefold shot), TKR 045, also "Electric Funeral," "Hand of Doom": USD 170

"Paranoid" 7", Singapore, black and white foldover PS, white label Vertigo, 6059010: GBP 265, GBP 233, GBP 190, GBP 190, USD 280

"Paranoid" 7", Lebanon, multicolored vinyl, b/w "The Wizard," black label Vertigo, non-PS, 6059010: GBP 238, USD 239, USD 225, USD 211

"Paranoid" 7", acetate, white label Vertigo, country unknown, B-side misrepresented as "The Wizard": USD 305

"Paranoid" 7", Portugal, PS (black and white, band in red Vertigo swirl), b/w "Evil Woman," 6276003: USD 267, USD 168

"Paranoid" 7", Greece, PS (black and white photo from gate of LP), white label Vertigo: USD 200, GBP 70

"Rat Salad" 7", Warner Bros. white label acetate with courier type, orange wax crayon matrix: B 81821: USD 338

_Master of Reality_

_Master of Reality_ LP, original Vertigo UK pressing in embossed box sleeve with poster: GBP 393, GBP 385, GBP 360, GBP 335, GBP 333

_Master of Reality_ LP, Japanese original with obi strip and poster, Nippon Phonogram Vertigo SFX-7400: USD 600, USD 225, USD 150

"After Forever" 7", Thailand, b/w "Fairies Wear Boots," M 023, PS (pink and yellow): USD 178

"Children of the Grave" 7" promo, b/w Status Quo's "Roadhouse Blues," Phonogram, pressing of 100: GBP 500 GBP 450, GBP 367, GBP 330, USD 499

"Children of the Grave" 7", Mexico, PS (black and blue photo of band), Vertigo 6276 007, b/w "Lord of This World": EUR 551, USD 255

"Children of the Grave" 7", Portugal, b/w "Solitude," PS, Vertigo 6059050, likely promo only: USD 635

"Children of the Grave" 7", French promo, blue label Vertigo, b/w "Iron Man," 6837 021: GBP 225

"Into the Void" 7", Thailand, PS (picture of Ozzy), M-036, USD 224, USD 188

"Sweet Leaf" 7", Thailand, b/w "Lord of This World," P.105, PS (black and white photo, red background): USD 148

_Vol 4_

_Vol 4_ LP, first Vertigo pressing, nonlaminated cover, with booklet: GBP 506, GBP 399, GBP 365, GBP 260, GBP 174

_Vol 4_ LP, Vertigo spaceship logo, fewer than 1,000 pressed, 6360 071: GBP 311, GBP 215, GBP 122

"Changes" 7", Thailand, PS (Ozzy on psychedelic background), KS-190: USD 132

"Laguna Sunrise" 7", b/w "St. Vitus Dance," Brazil 1973, plays at 33 1/3: USD 430

"Laguna Sunrise" 7", Mexico, white label Vertigo promo, 227, Discos Polydor, b/w "Tomorrow's Dream," titles in English and Spanish: USD 261

"Tomorrow's Dream" 7", handwritten on generic label, one-sided: USD 218

"Tomorrow's Dream" 7", white label Vertigo, PS (glossy reproduction of album cover), also "Changes," "Wheels of Confusion" 7", Thailand, PS (band in boat, purple and red ink), M-106, b/w "Under the Sun": USD 283

"Tomorrow's Dream" 7", Japan, Vertigo white label, SFL-1744, PS (album cover shot with Japanese text), b/w "Laguna Sunrise": USD 196, USD 150, USD 130

_Sabbath Bloody Sabbath_

_Sabbath Bloody Sabbath_ LP, first UK issue, gatefold, black label WWA 005, lyric inner sleeve: GBP 205, GBP 155, GBP 127, GBP 56

_Sabbath Bloody Sabbath_ LP, U.S. white label promo, lyric insert, stickered as promo: USD 208

_Sabbath Bloody Sabbath_ LP, UK, different cover (just text), 6366 101, Vertigo swirl WWA, likely for export to Far East: GBP 112

"A National Acrobat" 7", Thailand, with "Who Are You," "Spiral Architect," TKR149: USD 290

"Killing Yourself to Live" 7", Thailand, PS (picture of Ozzy; text as "Killing Yourself to Life"), KS black and white label, KS-235: USD 295

"Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" 7", Holland, b/w "Changes," PS, Vertigo 1973, 6165 001: USD 104

_Sabotage_

_Sabotage_ LP, original UK NEMS issue, 9119001: GBP 74

_Sabotage_ LP, Japan, with obi, white label promo, Vertigo Philips RJ-7043: USD 157, USD 101

"Am I Going Insane (Radio)" 7", Japan, PS (live shot), b/w "Hole in the Sky," SFL-2060: USD 280, USD 175, USD 138, USD 121

_We Sold Our Soul for Rock 'n' Roll_

_We Sold Our Soul for Rock 'n' Roll_ LP, Japan, BT-5088/9, live shot on cover, obi: USD 181, USD 164, USD 130, USD 100

_Technical Ecstasy_

_Technical Ecstasy_ LP, original UK issue, Vertigo spaceship logo, 9102 750 BE: GBP 77

"Dirty Women" 7", Warner Bros. white label acetate: USD 228

"It's Alright" 7", Italy, Vertigo 6079 100, b/w "Rock 'n' Roll Doctor": GBP 112, USD 100

"It's Alright" 7", Japan, promo, PS (band sitting), white label Vertigo, SFL-2142, b/w "Rock 'n' Roll Doctor": USD 160, USD 130, USD 129

"Rock 'n' Roll Doctor 7", Warner Bros. white label with courier type acetate: USD 385

_Never Say Die_

_Never Say Die_ LP, Japan, with obi, RJ-7380: USD 51, USD 36, USD 33, USD 33

"A Hard Road" 7", Japan, b/w "Symptom of the Universe," neon green and neon pink PS, Nippon Phonogram Vertigo SFL-2355: USD 371, USD 360, USD 316

"Never Say Die" 7", French, in generic red jukebox sleeve, non-PS, blue Vertigo label: USD 213, USD 37

"Never Say Die" 7", Japan, b/w "She's Gone," white label Vertigo: USD 104, USD 101, USD 100, USD 75, USD 68

_Heaven and Hell_

_Heaven and Hell_ LP, Singapore, white label Vertigo: USD 47

_Heaven and Hell_ LP, Japan, with obi, Vertigo Nippon Phonogram RJ-7672, English lyric insert: USD 41, USD 38, GBP 23, USD 35

_King Biscuit Flower Hour_ LP, Black Sabbath/Blue Öyster Cult, radio show, promo, FM cue sheets, 1980: USD 369

"Neon Knights" 7", Ireland, non-PS, white label Vertigo, b/w "Children of the Sea" (live), SAB 3: USD 103

"Neon Knights" 7", Japan, PS (black and white band shot, red text), white label Vertigo, 7PP-5, b/w "Children of the Sea": USD 60, USD 56, USD 39

_Mob Rules_

_Mob Rules_ LP, original UK issue, yellow/orange Vertigo, 6302 119: GBP 26

_Mob Rules_ LP, Japan, with obi, white label promo: USD 34, USD 30, USD 28, USD 25, USD 25

"Turn Up the Night" 7", France, blue label Vertigo promo, 6837 722, non-PS, b/w "Country Girl": USD 50

_Born Again_

_Born Again_ LP, UK promo advance, VERL 8, gatefold, cover in plastic film: USD 204

_Born Again_ LP, test pressing, Allied Record Company, 9/12/83: USD 114

_Born Again_ LP, Japan, with obi, Vertigo spaceship logo, 25PP101: GBP 22, GBP 20, USD 31, USD 29, USD 27

"Trashed" 12", U.S. promo in custom black and white cover, b/w "Zero the Hero," white label Warner Bros. PRO 2102: USD 41

"Trashed" 7", U.S. promo, non-PS, stereo/mono, 7-29434: USD 31

_Seventh Star_

_Seventh Star_ LP, Japan, with obi, 28PP-1017: USD 31, USD 30

_The Eternal Idol_

_The Eternal Idol_ LP, Japan, with obi, Vertigo spaceship label, USD 25

_The Eternal Idol_ LP, UK, Vertigo yellow label, VERH 51: GBP 26

"The Shining" 12", b/w "Black Moon," Some Kind of Woman," Dutch, Vertigo 888 997-1: USD 515, USD 150

_Headless Cross_

_Headless Cross_ LP, UK issue, black I.R.S. label, EIRSA 1002, inner lyric sleeve: AUD 61, GBP 32, GBP 26, GBP 23, EUR 24

"Headless Cross" 12", UK, PS, EIRST 107: GBP 26

_Tyr_

_Tyr_ LP, original UK pressing, IRS EIRSA 1038: GBP 75, GBP 36, USD 51, GBP 20, GBP 20

_Tyr_ LP, UK, picture disc, EIRSACV 1038, two bonus tracks: EUR 37, GBP 19, EUR 19

"Feels Good to Me" 7", Australia, b/w "Paranoid," I.R.S. K-10237: AUD 19

_Dehumanizer_

_Dehumanizer_ LP, German pressing, I.R.S. EIRSLP 1064, lyric inner sleeve: GBP 74, GBP 42, GBP 31, GBP 29, GBP 27

_Cross Purposes_

_Cross Purposes_ LP, I.R.S. 1994, UK issue, 71322211: GBP 234, GBP 100, USD 103, GBP 60 GBP, GBP 57

_Forbidden_

_Forbidden_ LP, Brazilian issue, white label I.R.S. 1995, 830620 1: USD 307, USD 200, USD 133, USD 133, USD 113

_The Devil You Know_

_The Devil You Know_ 2LP, German Roadrunner issue: GBP 21, AUD 30

_The Devil You Know_ 2LP, test pressing, white covers with typing in upper right: USD 124

Miscellaneous Records

_Attention Black Sabbath_ LP, Japan, with obi, BT-5036: USD 129

_The Best of Black Sabbath_ LP, Japan only, thick gatefold, Vertigo swirl label, 1971, FD-94: USD 455, USD 411, USD 338, GBP 184

_The Best of Black Sabbath_ LP, Japan only, white label Vertigo, 1973, with obi, BEST-10: USD 430, USD 333, EUR 234, USD 173

_The Best of Black Sabbath_ LP, Japan, Vertigo FD-191, lyrics on back cover, with obi: USD 203

_Captured Live_ 3LP, RKO Radio networks, 1983, CL-1383, cue sheet, paper sleeves, light blue label: USD 206

_Hand of Doom_ 4LP, Spanish box set, cover printed in Germany, LPs in paper sleeves: GBP 68

_The Ozzy Osbourne Years_ 5LP, box set: USD 103

_The Sabbath Collection_ 7LP, German box set of the first six studio LPs plus _Live at Last_ , 1984: GBP 123

"Radio Spot for Black Sabbath" 7", Warner Bros. U.S. white label, PRO 417, radio ad for Black Sabbath album: USD 203

"Radio Spot for Black Sabbath" 7", Warner Bros. U.S. white label, PRO 435, same 60-second spot for _Paranoid_ album on both sides: USD 214

Miscellaneous Collectibles

_Black Sabbath_ , gold certification, WEA International, tan Warner Bros. label: EUR 162

Tour program, Black Sabbath, Curved Air, Freedom, 1970, 13" x 6", 16 pages: GBP 62

_Paranoid_ , German gold certification LP award, white label Vertigo: EUR 241

_Paranoid_ LP, signed by all four original members, in gatefold: USD 178

_Master of Reality_ six-panel poster, which came with original copies of the album, Black Sabbath posed in a forest: GBP 235

_Sabbath Bloody Sabbath_ LP, autographed by all four members, cover only: USD 255

_Sabbath Bloody Sabbath_ reel-to-reel, 7¾ ips 4-track: USD 203

_Technical Ecstasy_ LP, signed by all four original members: GBP 83

_Never Say Die_ LP, autographed by all four members: USD 225, USD 196

_Heaven and Hell_ , German gold record certification award, Vertigo spaceship logo: EUR 244, EUR 157

_Heaven and Hell_ , U.S. RIAA platinum award, tan logo Warner Bros.: GBP 200

_Mob Rules_ gold cassette award, issued by RIAA to Don & David Arden: USD 415

_Forbidden_ , original artwork by Paul Sample: GBP 230

25 Sabbath-Related Collectible Records—Solo Artist Division

Dio—"Hungry for Heaven" 7", UK, shaped picture disc, Vertigo 1985, b/w "The King of Rock 'n' Roll": GBP 20

Dio— _Lock Up the Wolves_ LP: USD 48

Dio—"Hey Angel" 12", UK picture disc: GBP 21

Ronnie Dio—"Mr. Misery" 7", light blue Swan label, 1963, promo: USD 49

Ronnie & the Prophets—"Gonna Make It Alone" 7", U.S., Lawn 218, 1963, white label promo, b/w "Swingin' Street": USD 51

Ronnie and the Redcaps—"Conquest" 7" REB 105, 1958, non-PS: USD 272

The Electric Elves—"It Pays to Advertise" 7", MGM yellow label promo, K13839, 1967, b/w "Hey Look Me Over": USD 46

Elf— _Trying to Burn the Sun_ LP, original U.S. issue, MGM 1975, blue and yellow label, M3G 4994: EUR 134

The Elves—"Amber Velvet" 7", UK, MCA 1970, black and blue label, MU 1114, b/w "West Virginia": GBP 161

The Elves—"Amber Velvet" 7", U.S., promo, yellow label Decca, non-PS, 732617, b/w "West Virginia": USD 50

The Elves—"Walking in Different Circles" 7", U.S. issue, Decca light blue label, 732507, b/w "She's Not the Same," red and white generic Decca sleeve: USD 88

Madonna—"Crazy for You" 7", Japan, PS, b/w Dio—"Hungry for Heaven," both songs from the _Vision Quest_ soundtrack, CBS/Sony XDSP-93057: USD 325, USD 294, GBP 51

Ozzy Osbourne— _Blizzard of Ozz_ LP, Japan, picture disc, Jet 25AP 1992P: EUR 142

Ozzy Osbourne— _Captured Live!_ 3LP, RKO Radio (note: this has also been bootlegged), live in Los Angeles, 1983: USD 250, USD 138

Ozzy Osbourne— _Down to Earth_ LP, Holland, 2001: USD 196, USD 119

Ozzy Osbourne— _Live & Loud_ 2LP, Epic 473798: USD 125, EUR 89

Ozzy Osbourne— _No More Tears_ LP, U.S., Epic Z46795: USD 128, USD 113

Ozzy Osbourne— _Ozzmosis_ LP, Epic/Sony 481022-1: GBP 155, USD 213, USD 193, USD 198, USD 172

Ozzy Osbourne, "Flying High Again" 7", PS, Holland, b/w "I Don't Know," 7017: GBP 82

Ozzy Osbourne—"Mr. Crowley" 12", promo-only picture disc (Ozzy in white suit on purple background), b/w "You Said It All," "Suicide Solution," Jet, pressing of 300: USD 449, USD 425, USD 402, USD 382, USD 295

Ozzy Osbourne—"Mr. Crowley" 12", Holland, b/w "You Said It All," "Suicide Solution," cover art is reduced photo of album cover art, with text in black border, Jet 1980: USD 106

Chris Sedgewick—"Please Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" 7", b/w "Have You Ever Bin Loved," featuring Ozzy on background vocals, Free Music 1975, CS 143, 100 copies pressed: GBP 576, GBP 510, GBP 147

Bill Ward— _Ward One: Along the Way_ LP, rare cover (black and white photo of Bill), Australian issue Chameleon/Festival 1990, L 30338: AUD 51

Bill Ward— _Ward One: Along the Way_ LP (more common one-man-band cover), with record company bio and DJ questionnaire: USD 59

Bill Ward— _Ward One: Along the Way_ LP, sealed copy of one-man-band issue, Chameleon D1-74816: USD 29
Appendix 3

I've Got My Own Album to Do

Key Sabbath Members and Their Solo Accomplishments—A Timeline

The Sabbath guys have made some pretty cool music outside the corral, this timeline designed to document the traffic flow of these records. A coupla caveats are in order: 1) I'm only going to include the key writing members of the band, the same guys examined in chapter 20, which is more of an artistic evaluation. This would be the original classic lineup, plus Ronnie James Dio and Tony Martin. 2) With Ronnie and Tony, I'm not including work with other bands that isn't solo material per se, nor am I including works from time previous to these guys becoming Sabbath members (and yes, I'm considering Ozzy Osbourne and Dio solo acts, although they are very much big, meaty bands). Finally, 3) when I thought it interesting or important, I've gone ahead and included career events and trivia beyond solo recordings (I still can't believe Tony guests on Bobby Harrison's _Funkist_ ).

The 1970s

**1971.** IMA forms in Birmingham, with three principal members: Midlands club owner and promoter Norman Hood, Ten Years After drummer Ric Lee, and Tony Iommi. Tony's pet project within the business was the band Necromandus.

**1975.** Tony Iommi guests on _Funkist_ , by Procol Harum's Bobby Harrison, recording guitar tracks at Morgan Studios.

**1977.** Tony produces, at Morgan, the self-titled debut album by Quartz, reissued in 1980 as _Deleted_. The engineer for the sessions would be Robin Black. Guitarist and keyboardist for the band was Geoff Nicholls, soon to be Sabbath's keyboardist.

**1978.** Ozzy tries to get a solo band going with three members of Necromandus.

The 1980s

**Sept. 20, 1980.** Ozzy issues his solo debut, _Blizzard of Ozz_ , in the UK, his band being Randy Rhoads, Bob Daisley, and Lee Kerslake.

**Mar. 27, 1981.** U.S. release date for _Blizzard of Ozz_ , featuring a different back cover.

**Nov. 7, 1981.** Ozzy issues his second solo album, _Diary of a Madman_. Platinum almost immediately, it currently sits at 3x platinum.

**1982.** Ozzy guests on a Was (Not Was) dance track called "Shake Your Head (Let's Go to Bed)." The song is the fourth track on the band's _Born to Laugh at Tornados_ album on Geffen Records.

**Oct. 1982.** Ronnie James Dio and Vinny Appice form Dio.

**Nov. 27, 1982.** Ozzy issues the double live _Speak of the Devil_ ( _Talk of the Devil_ in the UK), comprised of live versions of Black Sabbath songs, in response to Black Sabbath issuing their own double live album, _Live Evil_. _Speak of the Devil_ eventually receives platinum designation on August 11, 1992.

**Mar. 19, 1982.** Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Randy Rhoads is killed in a plane crash.

**June 18, 1982.** Having gone gold almost immediately, _Blizzard of Ozz_ is certified platinum. It currently sits at 4x platinum.

**May 25, 1983.** Dio issues _Holy Diver_. Quickly going gold, the album reaches platinum status in 1989.

**Dec. 10, 1983.** Ozzy issues his third album, _Bark at the Moon_ , featuring new guitarist Jake E. Lee. The album currently is certified 3x platinum.

**July 13, 1984.** Dio issue their second album, _The Last in Line_. Quickly going gold, the album reaches platinum status in 1987.

**Aug. 1985.** Dio issue their third album, _Sacred Heart_. It is the band's first album not to go platinum, stalling at gold.

**Nov. 29, 1985.** The Geezer Butler Band plays a show at the Marquee in London.

**Feb. 22, 1986.** Ozzy issues his fourth album, _The Ultimate Sin_ , which achieves 2x platinum status.

**June 1986.** Dio issue a six-track live EP called _Intermission_.

**Mar. 19, 1987.** Ozzy issues the double live _Tribute_ , comprising live performances with the deceased Randy Rhoads, from 1980 and '81. The album was certified 2x platinum in 1997. "We put one out—it was called _Tribute_ ," recalled Ozzy in 2010, asked what other Randy Rhoads material there was in the vaults. "How the fuck could I tamper with that? The guy was dead, you know? I mean, the truth of the matter is that every single thing we had on Randy Rhoads we've used for the fans. Whatever that record makes, his mother [Dolores] gets. I don't even know what that side of the fence is. I don't have it and Sharon doesn't have it. Everything concerning Randy—photographs, videos, what kids have taken in the audience—everything concerning Randy Rhoads goes to his mother. It's still a very sad part of my life. He was such a great guitar player, such a wonderful human being. If he was a bad guy, I'd say what he was like. I am saying what he was like. He was great. He was into playing music all the time. All the time he'd be playing his guitar—all day, every day."

**July 21, 1987.** Dio issue their fourth studio album, _Dream Evil_. On Aug. 22, the band plays _Monsters of Rock_ , second on the bill only to Bon Jovi. This show would be issued, along with an '83 set, by Niji, in 2010.

**Feb. 2, 1988.** Ozzy duets with Lita Ford on hit power ballad "Close My Eyes Forever," from her _Lita_ album.

**1988.** Tony Martin guests on the Forcefield _II_ album (the drummer on the record is Cozy Powell).

**June 17, 1988.** Ozzy makes an infamous appearance in metal documentary _Decline of Western Civilization II: The Metal Years_.

**Oct. 22, 1988.** Ozzy issues his fifth studio album, _No Rest for the Wicked_ , which reaches 2x platinum.

**Late 1988.** Though he wasn't part of the recently released _No Rest for the Wicked_ album, Geezer tours as part of the Ozzy Osbourne band.

**Nov. 1989.** Charity compilation album _Stairway to Heaven/Highway to Hell_ is issued, Geezer and Ozzy playing a minor role.

The 1990s

1990

**Jan. 10, 1990.** Bill issues his well-regarded solo debut, _Ward One: Along the Way_.

**Feb. 1990.** Tony appears on the _Guitar Speak II_ album, playing on "Miranha."

**Mar. 17, 1990.** Ozzy issues a live EP called _Just Say Ozzy_ —Geezer Butler is the bassist. The EP is designated gold in 1993.

**May 15, 1990.** Dio issue their fifth studio album, _Lock Up the Wolves_. Vinny Appice is no longer with the band. Rather, Vinny surfaces with Mandy Lion, Jimmy Bain and future Dio guitarist Tracy G. on WWIII's self-titled debut, for Hollywood Records. The band is managed by Don Arden.

1991

**1991.** Ozzy records the song "Therapy" with Infectious Grooves, which features on that band's debut album, _The Plague That Makes Your Booty Groove_. Ozzy also features in the video.

**Sept. 17, 1991.** Ozzy issues _No More Tears_ , an album that apparently nearly got produced by Rick Rubin. "He's a very dear friend of mine," notes Oz. "When I did _No More Tears_ , we had been working for a lot of time writing. We thought we were finished and then right at the end we wrote 'No More Tears.' There was talk that Rick Rubin might be interested in recording it. We'd been in the rehearsal room a long, long time. And Rick Rubin came around—and I'm not saying anything bad about him; he's a great guy—he comes in and says, 'Do you want a hit record?' And I say. 'Yeah, sure.' 'I'll tell ya what you need to do.' And I go, 'What's that?' He goes, 'You need to write it again.' I said, 'We just finished writing.' 'No, rewrite everything.' I go, 'You're joking.' I wasn't going to fucking rewrite anything. Believe it or not, _No More Tears_ was a really big album for me." _No More Tears_ currently sits at 4x platinum.

1992

**1992.** Tony Martin issues his solo debut, _Back Where I Belong_.

**Mar. 30, 1992.** Dio issue a hits pack called _Diamonds—The Best of Dio_ , internationally but not in America.

**Apr. 20, 1992.** Tony Iommi guests, very briefly, at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert.

**Aug. 14, 1992.** Motörhead's Lemmy Kilmister and Ozzy share the vocals on "I Ain't No Nice Guy," on Motörhead's _March or Die_ album. The song also features a cameo by Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash.

1993

**1993.** Tony guests on Diamond Head's _Death and Progress_ comeback album, playing a solo on the opening track, "Starcrossed (Lovers of the Night)," on which he also receives a writing credit. Says Diamond Head guitarist Brian Tatler, "Having been a fan of the Sabs for many years, when I was asked, 'Would you like to write a song with Tony Iommi?' I immediately said, 'Oh my God, yes please.' Our record company guy, Pete Winkelman, knew Tony's manager and cleared the way. A meeting was arranged and I arrived at his huge house in Solihull, West Midlands. The man in black welcomed me into his palatial home and made us both a cup of tea. We sat down to work with our two guitars and I produced a cassette with riffs on it, then Tony delved into his drawer of cassettes and pulled one out too. We listened to each other's offerings—I was amazed to hear that Tony's tape did not sound any better than mine!—then after agreeing which riffs we liked best, we set about writing the song 'Starcrossed.' Diamond Head vocalist Sean Harris and I had been listening to Soundgarden's _Badmotorfinger_ and we particularly liked their '90s take on Sabbath, so a little of that went into the melting pot. I came up with the intro, verse and bridge section. Tony came up with the fast galloping middle eight and the end ride-out riff. It did not take long and was an absolute pleasure. Once the song had been recorded by Diamond Head for the album _Death and Progress_ , Tony kindly came down to the studio we were using in Birmingham, called the Music Station, to lay down a killer guitar solo. He arrived with his guitar tech and fairly quickly got a sound to suit the track. It was an unforgettable experience and his help was greatly appreciated. Tony is easily one of the nicest guys I have ever met."

**June 28, 1993.** Ozzy issues a two-CD live set called _Live & Loud_. "Black Sabbath" is included from the Costa Mesa reunion shows, and thus includes Bill, Geezer, and Tony. Both the video and the audio CD version of _Live & Loud_ are platinum.

1994

**1994.** Dio issue _Strange Highways_. Vinny is back in the band. Ozzy wins a Grammy for Best Metal Performance for the song "I Don't Want to Change the World."

**Sept. 27, 1994.** Ozzy and Miss Piggy gang up for "Born to Be Wild," first issued on _Kermit Unplugged_.

**Oct. 4, 1994.** Bill Ward has a cameo in Biohazard's "After Forever" video, Biohazard recording the track for the star-filled _Nativity in Black_ tribute CD, which is certified platinum on Dec. 4, 2000. Also for the album, Ozzy collaborates with Therapy? on a cover of "Iron Man," and the Bullring Brummies, featuring Geezer and Bill, along with Rob Halford, Wino, and Fight guitarist Brian Tilse, record a version of "The Wizard."

1995

**Sept. 26, 1995.** Doom metal band Cathedral issue _The Carnival Bizarre_. Tony Iommi guests on "Utopian Blaster." Comment's Cathedral vocalist Lee Dorrian, "We had got along really well with Tony on the _Cross Purposes_ tour. He was so cool to me and Gaz [guitarist Garry Jennings], taking time out to tell us loads of amazing stories and buy us a beer here and there. He said he really liked us and I think he liked the fact that we were obviously massive Sabbath fans. Our manager at the time had been friends with Tony's manager, Ralph Baker, for many years. We asked him to ask Ralph if there was any chance we could get Tony down to the studio to do a solo or two. When he said yes, we couldn't believe it! He came down, laid down about twelve solos and said, 'Take your pick, lads.' He was in the middle of moving house and going away in a couple of days but still found time to come down and do it. This is certainly one of the highlights of Cathedral's past twenty years."

**Oct. 17, 1995.** Geezer issues his solo debut, _Plastic Planet_ , credited to band concept G//Z/R.

**Oct. 24, 1995.** Ozzy releases _Ozzmosis_. Geezer Butler is the bassist for the recordings. _Ozzmosis_ goes 2x platinum.

1996

**1996.** Tony Iommi works on music with Glenn Hughes that remains shelved until 2004. Also in 1996, Tony appears on _Twang! A Tribute to Hank Marvin and the Shadows_ , playing on "Wonderful Land."

**Oct. 15, 1996.** Dio issue _Angry Machines_.

1997

**Feb. 25, 1997.** Release date for soundtrack album _Private Parts: The Album_ (the story of Howard Stern), on which Ozzy teams up with Type O Negative for a version of Status Quo's "Pictures of Matchstick Men."

**Mar. 26, 1997.** Bill Ward's first ever show as a solo artist, followed by a half dozen dates through the spring and summer—these have been Bill's only shows to date in support of his solo albums.

**April 27, 1997.** Bill issues his second solo album, _When the Bough Breaks_.

**July 1, 1997.** Geezer issues his second solo album, _Black Science_ ; this time the band is known as Geezer.

**Nov. 11, 1997.** Ozzy issues a hits and rarities compilation album called _The Ozzman Cometh_. Some rare Black Sabbath material is included. The album currently sits at 2x platinum.

1998

**Feb. 24, 1998.** Dio issue the double live _Inferno: Last in Live_.

**Nov. 3, 1998.** Release date for _Chef Aid: The South Park Album_ , first track (after the Primus "South Park Theme" intro) being "Nowhere to Run," featuring Ozzy Osbourne, DMX, Ol' Dirty Bastard, and the Crystal Method.

The 2000s

2000

**Mar. 21, 2000.** Dio issue _Magica_ , the band's first concept album.

**June 6, 2000.** Release date for _Nativity in Black II_ , on which Ozzy guests with Primus for a rendition of "N.I.B."

**2000.** Ozzy and Tony guest on Wu-Tang Clan's "For Heaven's Sake 2000."

**Oct. 3, 2000.** Warner/Rhino issue _The Very Beast of Dio_ , which reaches gold.

**Oct. 17, 2000.** Tony issues his debut album, _Iommi_ , which comprises ten tracks, each with a different guest star vocalist.

2001

**Oct. 16, 2001.** Ozzy issues his eighth studio album, _Down to Earth_ , which goes platinum.

2002

**2002.** Ozzy reissues _Blizzard of Ozz_ and _Diary of a Madman_ , replacing Bob Daisley's and Lee Kerslake's performances (due to ongoing acrimony over royalties) with fresh tracks by Robert Trujillo and Mike Bordin, causing much fan uproar in the process. Also in '02, Ozzy and Sharon are invited to a White House Correspondents' Association event.

**Mar. 5, 2002.** Premiere of _The Osbournes_ , pioneering reality TV show documenting the lives of Ozzy and his family.

**May 21, 2002.** Dio issue their ninth studio album, _Killing the Dragon_.

**Mid-2002.** Bill Ward begins DJ'ing _Rock 50_ , his own radio show, on WPMD out of Cerritos College in Norwalk, CA.

**June 25, 2002.** Ozzy issues _Live at Budokan_. The DVD version reaches gold.

**Dec. 2002.** Bill issues the "Straws" CD single, in a signed and numbered limited edition, with proceeds going to various charities.

2003

**Jan. 2003.** Ozzy and his family host the thirtieth annual American Music Awards.

**May 2003.** Warner/Rhino issues _Stand Up and Shout: The Dio Anthology_.

2004

**2004.** Ozzy wins an _NME_ award for "godlike genius."

**Aug. 31, 2004.** Airdate of the first _Dog the Bounty Hunter_ , using an Ozzy Osbourne theme song.

**Sept. 7, 2004.** Dio issue their tenth and final studio album, _Master of the Moon_.

**Sept. 28, 2004.** Tony issues his second solo album, _The 1996 DEP Sessions_. It is a collaborative effort with Glenn Hughes, featuring material mostly recorded in 1996. Players on the album include keyboardists Mike Exeter, Don Airey, and Geoff Nicholls, and drummers Jimmy Copley and Dave Holland.

2005

**Feb. 2005.** Dio issue a double live album called _Evil or Divine—Live in New York City_.

**Mar. 21, 2005.** Final episode of the final season of _The Osbournes_. "None of us expected it to be such a huge success," says Ozzy. "At first it was fun, but then strange things started to happen. As high as this show got, bad things were happening in my household. My son Jack ended up doing heroin in all this. I started drinking again. I started smoking pot. My wife got cancer. I almost killed myself on my motorcycle. As high as this show went, I haven't got a clue how television works. So I asked, 'What's the deal with TV?' I walk down the street and get chased up the road by a gang of people. I don't know if they like me or want to kill me! I realized that with television, everyone has one. It's the biggest form of entertainment you can get. At first it was a lot of fun, but it soon got very old for me. I remember being on the road with Ozzfest and this woman of my age or a bit younger comes to me and says, 'What are you doing in Boston?' And I go, 'I'm doing a show.' And she goes, 'What kind of a show?' And I go, 'A rock 'n' roll show.' And she says, 'Oh, you do that also?' And I went, 'What?!' It all became very dysfunctional. I got voted Husband of the Year—I don't know how I got that fucking thing!" The day after the last episode airs, Ozzy sees the release of his first box set, titled _Prince of Darkness_. Also in 2005, Ozzy is inducted (by Angus Young) into the UK Music Hall of Fame.

**May 10, 2005.** Geezer issues his third solo album, _Ohmwork_ , this time under band name GZR.

**July 11, 2005.** Tony issues his third solo album, _Fused_ , which is essentially the second album by the "Iommi" band—significantly, Tony and Glenn Hughes. No one else from _The 1996 DEP Sessions_ is involved, the rest of the lineup being drummer Kenny Aronoff and keyboardist/bassist/producer Bob Marlette.

**Nov. 1, 2005.** Ozzy issues a covers album called _Under Cover_.

**Nov. 8, 2005.** Tony Martin issues his second solo album, _Scream_ , in the U.S. and Canada (the UK release date is two weeks later). The album was recorded the previous year, except for the track "Raising Hell," which hails from 1998 and includes Cozy Powell on drums. Five years later, Ozzy will also release an album called _Scream_.

2006

**Mar. 2006.** Queensryche issue _Operation: Mindcrime II_ , featuring Ronnie in the role of Dr. X. Same year, Twisted Sister guitarist Eddie Ojeda issues _Axes 2 Axes_ , his for solo album. Opening track "Tonight" features Ronnie on lead vocals.

**Apr. 17, 2006.** Dio issue the two-CD _Holy Diver Live_ , one disc featuring the _Holy Diver_ album rendered live in its entirety and in sequence; the second, hits, including Black Sabbath's "Heaven and Hell" and "The Sign of the Southern Cross."

**Apr. 18, 2006.** Ian Gillan issues _Gillan's Inn_ , on which he reworks songs from his career with a myriad of guest stars. For Sabbath song "Trashed," his band is Ian Paice and Roger Glover from Deep Purple, plus Tony Iommi.

**Nov. 22, 2006.** Jack Black and Kyle Gass, a.k.a. Tenacious D, issue their movie _Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny_. Ronnie James Dio appears, playing himself. This all starts after Ronnie includes the duo in the video for his Dio song, "Push," having gotten a chuckle over the song "Dio" on the band's self-titled debut album. Later, Ronnie provides a guest vocal on "Kickapoo" from Tenacious D's second album, _The Pick of Destiny_.

2007

**2007.** Ozzy is honored at _VH1 Rock Honors_ , along with Genesis, Heart, and ZZ Top.

**May 22, 2007.** Ozzy issues his ninth studio album, _Black Rain_ , which goes gold. "Kevin Churko [coproducer], who worked with me, obviously did his homework," explains Ozzy. "You know, I can't turn the light on in there. He was very helpful. I owe him a lot because when I first started the album...usually my wife Sharon says, 'You've got eight weeks to write and record it.' What we did with Kevin, Zakk [guitarist Zakk Wylde] came down and laid down a lot of different riffs. I went on the road with Ozzfest and when I came back, Kevin had worked a lot of the patterns out. Some worked, some didn't. The end result, I have no complaints. He was very familiar with Pro Tools, a digital recording system, and he did a remarkable job. It made it a lot easier for me. I could think more of what I wanted to do with it. Every time I go into the studio, I want to do a great album. The way he approached the album, he tried and he pulled it off. _No More Tears_ , when we were doing that, we all sat down and said that we have to take every track as if it was a playable record on the radio. Because they used to say, 'We can't play Ozzy 'cos it's too satanic' or something like that. You don't want to copy your last hit, but at the same time you want to do something that you're really happy with. I mean, I'm happy with _Black Rain_. People who have heard it say it's a follow-up to _No More Tears_ —I can live with that. We didn't approach the songwriting like we wanted to on follow-up to _No More Tears_. I've done two albums since _No More Tears_ that I don't play every day, but every now and again. _Ozzmosis_ is a good album, but it was recorded and produced by a guy [Michael Beinhorn] that I didn't get on with."

**July 2007.** Ozzy guests on Mountain's _Masters of War_ , a collection of Bob Dylan covers, providing lead vocals on the title track. "Black Sabbath's first tour, back in 1971, was opening for Mountain," says Leslie West, asked how the collaboration came about. "And two years ago, he called me and asked me if we could remake 'Mississippi Queen.' So I went out to his house and we rearranged it a little bit. And I saw him at Ozzfest last summer, in New York, and I gave him 'Masters of War,' the track, and I said, 'Okay, here, when you're finished Ozzfest, I want you to sing this.' Because I went to his house and did 'Mississippi Queen' in L.A.; I was on tour at the time. So, okay, November comes, Ozzfest is finished, and I found out that I had cancer; I don't have cancer anymore. They got it in time and I didn't have to do any of the chemo. So just for the hell of it, I sent Ozzy an e-mail and said, 'Ozzy, I found out I have cancer. So before I die, can you sing the song?' So he sends me a note back and says, 'I thought you were kidding, man! If I found out I had cancer, I would take the biggest shot of something and you'd never see me again.' So he sent it to me, and it came out great. Great guy, you know; we were out with Black Sabbath the first year they came over; they supported us on a tour all over the country, and we became really good friends."

2008

**May 27, 2008.** Ronnie, between Heaven & Hell legs, puts together a one-month European Dio tour. The band's last ever show is a festival date in Bilbao, Spain, headlined by Kiss.

**Oct. 24, 2008.** Girlschool issue a twenty-five-year anniversary album called _Legacy_. "I Spy (Dio/Iommi Mix)" includes Tony on lead guitar and Ronnie on lead vocals.

2009

**2009.** Ozzy releases his autobiography, _I Am Ozzy_.

**Mar. 11, 2009.** _The Very Beast of Dio_ is certified gold in the U.S.

**Aug. 21 & 22, 2009.** Ozzy performs at gaming festival BlizzCon.

**Oct. 13, 2009.** Ozzy lends his voice to video game _Brutal Legend_.

The 2010s

2010

**Mar. 31, 2010.** Slash issues a self-titled solo album. The song "Crucify the Dead" features Ozzy on vocals.

**May 16, 2010.** Ronnie James Dio passes away, cause of death being stomach cancer, at 7:45 A.M., Central time.

**June 14, 2010.** Ozzy issues his tenth studio album, _Scream_ , which he talked about at a press conference the author attended. "A good Canadian producer called Kevin Churko did that. The last two albums have been absolutely clean and sober, and I didn't know I could do it without alcohol and drugs, but he helped me through it. The way you record now is completely different from the way we used to. You don't use tape anymore. But Kevin was the guy sitting in my studio, working on the sounds. I'm not one of these studio rats that can sit there forever. I'll go in and out, you know, drives me crazy. When I first built my studio at home, I thought, 'This is going to be great, recording in my own home,' but it was good fun. I mean, the last album, _Black Rain_ , was done in my house. Kevin Churko was a very good help for me. We'd argue, we'd agree; it's like it's a very different process on this last album because it was basically done in the studio, where with the other albums I'd go and jam with the band. The next album, we'll see, 'cos when you do it in the studio, it's kind of like a different process. You lay the foundations and build from there; it was a good process. I keep going on about Kevin. Kevin was great for me to work with—he's a really, really good guy. When I'm making music, I don't want anybody to give me advice, so it's me saying that and taking advice from Kevin or my wife, Sharon, or the kids or whatever. And I don't listen to new music, so I don't know what's going on. I don't really want to change from my roots to be like one of these new metal bands. I've met a lot of guys in the past who change. So I listen to young people's advice, you know, but whether I take it or not is a different thing."

**Nov. 9, 2010.** Niji Entertainment Group (Dio's management company) issues _At Donington UK: Live 1983 & 1987_, a two-CD digipak with two facsimile laminates.

**Nov. 10, 2010.** At the UK's Classic Rock Awards, Geezer receives this year's award for Metal Guru. The presenter is Tony Iommi.
Selected Bibliography

A Black Sabbath Library

Note: these are the key books published on the Sabs through the ages and not a list of references I used to write _Black Sabbath FAQ_ , although Garry Sharpe-Young's book never ceases to amaze me, given its level of detail concerning all the backroom dealings (R.I.P., Garry, a true scholar of metal; his book is indeed listed as a source). In fact, I don't even own a couple of these. In addition, I'd like to point out that given that I had written a perfectly good Sabbath book myself back in 2005/'06, I endeavored to exclude the use of any of the fifty or so interviews I'd conducted with Sabbath members throughout the years previous to '06, and have succeeded in that task, so to reiterate, it's all fresh. As well, all quotes and interview bits (with the exception of a couple from my bud Tim Henderson, listed below) within _Black Sabbath FAQ_ are the result of my own interviews with various Sabbath member and others conducted since the publication of _Doom Let Loose_.

Arden, Don, with Mick Wall. _Mr. Big_. London: Robson Books, 2004.

McIver, Joel. _Sabbath Bloody Sabbath_. London: Omnibus Press, 2006.

Osbourne, Ozzy. _I Am Ozzy_. New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2009.

Popoff, Martin. _Black Sabbath: Doom Let Loose—An Illustrated History_. Toronto: ECW Press, 2006.

Popoff, Martin. _Blue Öyster Cult: Secrets Revealed!_ Simi Valley, CA: Metal Blade Records, 2004.

Rosen, Steven. _Wheels of Confusion: The Story of Black Sabbath_. Chessington, Surrey, UK: Castle Communications, 1996.

Sharpe-Young, Garry. _Sabbath Bloody Sabbath: The Battle for Black Sabbath_. New Plymouth, NZ: Zonda Books Limited, 2006.

Tangye, David and Graham Wright. _How Black Was Our Sabbath: An Unauthorized View from the Crew_. London: Pan MacMillan UK, 2005.

Wall, Mick. _Paranoid:_ _Black Days with Sabbath and Other Horror Stories_. Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing, 1999.

Wilkinson, Paul. _Rat Salad: Black Sabbath: The Classic Years 1969–1975_. London: Pimlico, 2007.

Sources

The below-cited (or, in the case of books, referenced but not cited) sources are in addition to the approximately twenty-five interviews conducted by the author.

Henderson, Tim. Interview with Geezer Butler, 2010.

Henderson, Tim. Interview with Ozzy Osbourne, 2007.

McIver, Joel. _Sabbath Bloody Sabbath_. London: Omnibus Press, 2006.

Osbourne, Ozzy. _Black Rain_ press conference. Casa Loma, Toronto, June 2010.

Siegler, Joe. black-sabbath.com
Photo Credits

Richard Galbraith

Rich is a photography legend, and in possession of a vast catalogue of cool rock 'n' roll work (mostly heavy stuff!) shot in Oklahoma between the mid-'70s and the mid-'80s. Rich has helped me out on a number of my books and can be visited at myspace.com/richardgalbraith, or e-mailed directly at egyptsknight@suddenlink.net.

Brandon Marshall

Brandon provided most of the shots of the Heaven & Hell band, as well as the stunning cover shot of Mr. Iommi. Brandon's gorgeous work can be viewed at sonicexcess.com/marshallphotography.html and he can be emailed at marshall@sonicexcess.com.

Ben Upham

So cool meeting Ben. I mean, the guy shot the first big-city concert I ever went to, namely Ted Nugent, Be-Bop Deluxe, and Rex in Spokane, Washington, circa the 1976 Free for All tour, dammit. Ben's contribution is a cool concert review plus those shots of the Sabs and Van Halen from '78, also in Spokane, where he did most of his work. Ben's also into nature photography in and around Spokane, and is working on a book along those lines. Ben's site is magicalmomentphotos.com and his e-mail addy is benupham3@comcast.net.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaBook