Often imitated bud never surpassed
the legendary
BLACK SABBATH

Sabbath´s the first time around is impossible to quantify. What is certain is that their unrelenting assault od the senses signalised the death of any vestiges of ´60s flower power and the dawning of the free- for- all ´70s.The legacy of what they achieved with their first six albums is exemplified by ever band that has followed in their wake, from Ministry to Metallica, fro Nirvana to Marilyn Manson and beyond.
Sabbath´s apocalyptic view of the world is rooted in their working class origins. Growing up within a mile of each other is post-war Aston in streets that Tony describes as “hard, full of gangs, bombsites really”, the four members of Sabbath embarked on their musical careers in the early ´60s in a bid to avoiddead-jobs and spurred on by the success of another four working class heroes, The Beatles.
Despite having been to the same scool, Ozzy and Tony initialy shared a mutual dislike for each other.Geezer- at the time studyind to become an accountant against his will- has seen Tony knocking around the same neighbourhood and admits to thinking that his future partner in crime was “ really aggressive, a hard nut.” Ironically, Tony´s first impression of geezer was that he was “a complete nutter because he was tripping all the time.”ward concurs that Butler waas man who sported “clothes that didn´t fit on this planet” and recalls meeting Geezer backstage at a club “literally trying to climb the walls because he was so out of it.”
Cutting their teeth in several local bands( wich included Ward assuming vocal and drum duties with The rest, and Ozzy pedding Otis Reddig covers that sounded that “disco shit” in The Approach) the foursome ended up in two rival outfits. The Rare Breed (an experimental psycho combo that featured then guitarist Geezer and Ozzy) and the blues-based ( wich included Tony and Bill).Attemps at turning pro led to both bands falling apart, forcing the unlikely foursome into each others´arms.
In late ´67 they formed Polka Tulk with Ozzy´s mate Jimmy Philips on rhythm guitar and a sax player known simply as ´Acker´. For Geezer it meant the end of this guitar playing days , the man attempting to bang out bass riffs on the bottom four strings of his fender Telecaster at the band´s first rehearsal.

Their short- lived career as a six- piece was curtailed when Philips and ´Acker´ were deemed to be “ totally shit” according ot the rest of the band.
Changing their name to the Earth Blues Company and the simply to Earth, the fledging outfit found their career close to being curtailed whrn Tony was offered a gig with local prog- sters Jethro Tull in earlu ´69. Thakfully, his stint with Tull was short –lived, altought he lasted long enough to participate in the filming of the Rolling Stones ´Great Rock´n´Roll Circus´ movie.
Learning from his experience with Tull but feeling “ it wasn´t quite what I wanted to do, “ Tony returned to reform his old band. “Going with Tull got me the right oath, “ states Tony. “I looked at how they worked, how hard they rehearsed, and I knew that´s what we had to do.”
As the only one who could drive a van, Iommi locked the band into strenous rehearsals, picking up Ozzy, Geezer and Bill at 9:00 am sharp to a chorus of protests, and ferrying them to the youth club where they rehearsed. The first song they wrote together was a 15- minute heavy blues jam titled “Wicked World”. The second track they wrote was to give the band its name. “We rehearsed across the road from this movie theatre wich used to show horor films, “ explains Ozzy. “tony came in one day and said isn´t it weird that people pay money to see horror films and get scared?” Why don´t we make scary music?” based on the ´30s Boris Karlof film of the same name ´Black Sabbath´itself was a chillinf glice of melodrama that was to become the band´s calling card for the next three decades.
The writing of ´Black Sabbath´ also coincided with experiences Geezer Butler would rather forget.” I´d go into alternative spiritual stuff that was going on at the time, “he recalls. “ I´d been raised a Catholic so I totally believed in the Devil. There was a weekly magazine called ´Man, myth and magic ´ that I started reading which was all about Satan and stuff. That and books by Aleister Crowley and Denis Wheatley, especially ´The Devil rides out´which was meant to be a cautionary tale but which read like a handbook on hoe to be a Satanist.
“ I´d moved into this flat that I´d painted black with inverted crosses everywhere. Ozzy gave me this 16th Cenutry book about magic that he´d stolen from somewhere.I put it in the airing cupboard because I wasn´t sure about it. Later that night I woke up and saw this black shadow at the end of the bed. It was a horrible presence that hightened the life out of me! I ran to the airing cupboard to throw the book out, but the book had disappeared. After that I gave all that stuff. It scared me shitless. For Sabbath, it wasn´t the end of the bizarre supernatural events that increased then mystique.

In contrast to the mythology that was to continue to grow around the band, the reality was that the four teenagers from Aston were starving.Playing every two-bit gig they could, they quickly realised that ´Black Sabbath´was the number that solicited the most gonzoid response in what was an otherwise blues-based set.
Heading to Hamburg´s legendary Star club for a legendary residence ( during which they broke the attendance recored previously held bu The Beatles), and then to Zurich´s Herschen club, the band used ´Black Sabbath´ as a blueprint for the sound they´d started to develop. Playing seven three-quarter of an hour sets per night in Zurich, Sabbath´s jam-led sets spawned most of the tracks on the band´s debut album including N.I.B.( written about Ward´s pointed, nib-like beard, as opposed to anything darker suggested by interpreted titles such as ´Nativity in Black´), along with the likes of ´War pigs´(included on the band´s second album, ´Paranoid´).
None of Black Sabbath remember singing a recording deal. “maybe we did but that would have been over a pint…or in my case several pints, “ nods Bill.
Managed by local Birmingham svengali, Jim Simpson, they´d signed an agreement with a company named Tonu Hall enterprises( a type of A&R agency) that brokered the band a deal with the progressive label of the moment, Vertigo, in December of 69.
On their way to europe to play a set of shows in Denmark, they were informed that they had to stop off at London´s regent sound studios to spend two days recording their debut album with rookie in- house engineer Roger Bain.
“We were so excited, “ states Tony. “We couldn´t believe we had two ays to d oit. We basically played the songs through once, the way we did our live set.”
“It was so straight forward because we didn´t know you could do things like overdubs or anything like that.” adds Geezer. “Most of the tracks were done in one take. Than we got on the ferry to Europe.”
With an advance of £1000, the album cost £600 to record leaving each band member with the princely sum of £100. “That just about covered the debts we owned everyone, then we were skit again!”
Spookily released on 13 February 19970 to world-wide critical disdain.´Black Sabbath´featuredsuitably eerie artwork with cloaked woman standing in front of medieval building. The sleeve matched the doom- filled tunes and heavier-than-thou attitude it contained. To Geezer Butler´s dismay, the label had also decided to place an inverted cross on the inside sleeve. “After what I´d been through, I couldn´t believe it when I saw it, but it was too late to change it, “ he shrungs.
Bizarrely enough the album entered the UK charts at- you guesses it!- Number 13, peaking at 8 and remainging in the Top 75 for over five months.
“We didn´t expect anything like that. We wern´t hip and we couldn´t even get a gig in London, “ continues Geezre. “we were playing Carlisle, Scotland and Wales all the time.

We were driving up the motorway when we hear the chart position in the radio and we nearly crashed the van!”
Shortly after the release of their first album the band switched management from Jim Simpson to Patrick Meehan. It was a decision which band members regret to this day in the wake of the legal wrangles that followed years later.
Meehan, however, engaged US labels in a bidding war for the rights to the first Sabbath album, finally plumbing for Warner Bros, for a cool $750.00. Unbeknown to the band ĺack Sabbath ´was launched in the US with a party in San Francisco with the head of the Church of Satan, Antony Lavey,presiding over the proceedings. For Sabbath it almost scuppered their US touring plans, the launch coming in the wake of the murder of Sharon Tate by followers of Charles Manson. All of a sudden Sabbath were Satan´s right hand men. Their well- earnt reputation as beer drinkers and hellraisers didn´t help matters any. By the time they finally hit the US in late ´70, Sabbath had ahd time to record their second album, ´Paranoid´, again with Bain at the helm. According to Butler t was originally meant to be titled ´Walpurgis´( aka the witches sabbath) after a track on the album. In the wake of the controversy stirred up around the band, the track and album titles were revised to ´War pigs´, the song´s lyricsbeing changed during the recording process. A version of ´War pigs´with the original ´Walpurgis´lyrics can however be hard on ozzy´s “best of…set. ´The OZZman cometh´released last year, and taken from an original 1970 rehearsal tape.
Paranoid crystallised the band´s writing provess, with Iommi initiating the ideas with his charred rifs. Ozzy working on a melody line smack bang on top of that. Geezer providing drive and a majority of the lyrics/ War pigs is one of this proudest moments/, and Billy ward locking into a set of often punding rhythms beneath Butler´s bass rumble.
With War pigs as the chosen title, the album sleeve was commissioned. Finding themselves with a few hours extra studio time to kill and space to fill on the album, the band wrote Paranoid itself in “five minutes” according to Geezer, “then I sat down and wrote the lyrics as quickly as I could. It was all done in about two hours.”
The band rejected Paranoid /the track/ as too commercial. The record company, however , sensed a hit single and, without consulting the band, duly changed the album title.
“ That album title had nothing to do with sleeve. What the fucking a bloke dressed as a pig with a sword in his hand has got to do with being paranoid.

I don´t knowm but they decided tp change the album title without changing the artwork,” moans Ozzy.
Released in september ´70, Paranoid soared to the top of the charts in the UK / it climbed to 12 in the US when it was released in ´71, remaining on the chart for close to fie year/. In Britain the single hitNumber Foue, creating a new, unwelcome audience for Sabbath.
“That single attracted screaming kids,”winces Tony. “We saw people dancing when we played it and we decided that we sholudn´t do singles for a long while after that to stay true to the fans who´d like us before we´d become popular.”
From opener, War pigs, to the crunchy Iron man, the wistful Planet caravan and the remarkably titled Fairies wear boots / written after Geezer had received a good kicking by a bunch of skinheads beforthe rest of the band could wade in/, Paranoid established Sabbath as a force to be reckoned with. For the band it also meant the start of a slow descent into hedonism on an unparalleled scale.
“We went madder than before. There were more groupies on the road, more drugs, more booze, more everything. It became decadecence on wheels,”recalls Geezer. Financially too, the band werw kept sweet with the regular delivery whatever they required.
“We found we could buy cars and horses after that,” nods Tony. “We never aske where money was coming from or where the rest was going. We were just enjoying ourselves.”
Along with enjoyement came a sens of ambition wich manifested itself on the band´s third album Master of reality. Again with Bain producing, Sabbath refused to tone things down, serving up some of the heaviest moments of tjeir career.
The phlegm- coughing Sweat leaf opns the histilities extolling what many believe to be the virtues of marijuana. “Actually, the title comes from a packet of Irish cigarettes I´d picked uo callet Sweet afton,” clarifies Geezer. “I didn´t know what ot write the song about and there was this slogan on the sode of the box that mentioned “It´s a sweet leaf, so I just went from there and the song started to work on a totally different level.” Alongside Sweet leaf came the iconoclastic After forever, the scatching Into the void and the pummelling Childre of the grave, the latter marking what Bill terms as “my first ever overdub.”
The band´s dsire to stretch out is showcased in the reflective Solitude, while Tony allows himself a couple of guitar interlues in the form of Embryo and Orchid.
“it was an exporatory album, “ recallls Bill.

“in tol of ways it was also the end of innocence for Sabbath because we had grow into a really tight live band, and now we knew what we were doing in the studion.” Remarkably enough, Ward is of the opinion that despite the significance of the first six classic Sabbath albums, none of them really matched the firepower of the band live.
“I was always disappointed with our albums because of the fact that we were a fucking great live band. I felt we always lost something by trying to record what we did. People would come and see us and try sit on the floor and Ozzy wouldn´t have any that, instead he´d have a fight with them. There were always fights and souffles and you never knew what was going ot happen, but the band was always really, really powerful. You didn´t have that tension on the records.”
While Master of reality allowed the band to elabore on their original sound, it successor, Vol.4, saw them progres even further, aided and abetted by newfound addictions. Relocating to California, the band hired a mansion in Bet Air to rehearse and write the album.
“by the time we got to Bel air we weretotally gone,” admits Tony “it really was a case of vine, women and song, and we were doing more drugs than ever before.”
“ By that point we had a guy who travelled around with us with a suitcase of cocaine, confesses Ozzy. “I´m sure most of it was Johnson´s arse powder, mind you. Anyway, we were just taking stuff trying to pretend that we felt good.”
“By this point we hadn´t stopped working and we were exhausted,” offers Bill. I was getting bad cocaine addiction and I suppse when we decided to try and kick back in a house in LA, things started to sound different behind that wall of cocaine.”
“ we had six millions groupis, booze, coke and heroin- wich we sniffed, we never shot up. We were still enjoying it,but ou could feel everyone changing, confirms Geezer.Whether this state of mind inspired Changes, the most melancholic trac on Vol.4, is anybody quess. The band´s spiralling presonal addictions were nothing that troubled those aroundthem. Just a long as the music kept on coming.
“No one really cared what we did. We never had anyone coming to the studio to see what we were doing, “recalls Ozzy. “ It was a case of total freedom. We even had lock- ins whwre it was just us and a bag of white powder.”
Released in September ´72 Vol.4 was another Sabbath tour- de- force spearheaded by tracks lije Tomorrow´s dream, the gargantuan rifferama of Supernaut/ resplented with Bill Ward´s drum break/ and the tell- tale coke anthem Snowblind. In many respects the album also marked the beginning of the end for the band´s original line- up.
“The album cost around $65,000 to make we´d spent about $ 75,000 on coke. We also managed to wreck the house in Bel air, with Ozzy having waterflights with hose pipes inside the house all the time.

I didn´t realise how nuts we´d gone until I went home and the girl I was with at the time couldn´t recognise me, “ states Geezer, bleakly.
Between ´73 and ´74 the strain of Sabbath was becoming intolerable from inside and outside the band. Mounting management problems had allowed the band to realise that even in their drug- addled state, things were not what they should be. The pressure took its toll on Tony in particular who, after another world tour, discovered he had writerw´block for the first time. Regrouping in LA to carry on where they´d left off with Vol.4, Sabbath were burnt out and on the verge of splitting.
“I panicked and I really thought I´d had it because I didn´t have a single idea about what to write. It might have been drugs, it couldjust have been the pressure , but I felt it was my fault, “states Tony. “I think Tony felt very alone at times, “nods Bill. “There was a lot of responsibility placed on him to start things off, and on Geezer to come up with lyrics too.”
“overall, I think the frustration was just to build up” opines Ozzy.”The vibe in LA was terrible,” adds Geezer. “we agreed to call it a day and go home. We just thought this is how bands split up. When we got home we decided to give it one more try.” As a last ditch effort, Sabbath hired Clearwell castle inWales in a bid to try and write again. What came out was one of Iommi´s greatest rifs of all- time, anchoring the title track of wath became their fifth album Sabbath bloody sabbath.
“The relief was incredible,”recalls Geezer. “We knew that we were back on track and that we could go on after we´d writtem that one song. “while at Clearwell. Tomy maintains that Sabbath were not alone. “We rehearsed in the armoury there and one night O was walking down the corridor with Ozzy and we sae this figure in a black cloak. “ recalls the guitarist. I said Who´s that?” and Ozzy said “ I don´t know”. We followed this figure back into the armoury and there was absolutely no one there. Whoever it was had disappeared into thin air! The people that owned that castle knew all about this ghost and they said “ oh yes, that´s the ghost of so and so. We were like” WHAT??!!”
“We spent the rest of the time trying to frighten each other by rigging up all these devices.In the end we were allpetrified and we hadto drive home every night rather than stay here! That defeated the object of it all.”
Despite being haunted in more ways than one, Sabbathreleased Sabbath bloody sabbath, their most ambitious album to date in November´73. A complex offering which featuredYes keyboard player Rick Wakeman, it againproved to be a mixture of brain and brawn.

The sleeve- by horror film poster artist Drew Struzan- combinated enough elementsto scare parents the world over / a death scene, the number 666, lighting bolt S´s on the title reminiscent of Nazi SS insignia etc./
Song titles like A natioonal acrobat and Spiral architect were more than enough to intrigue fans, musicallyand, above all, lyrically. “A natonal acrobat was just me thinking about who selects what sperm gets throught to the egg,” clarifies Geezer who penned the lyrics. “spirat architect was about life´s experiences being added to a person´s DNA to create a unique individual. I used to get very contemplative on certain substances. I still do, but without those substances.”
While Sabbath bloody sabbath seemed like another triumph, or the band themselves there was little respite fron the endless business torment that now surrounded them involving ol managers and their situation.
“We didn´t have a clue what was going on. That for me was really the end of the band,” states Ozzy.
In effect, the amount of writs flying around was such that it was almost impossible for the band to play live for fear of getting served with a court order on stage- something which actually fappened while the band were touring the US. Despite the unrest, unhappiness and the live exile imposed by legal problems, Sabbath still found the strenght to tour, headlining Ny´s prestigious Madison squaregarden for the first time in July ´75. “Madison square garden and all those big venues are fine,” states Bill. “ But the best gigs Sabbath played were the ones where we were really knackered, where we couldn´t face going on in some small town in Canada or lesser known towns. In thosekind of venues, whet it´s freezing cold, you find out about the strenhgt of your band, and in those situstion Sabbath was a strong band that could kick ass every time.”
Two months after their appearance at the Garden, Sabbath released their sixth album Sabotage. “We had nearly 10 months of legal cases where we couldn´t do anything, and music became irrelevant to me,” offers Geezer. “It was a relief just to write a song.”
I think we even got writs presented to us in the studio!” chuckles Tony.

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.

Refusing to sing the tracks written with Walker, Ozzy and Sabbath headed out to Toronto, where studion time had been booked, having to not only record an album, but write the darn thing at the same time.
“We hired a cinem wich was freezing and we wrote songs there during the day and recorded them at night,” states Tony.”there was so much pressure that something had to give because we had no idea wheter what we were doing was good or bad.”
Such were the time constraints that bill stepped into the breach drawning on his former talent as the singing drummer in The best, and contributing vocals to two tracks, Swinging the chain and his self- penned It´s allright. It wasn´t enough to rescue what is best described as a mixed bag of an album.
“ In the circumstances I thought we did the best we could,” states Bill. “We were taking care of business ourselves, we didn´t have millions from the record company and, despite the booze and Ozzy´s departure we tried to experiment with jazz and stuff the way we had in the early days. Songs llike Johnny Blade and Air dance I still like.”
The final kick in the teeth fot the classic Sabbath line- up came on the European leg of the Never say die tour where the band elected to take new American kids on the block Van Halen outon the road with them. Riding high on the success of their self- titled debut and led by flamboyant frontman David Lee Roth and guitar whiz-kid Eddie Van Halen, Van Halen triumphed very night while Sabbath seemed a shadow of their former sleves.
“It really was the end,” states Geezer. “David Lee Roth ripped off everything that ozzy did and Warner bros did everything for them and we found it hard to keep up.”
“By then we felt we really meant nothing, that everything we´d done meant nothing and that it didn´t matter.” Adds Ozzy, despondently. Tony had already talked about working with American singer Ronnie James Dion / ex- Rainbow/ and informed therest of the band that he felt the future lay with Ronnie. Geezer and Bill were initially less certain, but went along with Tony´s decision. Izzy was officially fried from the band in early ´79 with Geezer threatening to follow him, leaving briefly before returning.
“When Ozzy left,. I cried,”recalls Geeezer. “It was horrible, but I knew he didn´t believe in what we were doinganymore. In a strange way, it was the best thing that could´ve happened then because if we´d made another album with Ozzy it wouldn´t have worked” “when Ozzy left, I felt disillusined,” adds Bill. “I felt lower than rocking horse shit.”
Tony saw things in a different light. “The split with Ozzy felt very final and was very sad, but I saw it as a challenge. I felt we had to come up woth something new which was as goog as what we´d had.” Reflects Iommi. “I f we´d carried on as we were there´s also a very good chance we´d all be dead,”
Ozzy himself csaw the situation as a culmination of four years of frustration. “Everyone knew I´d become frustrated beacause for me the challengehad gone,” he ecplains. “In the early days we took no prisoners.

Therewere were no Rolls royce, no wives, no fucking planes, just the four of us and somewhere we´d got list in the glory of it all.”
While Ozzy recruited young American guitarist Randy Rhoads/ ex- Quiet Riot/, bassist Bob Daisley / ex- Rainbow/ and drummer Lee Kerslake / ex- Uriah Heep/ and completed work on his first solo album, Blizzard of Ozz, the original Sabbath triumvirate of Geezer, Tony and Bill were working on their first album with Dio, Heaven and hell.
For Ozzy it was a case of facing up to prsonal demons. “I didn´t know if I could do it at all on my own,” he admits. “I was scared shitless and I really have to thank my wife Sharon for kicking me out there and telling me I coulf.”
In Sabbath´s case it was a new way of working, Butler and Ward finding that Dio´s presence negating their customary participation in the four- way songwriting process. “Because Ronnie was very talanted it became very clear that the role that Geezer and I had occupied was no longer the same at all,” states Bill. During the latter period of the recording of Heaven and hell, Ward also found himself subject to a customary practical joke.
“billy walked into the studion one day and I said to him “Can I set you on fire?”. He said” Not now, I´m busy,” laughs Tony. “before he left he came back and he said” You can do it now” so I poured all this lighter fuel on him and lit a match. He went up in flames and we thought it was hilarious, until we realised he was screaming.” “They´d done that before and usually I put the flames out pretty quickly. This time though, I was pissed and the fuel went throught my cloths because I reacted so slowly. I ended up in hospital with my leg badly burnt. I remember my mum calling Tony and telling him off. “
“The weird thing was that I´d got used to that kind of bihaviour. You do after a while, it´s like the debagging.” Shrugs the drummer. “My arse has been seen by millions of people around the world. In the end you get used to it and you giv up.”
Tomfoolery aside, Sabbath managed to beat Ozzy to the punch, releasing “Heaven and Hell” in may ´80, hitting number nine in the UK / 28 in the US/. A polished effort with quality tunes like Neon knights, Children of the sea, and the title track itself, the album was well received. Except by Ozzy.”I was hurt. It was like finding your wife´sgot a new boufrind.” explains Ozzy,reflecting on the post- Osbourne Sabbath. “I became obsessed with and it became a case of me versus them with us saying some awful things but never quite meaning them.”
When Ozzy released Blizzard…in september he went one better that Sabbath´s album, hitting number seven in the UK and peaking at 21 in the US. “It was weird when I heard that album because I was gla he´d done it,” confesses Geezer. “He was in such a state, we all were, and no one thought he could do it, but he did. It was hard to say that at the time.”
Ironically, an unofficial live Sabbath album, Live at last, wich was recorded in ´73 on the Vol.

4 tour and was released by the band´s manager Patrick Meehan outdid both new albums, entering the UK charts at number five. Strangely anough it illustred the appeal of the original Black Sabbath line- up wich had fragmented under the enormous pressures of the business and addiction. For the nest 17 years, the legacy of the original band was to lay heavy on the shoulders of all founding band members.
Throughout the ´80s Ozzy charted a hugely successful solo career, releasing six more studio albums well into the ´90s – Diary of a madman, Bark at the moon, The ultimate sin, No rest for the wicked, No more tears and Ozzmosis- all of wich have dented the US top 10 in a remarkable display of consistency. Assorted live albums and last year´s best of, The OZZman cometh brinf the total of Ozzy´s solo albums up to 11.
Ozzy´s larger thanlife image has been enhaced by numerous madcap antics on and of f stage that even the man retells in an almost incredulous manner. And yet Ozzy´s undoubted triumph is tained by the tragedy that followed the release of Diary…..when, while touring the States, guitarist Randy Rhoads was killed in a plane crash on 19 March 1992.
“It ś somethig I don´t think I´ ll ever get over, comments Ozzy. “I still think about Randy all the time and I miss him.”
For Tony Iommi, it´s been a case of keeping the Sabbath name and flag flaying, releasing 10 albums: Mob rules, Live evil, Born again/ possibly the band´s most ill- fated set, featuring Deep purple´s Ian Gillan on vocals/ , Seventh star, Ethe eternal idol, Headless cross, TYR, dehumanizer, Cross purposes, Forbidden. It´s fait to say that Tony has taken the rough witch the smooth, being harshly criticed at times while remaining the guitarist that continues to inspire everyone from Pantera´s Dimebag Darrell, to Smashing pumpknis´Bill Corgan.
“At times I´ve got it wrong in the past few years, but I think there are a lot of really good albums like Etarnal idol and Headless cross that I´m very proud of and that I really enjoyed making,” states Tony.
Despite appearing as the go- between, due to his involvment with both Sabbath and Ozzy at irregular intervals over the past 15 years, Geezer Butler´s forward- lookig vision is best encapsulated on the albums recorded in the late ´90s with his own band G/Z/R. The band´s debut Plastic planet and its successor, Black science, are cyber-riffic slices of industrion- metal.

With a third album currently being written by Butler and guitarist Pedro Howse, Geezer appears hungrier and more certain of his own talents than at any point in the ´80s when he admits he was busy “getting sober and dealing with the end of Sabbath..”
Bill Ward too has managed to conquer his addictions, leaving Sabbath after Heaven and Hell and finding his own peace of mind while living in California.
In ´89 released his debut album Ward one- Along the way on the Chameleon label wich featured quest appearances fron Ozzy. And Cream man Jack Bruce amoung others, and showcases the man´s considerable vocal and composing talent. Since then he´s recorded a follow- up, When the bourh breaks, wich was released on his on humungous shine company and wich is currently set to receive a worldwide release. Over the years Ward – like Butler- has attempted to rejoin Sabbath, notably during the recording of the Born again album. “I´ve tried being in the band a few times but I´ve realised over the years that I can´t be in Black Sabbath without Ozzy, “ admits Bill. “The four of us are the band. When I was on the Heaven and Hell tour with Ronnie in the band we used to do the song Black Sabbath and it felt wrong to me , it was terrible and that´s why I dropped out.”
Ozzy himselfis equally outspoken about the situation. “A lot of people have played classic Sabbath stuff- including me!” he laughs. “But there´s really only four people that can get it to sound right and that´s the line- up that includes Tony, Geezer, Bill and Ozzy. When one of us is missing it doesn´t sound right.” If this realisation has taken nearly 20 years to sink in, it also explains how the original line- up have managed to overcome their differences. “
“It ´s like a familly, “ offers Tony. “You get on well sometimes and other times you don´t , but every time we´ve seen each other over the years there hasn´t been any bad vibs, despite what people might think.”.

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