The Complete History of Black Sabbath

319 Pages·2016·69.35 MB·English

by  Joel McIver

CONTENTS
FOREWORD
BY ROBB FLYNN OF MACHINE HEAD
INTRODUCTION
1 WHAT EVIL LURKS 1948-1969
2 HEAVY METAL’S YEAR ZERO 1970
3 SNOWBLIND 1971-1978
4 HELL’S MADMEN 1979-1981
5 REBIRTH AND DEATH 1982-1983
6 SEVENTH SONS 1984-1990
7 CALM BEFORE THE STORM 1991-1996
Mad Sabbath
8 THE RETURN 1996-2005
9 LUCKY NUMBERS 2006-2016
Black Sabbath Lineups
Discography
Photo Credits
Index
Acknowledgments
About the Author
FOREWORD
BY ROBB FLYNN
It all started with a lyric.
“Make a joke and I will sigh, and you will laugh and I will cry / Happiness I
cannot feel and love to me is so unreal.”
It hit me like a ton of bricks. I’d never heard anything so depressing and dark
in music. Up until then, music was uplifting, for the most part. If it was dark, it
was usually “My baby left me,” but this…? Wow. I related to it in a way I
cannot quite put into words.
It certainly didn’t hurt that I was stoned out of my mind for the first time in
my life. Having cut school with some buddies to smoke weed and listen to
records, I wasn’t prepared for the music my buddy Elvis—yes, that was his real
name—played. As I sat there staring at the inner gatefold of We Sold Our Souls
for Rock ‘n’ Roll, gazing at the empty-eyed girl lying in a coffin with a chrome
cross lying across her breast, I didn’t know what the hell to think of this Black
Sabbath band, but it scared the shit out of me—and I convinced myself that I
would burn in hell for the rest of my life if I continued to listen to it.
Then my friend played “Iron Man”—and that was it.
“Turn it off!” I blurted. “This is freaking me out!”
Black Sabbath scared me so much I didn’t want to listen to it any more.
Three days later, we cut school again. Elvis raided his dad’s weed stash again,
and we got high as kites—but this time, I had to hear Black Sabbath again. In
those three days I could not get that lyric out of my head, or the ridiculously
catchy song that the lyric came from.
Robb Flynn of Machine Head plays at Lucky Strike Live on January 22, 2016, in Hollywood, California.
“Dude, put on that Black Sabbath again,” I said.
This time, I was mesmerized. Evil, sinister, otherworldly, and impossibly
heavy—I had never heard music like it. It blew me away, and from that point on
I jumped headfirst down the rabbit hole.
I went about collecting every Sabbath album I could find. I searched out the
rare US version with “Evil Woman” on it, and the semi-official bootleg Live at
Last, where Ozzy fucked up most of the lyrics, but who cared! By the time I got
to Master of Reality, that was it. They had me… forever. Songs about evil
women, weed, mushrooms, cocaine, Satan, war, wanting to see the Pope at the
end of a rope—I couldn’t get enough.
Much is made about the satanic aspect of Black Sabbath, and I loved that side
of them, but for me I was always struck by the protest/“fuck you” side of the
band. An antiwar song like “War Pigs,” written at the height of the Vietnam
War, at a time when very serious repercussions could come to you for saying
such things, was inspirational to me. Then there was “Hand of Doom,” with its
warning about heroin use, the questioning of authority, of religion, of the status
quo… these guys became heroes to me. Hell, a teenage Robb Flynn even wrote
them a letter imploring them to get back together and play my town—and if they
did, I would proudly display a sign asking them to play “Sweet Leaf.”
I’ve been fortunate enough to tour with Black Sabbath twice, and they were
the real deal. Terrifyingly heavy, beautiful, magical, Sabbath are and always will
be the greatest band of all time.
ROBB FLYNN, MACHINE HEAD
2016
INTRODUCTION
Black Sabbath, in any of its incarnations across its forty-seven-year career
to date, is a force of nature. Inventing heavy metal and doom metal at a stroke,
thrilling the wise with epic fantasy lyrics, and scaring the weak-witted with
Satanic flirtations, Sabbath has done it all. That includes every high (commercial
and substance-derived), low, and plateau imaginable, including periods of total
unfashionability and others of godlike regard.
I’m glad to say that as the careers of the current lineup—which is to say singer
Ozzy Osbourne, guitarist Tony Iommi, and bassist Geezer Butler (drummer Bill
Ward is neither in nor out of the band as we speak)—draw to a close, Sabbath
has never been more popular. The band’s final studio album, 13, was a global
hit, and the immense farewell tour that concluded in 2016 was a true colossus.
Telling this band’s story has been a privilege for me.
Photographs of (from left) Ozzy Osbourne, Bill Ward, Tony Iommi, and Geezer Butler from 1970.
I’ve been talking to musicians for almost twenty years, and musos of the rock
and metal persuasion tend to like Black Sabbath’s music, so I’ve had no shortage
of material to draw on. Interviews personally conducted by me over the last few
years include chats with Ozzy, Tony, Geezer, and Bill themselves, plus
sometime Sabbath alumni Glenn Hughes, Ian Gillan, Ronnie James Dio, Bob
Daisley, Dave Spitz, and Tony Martin. Sabbath’s first manager, Jim Simpson,
provided plenty of illuminating insights, too.
Other musical luminaries who shared their opinions about Sabbath with me
include Ritchie Blackmore, Bobby Rondinelli, Leo Lyons (Ten Years After),
Tom Araya and Kerry King (Slayer), John Lydon, Ian “Lemmy” Kilmister, King
Diamond, Nikki Sixx (Mötley Crüe), Bill Gould (Faith No More), Yngwie J.
Malmsteen, Dave Mustaine (Megadeth), Geddy Lee (Rush), Zakk Wylde (Black
Label Society), Paul Allender (Cradle of Filth), the late “Dimebag” Darrell
Abbott (Pantera/Damageplan), Ice-T, Joey Jordison and Mick Thomson
(Slipknot), Bobby Ellsworth (Overkill), Jeff Becerra (Possessed), Conrad Lant
and Jeff Dunn (Venom), John Bush (Armored Saint, Anthrax), Katon W.
DePena (Hirax), Mikael Akerfeldt (Opeth), Phil Fasciana (Malevolent Creation),
Sean Harris (Diamond Head), and Rob Halford (Judas Priest). Quite a stellar
gathering, I’m sure you’ll agree. These people give a truly widescreen
perspective to the whole Sabbath story—and one that this most august of metal
bands deserves.
This book accompanies Black Sabbath’s farewell with a look back at a frankly
insane career. Cheers to Ozzy, Tony, Geezer, and Bill: you really couldn’t make
this story up.
JOEL McIVER
Black Sabbath photographed in a giant shell in Long Beach in September, 1975.