Not surprisingly, Sabotage contained a savage attack by Ozzy on the music business in the form of The writ along with the soul- searching ´Am I going insane, Tracks such as Hole in sky and Symptom of the universe prved exactly how heavy and angry Sabbath still were, whole Supertzar featured a full choir in a radical departure from the norm.
Ironically Supertzar was penne solelyby Iommi but was crdited to the entire band, showcasing the all- for- one spirit that they were projecting to the outside world.Internally, however, egos were starting to fray.
A moment of light relief came in the form of the album sleeve which featured a picture of the band in front of the mirror, with a picture behind the mirror on the back. It was a concept hatched by Ward and his drum tech Graham Wright, wich does little to explain why the drummer can be seen posing in a pair of bright red women´s tights.
“Graham and I had organised the shoot for the sleeve but, we´d overlooked what clothes people were wearing,” explains Bill “everyone turned up wearing normal clothes so we were trying to figure out what to do. I didn´t want to mear my jeans, but I wasn´t wearing underwear. So I got Ozzy to take his underpants off and he neded up putting this rome on. I borrowed my missus red tights and stuck them over the top of Ozzy´s underpants. I knew it was ridiculous but I just wanted to get the shot done so I didn´t give a fucking. When I look at the picture, I think rhere´s something very odd about it. I think I´ve still got Ozzy´s underpants somewhere…”
The power of Sabotage became particularly apparent in the light of the two labums that followed. It classic line- un had expeirenced self- doubt and difficulties durighe past three yaers, they reachednew personal lawsbetween 1976 and 1978 as more management and difficulties ensued. The cash in double album compilation We sold our souls for rock´n ´roll surfaced in January ´76, while the bandwere struggling to finish their next studio album, Technical extasy. To fuel their paranoia, rock has spawned a new set of iconockňlastics as the Sex pistols, The clach and The Damned led the UK punk rock expolsion. Suddenly, Sabbath found themselves both unsure of their music direction and labelled as has- beens.
“Whet the punk thing took over we were 26 years old and everyonedecided that we were already past it!” sighs Geezer. “The whole thing got to us and we did stupid things.”
While today hardcores Sabs fans still defend some of the bold steps taken on Technical extasy, it was a confused offering, wich still hit Number 13 in the UK but limped into the US charts at52. The follow up, ´78s all- titled Never say die was fraught with even more internal fighting.”Between those two albums we all got heading out on his own. “ I wanted to do a solo album, but that wasn´t the done thing inSabbath,ô he recalls. Hence, Ozzy quit the band, however, elected to carcy on, recruting es- Savoy Brown singer Dave Walker, only for Ozzy to return once an whole album´s worth of material had been written.