Latest / Booked On Rock with Eric Senich / [HIGHLIGHT] Black Sabbath After Ozzy: Did Dio Save the Band? - From EP 384

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[HIGHLIGHT] Black Sabbath After Ozzy: Did Dio Save the Band? - From EP 384 · Booked On Rock with Eric Senich

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Here's a clip from our latest episode of book Don
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Rock Chris Sutton. He's back this time. He has got
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: a brand new book called Black Sabbath. The Deal Years,
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Every album, every song part of Sonic Bond's On Track series. Chris,
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: when did you discover Ronnie James Dio that era of
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Black Sabbath and how did you feel about it in
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: terms of him being a replacement for Asi.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: I don't know what it was like in the USA,
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: maybe slightly different, but over in England, I've been into
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: rock music for some time. I got into Black Sabbath
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: around the time of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath or was seventy three,
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: and then Rainbow popped up after Deep Purple, and that's
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: where we first most of us knew about Ronnie James
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: Dio was because he was Rainbow's vocalist, and those first
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: three studio albums and live album with Rainbow were extremely
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: well received in the UK and Europe.
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: I'm not sure how much they went down.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: In America, but I mean people really embraced Ronnie James
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: Dio is a great rock and roll singer, so we
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: knew his quality and it was an enormous shock when
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: you left Rainbow. I mean, I couldn't understand that. I
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: know what the reasons were that Blackmore wanted to do
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: better in America, more commercial, the sort of foreigner route.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: I guess you might say journey, you know, that kind
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: of vibe. But Dio, to me and a lot of people,
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: was as important in Rainbow as Blackmore. I really think that.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: And I think that becomes quite evident when you listen
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: to Heaven and Hell. You can really see what Doo's
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: input was in Rainbow because he brings it with him
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: into the first album Heaven and Hell, and you get
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: this colossal amount of Deo jammed in with Iomi and
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: Butler and Ward and the other thing to bear in mind,
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: I think is is that nineteen eighty year, seventeen nine,
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: eighty eighty one, there was a big sea change in
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: classic rock bands, particularly where you clearly see them sitting
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: down and going or hang on. The decades changed. It's
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: a new decade. So some of them start wearing suits
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: to get different Hairdooes changed the band members. You can
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: see this all across the board in so many bands.
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: You know, some like Zzy Top Go Stratospheric, Yes, change
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: direction completely, Rush start wearing suits and so on. And
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: with Sabbath, unfortunately, the big thing is the change of vocalist.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: Is there a change that they make for that era,
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  Speaker 2: which is Ronnie James di O coming on board. So
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: in Britain, I certainly, much as I loved Donsie and
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: I couldn't understand why they didn't take time off, but
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: bands just weren't allowed to take time off. Ronnie James
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: Dio looked like for me an incredible alternative to bring
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: in for a different direction. Now, whether the band name
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: should have stayed the same as a moot point, isn't it. Eric,
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  Speaker 2: You know a lot of people think it should have
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: been a new band name, and I think Tony Iomi
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: and Geezer Butler would certainly have agreed with that that.
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: It's not Sabbath as such. Sabbath was the four.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: Guys from Aston from Birmingham. But record company politics are
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: going to dictate that that brand, Sabbath brand is worth
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: preserving over any solo band name.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: And in the book you detail that burnout that was
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: happening with Sabbath before Ozie left. Do you think the
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: band would have survived if Deo hadn't entered the picture
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: when he did.
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: As far as I can tell, a lot of it's
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: about money. That they owed money to the record company.
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: The record company, we're putting money into making an album
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: that wasn't happening. That's the amount of pressure that they
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: are under, as well as the burnout of the band themselves.
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: You put those two together.
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: Nobody's turning around saying, here, guys, have a six month
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: holiday and we'll come back. You go off to health
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: farms or whatever it is. You know, let's see where
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: we're at. That option is just not there. That the
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: worry is to make an album, and Ozzie seems to
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: have been in the worst position apparently to actually make
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: the album, whereas Dio is still hungry to maintain the
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: success that he probably felt that just maybe come and gone.
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: Perhaps.
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  Speaker 2: And of course he's quite an older person, which we
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: didn't know at the time. He's quite he'd been singing
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: since about nineteen fifty eight on records, you know something
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: like that.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: That's amazing. How old was he at that time in
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: seventy nine and eighty.
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: He was thirty something check it.
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: I'm not sure, but he wasn't in his twenties, So
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: he's not like a whipper snapper, if you like. He's
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: somebody who's been there and been around. He was an
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: older person.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: Interesting. Yeah, the comparison to the Van Hilen story where
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: Sammy was late thirties when he joined Van Hilen. Similar
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: Here he got a guy who's been around. One fascinating
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: part of the story is how close Sabbath came to
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: falling apart entirely by seventy nine. Was there a point
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: where Tony Iaomi seriously considered ending the band?
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I believe so.
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: I think Tony could see that Geezer was having problems,
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: personal problems and was on the edge of leaving, which
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: he did for a while. Billboard was struggling with his
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: personal problems at the time. It's alleged that Tony had
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: some issues goinging on as well at the time.
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: So a solo album would.
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: Have looked like maybe an easier route, and you've certainly
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: energized by Ronnie James Dio, there's no doubt about that.
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: I think at some point you would have you would
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: have preferred to have made a solo album or an
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: Iomi Dio album, which would have looked more on the cards,
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: but the record company would have had none of that
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: at all, and that happens later on as well with
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: Seventh Star, the other eighties album that's you know, the
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: one which features Tony Iomi. It's a Black Sabbath feature
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: in Tony Iami. So there again you can see the
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: record company politics saying, yeah, we'll hear what you're saying, Tony,
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: but it's a Black Sabath album.
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  Speaker 1: Listen to the full episode wherever you get your podcasts.