With Ozzy back, Black Sabbath rages on
Globe Correspondent
August 08, 2013
The question posed on the first track of the new Black Sabbath album
“13” — “Is it the end of the beginning or the beginning of the end?” —
seems far less existential after speaking with the band’s guitarist Tony
Iommi.
“I’m with the people who I started with. And now we’re finishing it where it started,” Iommi says. “It feels comfortable.”
Iommi, reached by phone earlier this month during a tour stop in Palm Beach, Fla., says “it’s a shame” that drummer Bill Ward isn’t part of this reunion of the original Black Sabbath lineup, but that being together with singer Ozzy Osbourne and bassist Geezer Butler has surpassed expectations, both his and everyone else’s, as the band is awash in commercial success and critical acclaim.
Iommi didn’t put any finality to Black Sabbath, but all of the principals are in their mid-60s and the guitarist has been battling cancer throughout this reunion.
“There have been great lineups that I enjoyed. The albums I made with Dio, I really enjoyed that,” Iommi says. “But this is great to be back with Ozzy.”
And fans agree, making “13” Black Sabbath’s first chart-topping record in the US. The band released “13” in June and will be featuring tracks from this first full-fledged outing with Osbourne in 35 years alongside such classic cuts as “War Pigs,” “Iron Man,” and “Paranoid” when Black Sabbath performs Monday at the Comcast Center in Mansfield.
Black Sabbath fired Osbourne in 1979 after the band’s tour behind the “Never Say Die!” record released the previous year. The original lineup regrouped for a couple of one-offs before a full reunion tour in 1997. Though the original lineup mounted additional reunion jaunts, it could not pull together new material, save for two studio tracks tacked onto the “Reunion” concert album. By 2002, Osbourne was off and running with his hit reality TV show. In 2006, Iommi and Butler resumed work with Dio, Osbourne’s original replacement in Black Sabbath, and that partnership flourished until the singer’s death in 2010.
Iommi, Osbourne, and Butler — along with drummer Tommy Clufetos filling in for Ward, who could not come to business terms with his band mates — raised the Black Sabbath banner last year for a few shows which preceded an announcement that the band was working on a new album with producer Rick Rubin.
Iommi credits Rubin for having Black Sabbath return to the sound of its early groundbreaking albums, records that are considered the cornerstones of heavy metal yet infused with jazz and blues influences.
“Rick asked us to wipe out the last 40 years,” Iommi says. “He said approach this like it was the second Black Sabbath album. It was difficult at first.”
Not only did Rubin guide the band back to its roots, the producer also convinced Black Sabbath to use Rage Against the Machine drummer Brad Wilk for the sessions (though Clufetos from Osbourne’s solo band is back in the fold for the tour).
“We tried various drummers, but they were not right for what we wanted,” Iommi says. “[Wilk] was nervous when we first met him. He had never played with us, and Rage Against the Machine is quite different. But after playing with us for a few days, he fit right in.”
Connecting with younger metal heads and heavy-music fans does not seem to be a problem for Black Sabbath. At a recent Heavy Metal Thursday, the weekly multi-band showcase held at Ralph’s Diner in Worcester, musicians and mavens there alike bowed down at the Sabbath altar.
“They started all the dark imagery and doom tunes. You had Led Zeppelin and Blue Cheer maybe playing a similar style back then, but they didn’t take in the whole imagery and dark, evil lyrics,” says Faces of Bayon guitarist Matt Smith.
Wren Leader, a booster of the Mass. metal scene, credits Iommi in particular for being the architect of that recognizable sound.
“It’s simple, but it’s not simple,” says Leader, singing Iommi’s chugging riff from 1971’s “Into the Void.” “You hear that all over the place.”
For a band that has written so much about impending doom, Black Sabbath certainly knows how to gracefully capture what is important to its members. Iommi was diagnosed with lymphoma in 2012, and says that making the new Black Sabbath album took on a sense of urgency. The sessions also proved to be therapeutic.
“It pushed me to be creative and took my mind off of what I was going through,” Iommi says. “It helped to have the band there, just laughing and joking.”
All through the recording and touring, Black Sabbath has worked around Iommi's ongoing treatment.
Iommi says that he expected the new album to do well commercially, figuring there would be a curiosity factor for what a new Sabbath album with Ozzy would sound like. But he did not expect it to be a top seller around the world.
“Getting a successful album was a great boost and a bonus,” Iommi says. “We just made a record that felt right for us.”
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| Iommi, Osbourne, Butler--We three kings |
“I’m with the people who I started with. And now we’re finishing it where it started,” Iommi says. “It feels comfortable.”
Iommi, reached by phone earlier this month during a tour stop in Palm Beach, Fla., says “it’s a shame” that drummer Bill Ward isn’t part of this reunion of the original Black Sabbath lineup, but that being together with singer Ozzy Osbourne and bassist Geezer Butler has surpassed expectations, both his and everyone else’s, as the band is awash in commercial success and critical acclaim.
Iommi didn’t put any finality to Black Sabbath, but all of the principals are in their mid-60s and the guitarist has been battling cancer throughout this reunion.
Black Sabbath formed in 1968, and Iommi is the only
member to be part of every lineup, as the original quartet crumbled with
Osbourne’s departure in 1979. In the ensuing years, Butler and Ward
would also flit in and out of Black Sabbath as Iommi soldiered on,
sometimes triumphantly as he did with singer Ronnie James Dio, sometimes
erratically with a revolving cast of singers ranging from Tony Martin
to Ian Gillan.
“There have been great lineups that I enjoyed. The albums I made with Dio, I really enjoyed that,” Iommi says. “But this is great to be back with Ozzy.”
And fans agree, making “13” Black Sabbath’s first chart-topping record in the US. The band released “13” in June and will be featuring tracks from this first full-fledged outing with Osbourne in 35 years alongside such classic cuts as “War Pigs,” “Iron Man,” and “Paranoid” when Black Sabbath performs Monday at the Comcast Center in Mansfield.
Black Sabbath fired Osbourne in 1979 after the band’s tour behind the “Never Say Die!” record released the previous year. The original lineup regrouped for a couple of one-offs before a full reunion tour in 1997. Though the original lineup mounted additional reunion jaunts, it could not pull together new material, save for two studio tracks tacked onto the “Reunion” concert album. By 2002, Osbourne was off and running with his hit reality TV show. In 2006, Iommi and Butler resumed work with Dio, Osbourne’s original replacement in Black Sabbath, and that partnership flourished until the singer’s death in 2010.
Iommi, Osbourne, and Butler — along with drummer Tommy Clufetos filling in for Ward, who could not come to business terms with his band mates — raised the Black Sabbath banner last year for a few shows which preceded an announcement that the band was working on a new album with producer Rick Rubin.
Iommi credits Rubin for having Black Sabbath return to the sound of its early groundbreaking albums, records that are considered the cornerstones of heavy metal yet infused with jazz and blues influences.
“Rick asked us to wipe out the last 40 years,” Iommi says. “He said approach this like it was the second Black Sabbath album. It was difficult at first.”
Not only did Rubin guide the band back to its roots, the producer also convinced Black Sabbath to use Rage Against the Machine drummer Brad Wilk for the sessions (though Clufetos from Osbourne’s solo band is back in the fold for the tour).
“We tried various drummers, but they were not right for what we wanted,” Iommi says. “[Wilk] was nervous when we first met him. He had never played with us, and Rage Against the Machine is quite different. But after playing with us for a few days, he fit right in.”
Connecting with younger metal heads and heavy-music fans does not seem to be a problem for Black Sabbath. At a recent Heavy Metal Thursday, the weekly multi-band showcase held at Ralph’s Diner in Worcester, musicians and mavens there alike bowed down at the Sabbath altar.
“They started all the dark imagery and doom tunes. You had Led Zeppelin and Blue Cheer maybe playing a similar style back then, but they didn’t take in the whole imagery and dark, evil lyrics,” says Faces of Bayon guitarist Matt Smith.
Wren Leader, a booster of the Mass. metal scene, credits Iommi in particular for being the architect of that recognizable sound.
“It’s simple, but it’s not simple,” says Leader, singing Iommi’s chugging riff from 1971’s “Into the Void.” “You hear that all over the place.”
For a band that has written so much about impending doom, Black Sabbath certainly knows how to gracefully capture what is important to its members. Iommi was diagnosed with lymphoma in 2012, and says that making the new Black Sabbath album took on a sense of urgency. The sessions also proved to be therapeutic.
“It pushed me to be creative and took my mind off of what I was going through,” Iommi says. “It helped to have the band there, just laughing and joking.”
All through the recording and touring, Black Sabbath has worked around Iommi's ongoing treatment.
Iommi says that he expected the new album to do well commercially, figuring there would be a curiosity factor for what a new Sabbath album with Ozzy would sound like. But he did not expect it to be a top seller around the world.
“Getting a successful album was a great boost and a bonus,” Iommi says. “We just made a record that felt right for us.”
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