Latest / Booked On Rock with Eric Senich / [EP 384] Black Sabbath’s Dio Era: The Albums, Songs & Legacy with Chris Sutton
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Says, I mean, he's utterly triumphant, majestic on there. He
- 0:03Speaker 1: gives this astonishing performance. He absolutely realizes what a chance
- 0:08Speaker 1: he's got to carry on in the big time, and
- 0:10Speaker 1: he just takes it, absolutely takes it and runs off
- 0:13Speaker 1: with him. I can't think of anybody else they could
- 0:15Speaker 1: have worked with. It could have inspired them to produce
- 0:18Speaker 1: anything as good as this. We're totally bombed rock and roll.
- 0:23Speaker 1: I mean, I leave you, you're reading Little Hands as
- 0:25Speaker 1: it's time to rock and roll. I totally booked.
- 0:34Speaker 2: Welcome back to Book on Rock and Eric Sanitch. This
- 0:36Speaker 2: is the podcast for those about to read and rock.
- 0:39Speaker 2: If you'd like to support the podcast get episodes commercial free.
- 0:43Speaker 2: You can do so by signing up for the backstage
- 0:45Speaker 2: Pass from Patreon. It just five dollars a month. The
- 0:47Speaker 2: link is in the show notes. Or he can do
- 0:48Speaker 2: what A booked on rock dot Com. All right, our guest,
- 0:51Speaker 2: our returning guest Chris Sutton. He's back this time. He
- 0:54Speaker 2: has got a brand new book with all the insight
- 0:58Speaker 2: on Black Sabbath thedo Years. The book is called Black
- 1:01Speaker 2: Sabbath the dal Years. Every album, every song part of
- 1:04Speaker 2: Sonic Bond's on track series. Chris. Always great to see you.
- 1:08Speaker 1: How you doing, man, I'm doing great. Eric. It's every
- 1:11Speaker 1: time I finish a book, the thing I look forward
- 1:13Speaker 1: to is chatting to you because we always seem to
- 1:16Speaker 1: really get to the real bones of what the book's about,
- 1:19Speaker 1: don't we. And it's always such great fun to talk
- 1:21Speaker 1: to you.
- 1:21Speaker 2: Eric. Yes, I have to reserve, like this will be
- 1:24Speaker 2: the first interview you do for each book. Yeah, We've
- 1:27Speaker 2: always had so much fun. I mean this is probably
- 1:28Speaker 2: fifth sixth book. I think we've covered from here.
- 1:31Speaker 1: I think it's seven seven.
- 1:33Speaker 2: We did the Chic was the last one.
- 1:36Speaker 1: You've done Alice Cooper twice yep Ic DC, we did
- 1:42Speaker 1: who else in my Sparks we did?
- 1:45Speaker 2: We did Sparks, Yes, which got great response. Those types
- 1:49Speaker 2: of bands, those I love to do those types of
- 1:51Speaker 2: books because sometimes here in the States, certain bands may
- 1:55Speaker 2: not have the following here that they do in other
- 1:57Speaker 2: parts of the world. And then you realize with the comets,
- 2:00Speaker 2: you know, like we I just did an episode with
- 2:01Speaker 2: Stephen Lamb of Sonic Bond, who did a book on focus,
- 2:06Speaker 2: you know, and you get some responses that you realize
- 2:09Speaker 2: that there are fans out there. You know for bands
- 2:12Speaker 2: that are die hard, so obviously this is a band
- 2:14Speaker 2: that everybody knows about if you're a fan of Rocket
- 2:17Speaker 2: Roll and who doesn't know Ozzy Osbourne, which leads to
- 2:21Speaker 2: the interesting story here is how could you replace somebody
- 2:23Speaker 2: like Ozzy Osbourne? Well, Black Sabbath did and they did
- 2:27Speaker 2: so very well. And there's a lot been said and
- 2:30Speaker 2: written about Sabbath with Ozzi for obvious reasons, but it's
- 2:33Speaker 2: great to see the do years get some of the spotlight.
- 2:36Speaker 2: When did you discover Ronnie James Dio that era of
- 2:40Speaker 2: Black Sabbath and how did you feel about it in
- 2:41Speaker 2: terms of him being a replacement for Ozzie.
- 2:44Speaker 1: I don't know what he was like in the USA,
- 2:46Speaker 1: maybe slightly different, but over in England. I've been into
- 2:50Speaker 1: rock music for some time. I got into Black Sabbath
- 2:53Speaker 1: around the time of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath or was seventy three,
- 2:58Speaker 1: and then Rainbow popped up to Deep Purple and that's
- 3:01Speaker 1: where we first most of us knew about Ronnie James
- 3:04Speaker 1: Dio was because he was Rainbow's vocalist and those first
- 3:08Speaker 1: three studio albums and live album with Rainbow were extremely
- 3:12Speaker 1: well received in the UK and Europe. I'm not sure
- 3:15Speaker 1: how much they went down in America, but I mean
- 3:18Speaker 1: people really embraced Ronnie. James. Dio is a great rock
- 3:21Speaker 1: and roll singer, so we knew his quality, and it
- 3:25Speaker 1: was an enormous shock when he left Rainbow. I mean,
- 3:28Speaker 1: I couldn't understand that. I know what the reasons were
- 3:31Speaker 1: that Blackmore wanted to do better in America, more commercial,
- 3:35Speaker 1: the sort of the foreigner route. I guess you might
- 3:37Speaker 1: say journey, you know, that kind of vibe. But Doo,
- 3:42Speaker 1: to me and a lot of people, was as important
- 3:45Speaker 1: in Rainbow as Blackmore. I really think that. And I
- 3:48Speaker 1: think that becomes quite evident when you listen to Heaven
- 3:51Speaker 1: and Hell. You can really see what Doo's input was
- 3:54Speaker 1: in Rainbow because he brings it with him into the
- 3:57Speaker 1: first album Heaven and Hell, and you get this colossal
- 4:00Speaker 1: amount of Doo jammed in with Iomi and Butler and
- 4:03Speaker 1: Ward and the other thing to bear in mind, I
- 4:06Speaker 1: think is is that nineteen eighty year seventeen nine, eighty
- 4:10Speaker 1: eighty one, there was a big sea change in classic
- 4:13Speaker 1: rock bands, particularly where you clearly see them sitting down
- 4:15Speaker 1: and going or hang on the decades changed, it's a
- 4:20Speaker 1: new decade. So some of them start wearing suits to
- 4:22Speaker 1: get different hairdooes, change the band members. You can see
- 4:25Speaker 1: this all across the board in so many bands. You know,
- 4:29Speaker 1: some like Zzy topgot stratospheric, Yes, change direction completely, Rush
- 4:34Speaker 1: start wearing suits and so on. And with Sabbath, unfortunately,
- 4:38Speaker 1: the big thing is the change of vocalists. Is there
- 4:44Speaker 1: change that they make for that era, which is Ronnie
- 4:47Speaker 1: James dio coming on board. So in Britain, I certainly,
- 4:50Speaker 1: much as I loved Donzie and I couldn't understand why
- 4:54Speaker 1: they didn't take time off, but bands just weren't allowed
- 4:56Speaker 1: to take time off. Ronnie James like for me an
- 5:02Speaker 1: incredible alternative to bring in for a different direction. Now,
- 5:06Speaker 1: whether the band name should have stayed the same as
- 5:08Speaker 1: a moot point, isn't it, Eric, You know a lot
- 5:11Speaker 1: of people think it should have been a new band name,
- 5:13Speaker 1: and I think Tony Iomi and Geezer Butler would certainly
- 5:16Speaker 1: have agreed with that that it's not Sabbath as such.
- 5:21Speaker 1: Sabbath was the four guys from Aston from Birmingham. But
- 5:25Speaker 1: record company politics are going to dictate that that brand,
- 5:29Speaker 1: Sabbath brand is worth preserving over any solo band name.
- 5:32Speaker 2: And in the book you detail that burnout that was
- 5:35Speaker 2: happening with Sabbath before Eysie left. Do you think the
- 5:37Speaker 2: band would have survived if Deo hadn't entered the picture
- 5:40Speaker 2: when he did. I.
- 5:41Speaker 1: As far as I can tell, a lot of it's
- 5:44Speaker 1: about money. That they owed money to the record company.
- 5:47Speaker 1: The record company were putting money into making an album
- 5:50Speaker 1: that wasn't happening. That's the amount of pressure that they
- 5:53Speaker 1: are under, as well as the burnout of the band themselves.
- 5:56Speaker 1: You put those two together. Nobody's turning around saying, here,
- 6:00Speaker 1: have a six month holiday and we'll come back, you know,
- 6:03Speaker 1: go off to health farms or whatever it is. You know,
- 6:06Speaker 1: let's see where we're at. That option is just not there.
- 6:08Speaker 1: That the worry is to make an album, and Ozzie
- 6:12Speaker 1: seems to have been in the worst position apparently to
- 6:16Speaker 1: actually make the album, whereas Dio is still hungry to
- 6:20Speaker 1: maintain the success that he probably felt that just maybe
- 6:23Speaker 1: come and gone. Perhaps, And of course he's quite an
- 6:26Speaker 1: older person, which we didn't know at the time. He's
- 6:29Speaker 1: quite a he've been singing since about nineteen fifty eight
- 6:31Speaker 1: on records, you know something like that.
- 6:34Speaker 2: That's amazing. How old was he at that time in
- 6:36Speaker 2: seventy nine eighty.
- 6:38Speaker 1: He was thirty something check it. I'm not sure, but
- 6:40Speaker 1: he wasn't in his twenties. So he's not like a
- 6:43Speaker 1: whipper snapper, if you like. He's somebody who's been there
- 6:45Speaker 1: and been around. He was an older person.
- 6:48Speaker 2: Interesting. Yeah, the comparison to the Van Heilen story where
- 6:51Speaker 2: Sammy was late thirties when he joined Van Helen. Similar
- 6:55Speaker 2: here he got a guy who's been around. One fascinating
- 6:58Speaker 2: part of the story is how close Sabbath came to
- 7:01Speaker 2: falling apart entirely by seventy nine. Was there a point
- 7:04Speaker 2: where Tony Iomi seriously considered ending the band?
- 7:07Speaker 1: Yeah, I believe so. I think Tony could see that
- 7:10Speaker 1: Geezer was having problems, personal problems and was on the
- 7:14Speaker 1: edge of leaving, which he did for a while. Billboard
- 7:17Speaker 1: was struggling with his personal problems at the time. It's
- 7:21Speaker 1: alleged that Tony had some issues going on as well
- 7:25Speaker 1: at the time, So a solo album would have looked
- 7:29Speaker 1: like maybe an easier route. And you've certainly energized by
- 7:34Speaker 1: Ronnie James Dio, There's no doubt about that. I think
- 7:38Speaker 1: at some point you would have he would have preferred
- 7:40Speaker 1: to have made a solo album or an Iomi Dio album,
- 7:45Speaker 1: which would have looked more on the cards, but the
- 7:47Speaker 1: record company would have had none of that at all.
- 7:49Speaker 1: And that happens later on as well with Seventh Star,
- 7:53Speaker 1: the other eighties album that's you know, the one which
- 7:55Speaker 1: features Tony Iomi's Black Sabbath featuring Tony Iami. So there
- 8:00Speaker 1: you can see the record company politics saying, yeah, we
- 8:03Speaker 1: hear what you're saying, Tony, but it's a Black Sabbath
- 8:05Speaker 1: album again.
- 8:06Speaker 2: Yeah, the branding, the name, the name is still of value.
- 8:12Speaker 2: You mentioned that Dio initially thought that this was just
- 8:15Speaker 2: maybe a collaboration rather than actually joining the band. How
- 8:19Speaker 2: quickly did it become obvious that this was something bigger.
- 8:22Speaker 1: I think it became obvious once Doo went around and
- 8:25Speaker 1: started jamming with Bill and Geezer and Tony at first,
- 8:30Speaker 1: And once they started that going down that route, it
- 8:34Speaker 1: became apparent they'd got something really quite special. They'd gone
- 8:38Speaker 1: through many many months of not coming up with anything.
- 8:43Speaker 1: I think that's a little bit harsh. I think that
- 8:45Speaker 1: Asie Osborne came up with melodies, local melodies and some lines.
- 8:49Speaker 1: But I've always had the impression of the line share
- 8:52Speaker 1: of the musical side of Black Sabbath had come from Iomi,
- 8:56Speaker 1: you know, and Geezer Butler, I'd never got the impression
- 9:00Speaker 1: that Ossie was really heavily involved in that aspect of
- 9:03Speaker 1: the songwriting. So you do read them saying that Ozzie
- 9:06Speaker 1: wasn't coming up with anything, but I always think that's
- 9:10Speaker 1: a little bit harsh on him, to be frank Eric,
- 9:13Speaker 1: because we know Geezer wrote a lot of the lyrics
- 9:15Speaker 1: as well.
- 9:16Speaker 2: And I think the process was the same too with
- 9:18Speaker 2: Asie's solo band. The band came in with the music,
- 9:20Speaker 2: but as He had that great ability to come up
- 9:23Speaker 2: with the melody over that music. So I can't sell
- 9:27Speaker 2: Assie short on that. But yeah, it really was that
- 9:30Speaker 2: collaborative effort where they all come together and they think
- 9:33Speaker 2: it with this situation with Ronnie, how did the songwriting
- 9:36Speaker 2: process change?
- 9:38Speaker 1: Well, I think it. For start off, Ronnie wanted to
- 9:41Speaker 1: write all the lyrics, so all the lyrics about Ronnie
- 9:44Speaker 1: James and Kizer doesn't write any lyrics at all, and
- 9:47Speaker 1: Ronnie goes straight back down the source of the route
- 9:51Speaker 1: that Richie Blackmore had got fed up with him doing
- 9:53Speaker 1: in Rainbow, you know, the kind of the wizards and
- 9:56Speaker 1: demons and rainbows and roots, very magical mist call lyrics.
- 10:00Speaker 1: So he brings all that with him to the party.
- 10:03Speaker 1: Although in fairness, on the Longlive Rock and Roll album,
- 10:06Speaker 1: the last one he did with Rainbow, he does mix
- 10:07Speaker 1: it up on that a bit, the several songs that
- 10:10Speaker 1: don't go down that route. And Ronnie could also come
- 10:14Speaker 1: up with melodies almost instantly, so you hear him singing
- 10:17Speaker 1: across the music as well. He'll sing his own melodies
- 10:21Speaker 1: over the tunes. And obviously quite famously the people say
- 10:25Speaker 1: about him singing iron Man, you know, he sings to
- 10:28Speaker 1: the riff all the way through the song. You know,
- 10:31Speaker 1: he doesn't always do that. Again, I think that's very unfair.
- 10:34Speaker 1: I can think of several instances whereas he does something
- 10:36Speaker 1: quite different to whatever tone he's playing on the guitar,
- 10:39Speaker 1: you know, But that's that was what was leveled at him,
- 10:42Speaker 1: was that Neon Knights is a good example. Will probably
- 10:46Speaker 1: go through some of the songs, but there you can
- 10:48Speaker 1: hear Deo singing across what's going on music then it
- 10:51Speaker 1: is quite a difference.
- 10:53Speaker 2: Sure, sure, absolutely. I mean you can hear in the groove,
- 10:56Speaker 2: the overall groove of these songs. It's different from The
- 11:00Speaker 2: Sabbath as he is. In fact, Tony has said that
- 11:02Speaker 2: Ronnie encouraged him to play more solos and stretch out
- 11:05Speaker 2: more melodically. I think you talk about that in the book.
- 11:08Speaker 2: Did that unlock another side of Tony as a guitarist?
- 11:11Speaker 1: It certainly seems quite liberated, if you like. But his
- 11:14Speaker 1: guitar sounds quite different on a lot of I don't
- 11:17Speaker 1: think he sounds as I only like as we knew.
- 11:21Speaker 1: There are some songs where you hear it come through
- 11:24Speaker 1: quite clearly. On the riff of Heaven and How you
- 11:27Speaker 1: sort of think, oh, yeah, that's that's old school Sabbath
- 11:30Speaker 1: coming in there. And Children of the Sea you can
- 11:33Speaker 1: hear it on the chorus of that as well, that
- 11:35Speaker 1: kind of But a lot of the songs now on
- 11:38Speaker 1: Night's the first track, he doesn't sound much like Black
- 11:42Speaker 1: Sabbath to me at all. Quite frankly, I like it,
- 11:44Speaker 1: I love it, but I think it's very different direction refreshing.
- 11:48Speaker 1: But is it Black Sabbath? That was some of the
- 11:50Speaker 1: questions now, at the time when it came out, I
- 11:54Speaker 1: think we all embraced it. I was much younger then,
- 11:56Speaker 1: so they just tell you, don't they, this is the
- 11:59Speaker 1: new Black Sabbath, we have a new singer, this is
- 12:01Speaker 1: the band, Here is the album, and he just sounded great.
- 12:05Speaker 1: What was going on behind the scenes, who'd done what,
- 12:07Speaker 1: who'd said? What would have happened? Meant nothing because we
- 12:10Speaker 1: didn't know it.
- 12:13Speaker 2: Bill Ward. Now, some fans felt that his jazzy improvisational
- 12:18Speaker 2: style became more restrained during this era. Do you think
- 12:21Speaker 2: the music demanded a more disciplined approach.
- 12:23Speaker 1: Yeah, I guess so, because there's been some suggestions on
- 12:28Speaker 1: the internet, of course, that it's not even Bill playing
- 12:31Speaker 1: on the album. I'm sure it is Bill, but I
- 12:33Speaker 1: don't think he remembers much of it. In some interviews
- 12:37Speaker 1: he says he doesn't remember lot, and then you'll say,
- 12:39Speaker 1: Lonely is the word is the best track on the album,
- 12:41Speaker 1: and you just remember that one. So he remembers something.
- 12:45Speaker 1: But certainly there's less of those little improvisations and in
- 12:50Speaker 1: the music than we've had before. So I'd say this
- 12:54Speaker 1: is a more solid kind of album, if that's fair
- 12:57Speaker 1: to say. Even when they go down there, the sort
- 13:00Speaker 1: of the Ballady route and the more laid back route
- 13:02Speaker 1: with things like lonely is the word. It still doesn't
- 13:05Speaker 1: sound so like a planet caravan, for example, that we
- 13:09Speaker 1: had in the past on the Paranoid album. There's nothing
- 13:12Speaker 1: as diverse as that. It is an album for the eighties,
- 13:16Speaker 1: Isn't It's It's and you think where we come from.
- 13:20Speaker 1: Never Say Die is much as I try. I think
- 13:23Speaker 1: that's a very flawed album, the last one with OSSI,
- 13:25Speaker 1: and the production's terrible on't It and then on Technical Ecstasy,
- 13:30Speaker 1: and when they did the super deluxe edition of that,
- 13:32Speaker 1: the outtakes and the working versions whatever of the song
- 13:35Speaker 1: I think are miles better than the ones that were
- 13:37Speaker 1: actually released. I think the sound more authentically like Black Sabbath.
- 13:42Speaker 1: There's less layering and messing going on with it, and
- 13:46Speaker 1: with this because Dio suggests bringing in an outside producer,
- 13:49Speaker 1: the guy who he'd work with in Rainbow, Martin Birch,
- 13:52Speaker 1: and that I think clearly makes a difference. So he's
- 13:55Speaker 1: probably curbing some of those excesses that are crept in
- 13:59Speaker 1: on the two Black Sabbath albums before this.
- 14:02Speaker 2: Heaven Hell, that's the album from Rite eighty. That's the
- 14:05Speaker 2: first with Ronnie and you describe it as a revitalized,
- 14:09Speaker 2: modernized Black Sabbath. What makes this album still sound so
- 14:13Speaker 2: fresh today? It really does. You can listen to it.
- 14:16Speaker 2: It doesn't sound needed.
- 14:18Speaker 1: No, it's odd, isn't it. I mean you've got to
- 14:19Speaker 1: give credit, I guess to Martin Burg. It's I mean
- 14:22Speaker 1: the band. The songs are mostly terrific. There's one or two,
- 14:27Speaker 1: and interestingly, the one or two I think are a
- 14:29Speaker 1: little bit you know, may not filler, but not quite
- 14:32Speaker 1: as great as the two that Iowei and Butler both
- 14:36Speaker 1: picked out as being the ones that are probably a
- 14:38Speaker 1: little bit lesser perhaps on the album. The running order
- 14:43Speaker 1: is something I'm quite not sure about as well. But
- 14:47Speaker 1: there's some interesting Sabbath tropes on it. I love the
- 14:51Speaker 1: end of Heaven and Hell where Tony pulls out these
- 14:53Speaker 1: little acoustic passage. Just wish that was a bit louder.
- 14:56Speaker 1: That's really really nice. And there are some class songs
- 15:00Speaker 1: on there aren't there? And I think it's about DYEA
- 15:03Speaker 1: a lot of this album for me. You've got where
- 15:05Speaker 1: the guy was at. I think he was running out
- 15:06Speaker 1: of cash, out of Rainbow has much chance, my time
- 15:10Speaker 1: in the big side time Sorry gone. And then he
- 15:13Speaker 1: comes back with this and they do better in America
- 15:17Speaker 1: with this than Rainbow did with their Down to Earth album,
- 15:21Speaker 1: which is the one he should have been on, and
- 15:22Speaker 1: that must have given him some satisfaction privately, I would imagine.
- 15:25Speaker 2: Let's talk more about Neon Knights explodes out of the
- 15:28Speaker 2: speakers with so much energy. You're right that the album
- 15:32Speaker 2: opener captured the band's renewed confidence and excitement. It immediately
- 15:35Speaker 2: announced the fans this is the new Black Sabbath. Like
- 15:38Speaker 2: you say, it doesn't sound like the Black Sabbath of old,
- 15:41Speaker 2: yet it stood up over the years became one of
- 15:43Speaker 2: the defining Dio era Sabbath songs. Why do you think
- 15:46Speaker 2: that is? Why does it still connect so strongly with
- 15:48Speaker 2: the fans today?
- 15:49Speaker 1: Well, I can remember the first time I heard it.
- 15:51Speaker 1: I remember it was in the living room where I
- 15:53Speaker 1: lived in Norfield, Birmingham, and I brought it back and
- 15:55Speaker 1: put the needle down, and you're thinking like, wa, wow,
- 15:58Speaker 1: you know, and this is they're just saying so healthy
- 16:02Speaker 1: lean mean up for it, and Dio says, I mean,
- 16:06Speaker 1: he's utterly triumphant, majestic, on there, he gives this astonishing performance.
- 16:12Speaker 1: He absolutely realizes what a chance he's got to carry
- 16:15Speaker 1: on in the big time and develop, and he just
- 16:18Speaker 1: takes it, absolutely takes it and runs off with him.
- 16:21Speaker 1: I can't think of anybody else they could have worked
- 16:23Speaker 1: with it could have inspired them to produce anything as
- 16:27Speaker 1: good as this. I really really can't. Because they do
- 16:30Speaker 1: try again, don't they. Through the eighties, things happen, as
- 16:33Speaker 1: we know. And originally this book was going to be
- 16:36Speaker 1: about Sabbath in the eighties, but that just as I
- 16:39Speaker 1: started to look at the possibilities and what we were
- 16:41Speaker 1: going to cover, it just seemed too disjointed, which I
- 16:44Speaker 1: think they were through the eighties. But when they got Dio,
- 16:48Speaker 1: who is, you know, probably the best alternative Tony ever
- 16:53Speaker 1: had to Ozsie. I would guess he must think that
- 16:56Speaker 1: because every time he has a chance to work with
- 16:59Speaker 1: Ossie or he takes it. That's the first option, you know,
- 17:04Speaker 1: That's what goes on. What happens and Neon Knights is explosive.
- 17:09Speaker 1: The last track written for the album because they wanted
- 17:11Speaker 1: something fast and up tempo to open it, and the
- 17:15Speaker 1: previous two albums that opened We would Never Say Die
- 17:18Speaker 1: we never say die. Technical Ecstasy had opened up with
- 17:21Speaker 1: Backstreet Kid, you know, and these were the up tempo,
- 17:24Speaker 1: charging out the traps kind of songs, and he wanted
- 17:26Speaker 1: another one just like that. The difference is Martin Birch
- 17:30Speaker 1: produces this, so it sounds much better and it is
- 17:33Speaker 1: a terrific opener. It really is.
- 17:35Speaker 2: Yea and Lady Evils on This album has a very
- 17:38Speaker 2: strong Rainbow influence lyrically stylistically. Do you hear it as
- 17:42Speaker 2: almost as a bridge between Rainbow and Black Sabbath?
- 17:45Speaker 1: I absolutely do. I mean, I mean, Iomi crunches enough
- 17:51Speaker 1: in his Sabbath style and he puts in these lovely
- 17:54Speaker 1: little bit of wa wai notes that come in. But yes,
- 17:56Speaker 1: this is a very very runny James Dio song. I
- 17:59Speaker 1: think could have sat on the Long Live rock and
- 18:02Speaker 1: Roll album for example, And this is it. This is
- 18:05Speaker 1: what made me wonder about when you look at the
- 18:08Speaker 1: history of Rainbows, who looked at that time Thissus, his
- 18:10Speaker 1: Black MOR's band, these are the people who works with.
- 18:12Speaker 1: But you think, well, looking at this the evidence on
- 18:15Speaker 1: this album, Ronnie must have had an enormous influence on
- 18:18Speaker 1: those albums. And again it's a really good song, Lady Evil.
- 18:22Speaker 1: It's I don't think it's one of the best, but
- 18:26Speaker 1: it is a good song.
- 18:27Speaker 2: And the story behind Die Young and Craig Grueber's claimed
- 18:31Speaker 2: contribution is fascinating. You get into this in the book.
- 18:34Speaker 2: Grubber was in Rainbow if I got this. Craig, he
- 18:37Speaker 2: was in Rainbow with Ronnie but then was also in
- 18:39Speaker 2: the early recording sessions on Heaven and Hell until Geezer
- 18:43Speaker 2: Butler joined.
- 18:45Speaker 1: Butler had been there and had then gone to deal
- 18:49Speaker 1: with these personal issues in the UK. And it didn't look,
- 18:54Speaker 1: I suppose at one point as though he might come back.
- 18:57Speaker 1: And obviously you wait for Geezer Butler, don't you. And
- 19:01Speaker 1: maybe they thought that waiting for Gezer was somewhat akin
- 19:04Speaker 1: to waiting for Ozzie. We'd been waiting for Ozzie and
- 19:08Speaker 1: now we'd be waiting for Gezer. So in the meantime,
- 19:11Speaker 1: in any case, they decided to bring in Craig Gruber,
- 19:14Speaker 1: who had been on the first Rainbow album with Ronnie
- 19:17Speaker 1: and had been in Elf, which was the band that
- 19:19Speaker 1: Ronnie was in before Rainbow, so they knew each other.
- 19:24Speaker 1: And Gruber had been sacked from Rainbow as Richie blackmore
- 19:28Speaker 1: slowly replaces everybody in the band except for Ronnie James
- 19:31Speaker 1: dere So Gruber had been disappointed before, but probably I
- 19:36Speaker 1: would guess the opportunity, the money, all those things, and
- 19:40Speaker 1: he came back, and Gruber has done well. He did
- 19:44Speaker 1: several interviews over the years where he claimed and in
- 19:46Speaker 1: actual fact, the final bass parts on the album are
- 19:49Speaker 1: actually his on the whole album, on the whole album,
- 19:52Speaker 1: and not Gezer Butlers.
- 19:54Speaker 2: Okay, And how much influence did he have on this
- 19:56Speaker 2: one song day Young?
- 19:58Speaker 1: He claimed that Tony I Am he had said, you know,
- 20:01Speaker 1: if you've got anything, we're looking for an up tempo
- 20:04Speaker 1: kind of track, and he had got stuff because the
- 20:07Speaker 1: guy was a musician and wrote stuff. And he claimed
- 20:10Speaker 1: that fundamentally all of Die Young, except for the middle eight,
- 20:15Speaker 1: was his tune. I know this has happened. I can
- 20:18Speaker 1: think of several cases where this has definitely happened in
- 20:22Speaker 1: other bands. And it's quite well known where somebody has
- 20:25Speaker 1: written and it's just been said, well, okay, here's a
- 20:27Speaker 1: bit of money. Just keep quiet about it, because he
- 20:30Speaker 1: doesn't look right on the album sleeves if somebody else
- 20:33Speaker 1: is credited, and maybe it's one of those who will
- 20:35Speaker 1: probably never really know. And I don't know enough about
- 20:39Speaker 1: Gruber's writing to say that that's a great Gruber tune.
- 20:42Speaker 1: It sounds to me actually looked more like IOMI tune
- 20:45Speaker 1: in fairness, but he did make these claims, And then
- 20:49Speaker 1: you have the claim that Geezer Butler comes back and
- 20:52Speaker 1: doesn't listen to the album and just listens and then
- 20:54Speaker 1: puts the bass parts on himself without listening to what
- 20:57Speaker 1: Gruber had actually played. The only probable exception I think
- 21:04Speaker 1: is Heaven and How, which is isn't one of Gruber's
- 21:08Speaker 1: parts at all. It's one I think that he'd actually
- 21:12Speaker 1: picked up himself, Geezer Butler. I think he'd actually got
- 21:18Speaker 1: it from Jeff Nichols, who had been brought over to
- 21:21Speaker 1: play keyboards but had been a bass player in a
- 21:24Speaker 1: band called Courts in Birmingham. And the base part for
- 21:27Speaker 1: Heaven and Hell that actually come from an old court song.
- 21:30Speaker 1: I think that's the only one that Gizer pretty much
- 21:33Speaker 1: played as was all.
- 21:34Speaker 2: Right, let's move on to eighty one's Mob Rules, which
- 21:37Speaker 2: I think I would give it a slight edge over
- 21:40Speaker 2: the first album. For me, it sounds darker, heavier. Was
- 21:43Speaker 2: that intentional from the band's perspective, it's very interesting.
- 21:47Speaker 1: There's been some revisionism them over the years. I think
- 21:50Speaker 1: because at the time I'd agree with you. I thought
- 21:53Speaker 1: it was actually at the very least as good as
- 21:57Speaker 1: Heaven and Hell and maybe a consolid I've read some
- 22:01Speaker 1: people then started saying it's not as good as Heaven
- 22:03Speaker 1: and Hell or it's more of the same. But I
- 22:05Speaker 1: think there's some really really strong songs, and it's certainly
- 22:07Speaker 1: as strong as there is on Heaven and Hell, and
- 22:11Speaker 1: there's a kind of a similarity between the two, I think, Eric,
- 22:14Speaker 1: isn't it. I mean, you can kind of match them.
- 22:16Speaker 1: See it opens We've turned up the Night, which is
- 22:19Speaker 1: pretty much a rewrite of Neon Nights, I suppose you
- 22:22Speaker 1: would say, in many ways, and maybe Sign of the
- 22:27Speaker 1: Southern Cross, I can kind of match that with maybe
- 22:31Speaker 1: Heaven and Hell or Children of the Sea, perhaps on
- 22:34Speaker 1: on the Heaven and Hell album. I think it's a
- 22:35Speaker 1: really excellent album, Yeah, I do.
- 22:37Speaker 2: I think the title track is a classic. It's my
- 22:40Speaker 2: favorite saddest song from the Deal era. Ominous threatening sound
- 22:46Speaker 2: to that riff, Ronnie, what is he saying lyrically here
- 22:50Speaker 2: with this song?
- 22:51Speaker 1: Yeah, that's an interesting one. If you listen to Fools
- 22:53Speaker 1: The Mob Rules, it's about that kind of mod mentality
- 22:57Speaker 1: I think, where people just can I can follow other
- 23:00Speaker 1: people's opinions, just think for yourself and don't follow what
- 23:04Speaker 1: everybody else is saying. And that's abstoually quite different to
- 23:07Speaker 1: what the cover painting is, which is I like the
- 23:12Speaker 1: cover painting. I think perhaps it's not necessarily an album
- 23:15Speaker 1: cover for me, although I do think it's a great painting.
- 23:18Speaker 1: You are a right that The Mob Rules is one
- 23:22Speaker 1: of the very best things that's come out under the
- 23:23Speaker 1: name Black Sabbath without a doubt.
- 23:26Speaker 2: Technically not a title track, right, the Rules album. Yeah,
- 23:31Speaker 2: but is it political, as you say, is he making
- 23:33Speaker 2: a political statement here? Is he making a society statement?
- 23:37Speaker 1: It's making all those statements. I think it's a whatever
- 23:41Speaker 1: you want it to say kind of think. But it's
- 23:45Speaker 1: generally about going your own way and not following and
- 23:47Speaker 1: being independent, keeping your own views. But you know, I
- 23:52Speaker 1: mean four, you know there's some songs you've heard so
- 23:55Speaker 1: many many times and you kind of switch off a bit,
- 23:57Speaker 1: but I can't hear that song without that rift just
- 24:00Speaker 1: hitting me. Oh my god.
- 24:04Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, it gets into your blood.
- 24:07Speaker 1: The big one for me on there, and I kind
- 24:09Speaker 1: of felt like this was happening. It's probably the Sign
- 24:12Speaker 1: of the Southern Cross, which is it's that perfect blend
- 24:17Speaker 1: of Ronnie's Rainbonus and and sort of old school Black Sabbath.
- 24:24Speaker 1: Really and you find yourself waiting for Tony to hit
- 24:28Speaker 1: the rift Don't You Come In, which he worked so brilliantly,
- 24:34Speaker 1: absolutely extraordinary, It really really is, and it's one of
- 24:38Speaker 1: their very best songs, Sign of the Southern Cross. I
- 24:41Speaker 1: think from this era, I would pick their best song
- 24:44Speaker 1: has probably been Heaven and Hell because I think it's
- 24:48Speaker 1: a pretty fair summary of the strength of the whole band.
- 24:51Speaker 1: It's an amazingly great riff on that Heaven and l album.
- 24:54Speaker 1: That's my favorite on there. On this album, I always
- 24:58Speaker 1: say my favorite song is Sign of the Southern Cross
- 25:00Speaker 1: for the same reasons, and then I put on the
- 25:01Speaker 1: Mob Rules and I'm not sure anymore.
- 25:06Speaker 2: Thanks so much for checking out the Booked on Rock podcast.
- 25:08Speaker 2: If you've just found the podcast, welcome. If you've been listening,
- 25:12Speaker 2: thank you so much for your support, and make sure
- 25:14Speaker 2: you tell a friend, a family member, share on social media,
- 25:17Speaker 2: and let people know about Booked on Rock and if
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- 25:23Speaker 2: a five star review. Wherever you listen to the Booked
- 25:25Speaker 2: on Rock podcast, We're on Amazon, Apple, iHeart, Spotify, Spreaker,
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- 25:35Speaker 2: episodes on the Booked on Rock YouTube channel. Find it
- 25:39Speaker 2: at Booked on Rock. Thanks again for listening. Now back
- 25:42Speaker 2: to the show. An album that's become one of the
- 25:45Speaker 2: most debated albums in Sabbath history, nineteen eighty three's Live Evil,
- 25:51Speaker 2: and a lot of the debate is surrounding well, there's
- 25:53Speaker 2: a lot of tension surrounding the mix. So after researching it,
- 25:56Speaker 2: what's your perspective on what really happened?
- 26:00Speaker 1: Perspectively, it's a six to one and a half a
- 26:02Speaker 1: dozen and the other and a lot of old nonsense.
- 26:04Speaker 2: Quite frankly, what happened? What's well here?
- 26:08Speaker 1: The story is is that well Ronnie James deal, I
- 26:13Speaker 1: think he's generally very believable about most of what he says.
- 26:17Speaker 1: He's saying that they had times to come in to
- 26:19Speaker 1: sit down and do the mix, so they'd turn up
- 26:23Speaker 1: him and Vinnie and Geezer and Tony wouldn't be there
- 26:26Speaker 1: and would come in later, so they would start work
- 26:30Speaker 1: with the engineer and doing the mix and sorting stuff
- 26:35Speaker 1: out and whatever and what have you, and then Tony
- 26:38Speaker 1: and Geezer would come in later and work on it,
- 26:40Speaker 1: and then their work would be changed the following morning
- 26:43Speaker 1: by by Ronnie, who says he just wouldn't do that,
- 26:46Speaker 1: And actually I don't think he did. I think there's
- 26:50Speaker 1: a lot of personal stuff going on, and in any case,
- 26:53Speaker 1: it's a pretty dreadful mix. Anyway, it wasn't the greatest
- 26:56Speaker 1: mix at all, and it's now been thanks to Wind
- 27:00Speaker 1: who came out with this colossally incredible mix. You know
- 27:04Speaker 1: you say times I nearly fell off my chair. Well,
- 27:06Speaker 1: I got to review the remix of Live Evil, and
- 27:10Speaker 1: I felt sure that these were completely different shows or something.
- 27:15Speaker 1: And Win Davis is one of the first I talked
- 27:17Speaker 1: to for this book, and I said, people are saying
- 27:19Speaker 1: that you're not using the same sources and someone that
- 27:22Speaker 1: were on Live Evil, he doesn't sound the same, and
- 27:24Speaker 1: he says, I absolutely am using the same. I can
- 27:28Speaker 1: guarantee it. I'm sitting looking at the file now. I
- 27:31Speaker 1: did not use any different versions or anything.
- 27:34Speaker 2: That tells you what a difference a mix can make.
- 27:37Speaker 1: Have you heard the two mixes I have not? Oh? Oh, Eric,
- 27:42Speaker 1: if you do one thing when you go away from this,
- 27:44Speaker 1: get Wyn Davis's remixes a live evil and you will
- 27:48Speaker 1: be astounded. They are, literally, I would say that the
- 27:51Speaker 1: best remixes I've ever heard, and I've heard so many.
- 27:55Speaker 1: It's like he's varnished it, buffed it up and cleaned
- 27:59Speaker 1: it and it's just become this incredible recording.
- 28:03Speaker 2: Was it taken from two shows Seattle and Dallas?
- 28:06Speaker 1: Two or three shows? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I've got the
- 28:09Speaker 1: shows listed in the book. And then there were overdubs. Now,
- 28:14Speaker 1: whether he had all the overdubs as well to play with,
- 28:18Speaker 1: I'm not sure, but he used all the original sources
- 28:21Speaker 1: and there were some guitar overdubs and a bit of bass,
- 28:23Speaker 1: and as there always is on live albums. Whatever anyone says,
- 28:26Speaker 1: it actually came from four shows Fresno, Seattle, Dallas, and
- 28:32Speaker 1: San Antonio. I mean some of the things he had
- 28:35Speaker 1: to do. He was using pro tools and swinging back
- 28:37Speaker 1: between the old and the new mixes to make sure
- 28:39Speaker 1: that he got things synced up and in the right places.
- 28:44Speaker 1: He said he took a lot of time, an awful
- 28:46Speaker 1: lot of time and a lot of feedback to actually
- 28:49Speaker 1: get it right. He says he had tried using different
- 28:53Speaker 1: versions originally. That was the obvious way to go is
- 28:56Speaker 1: to not bother trying to remix lively. Well, just do
- 28:58Speaker 1: a remaster of it and then put out another version
- 29:03Speaker 1: if you like, by using completely different recordings. And and
- 29:06Speaker 1: they could have easily done that because the four venues
- 29:09Speaker 1: that I mentioned just earlier, they've got the recordings from
- 29:13Speaker 1: every song from those shows, so he could have just
- 29:15Speaker 1: picked different versions.
- 29:16Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it was like a handful of shows,
- 29:18Speaker 2: not two shows. It was like.
- 29:21Speaker 1: And he could have just picked different songs from those
- 29:23Speaker 1: shows who had an alternative version of Live Evil, but
- 29:26Speaker 1: they didn't. I Finally, that's what the band wanted, was
- 29:29Speaker 1: to actually improve it, and it is absolutely phenomenal.
- 29:33Speaker 2: I didn't know that, Tony. I only thought about getting
- 29:35Speaker 2: David Coverdille to take Ronnie's spot in the band after
- 29:38Speaker 2: Ronnie left. That's in the book. Well what led to
- 29:40Speaker 2: Ronnie's exit from the band in eighty two and what
- 29:43Speaker 2: led him back to the band ten years later.
- 29:45Speaker 1: They've been a huge fallout over the mixing of Live Evil.
- 29:49Speaker 2: And that was really the Okay, that was the I think.
- 29:52Speaker 1: It was the final straw. Geezer refers to Ronnie being
- 29:57Speaker 1: more assertive and trying to take control, demonstrative, and he
- 30:01Speaker 1: certainly is like that. I met him once for a
- 30:05Speaker 1: while and everybody who's met him will tell you what
- 30:08Speaker 1: a sweet, lovely person is who will take the time
- 30:11Speaker 1: to talk to you, and he did, which was particularly
- 30:14Speaker 1: nice because I wasn't even there to meet him in
- 30:15Speaker 1: the first place. I was literally waiting to meet UFO,
- 30:19Speaker 1: another band, and Ronnie James Dio came out of the lift.
- 30:24Speaker 1: When was this This was on the Mob Rules Tour,
- 30:27Speaker 1: so about in nineteen eighty one two something like that,
- 30:31Speaker 1: and I'd gone to meet UFO and I was sitting
- 30:35Speaker 1: there waiting, and then out of the lift and the
- 30:37Speaker 1: hotel foyer came around with James Dio and Geezer Butler
- 30:41Speaker 1: because they'd been playing at Stafford Bingley Hall on the
- 30:43Speaker 1: Mob Rules Tour the previous night. And it's quite funny
- 30:46Speaker 1: because they were surprised to see me. They thought I
- 30:50Speaker 1: must have been a fan of somehow worked out where
- 30:53Speaker 1: they were after the Stafford Show and was waiting, and
- 30:55Speaker 1: both of them were in these enormous fur coats that
- 30:58Speaker 1: went almost down to their ankles because it was quite cold,
- 31:00Speaker 1: you know, and Dio hated the cold apparently in Britain.
- 31:04Speaker 1: But he was very very sweet, both of them weren't.
- 31:07Speaker 1: He just took time to talk about and they seem
- 31:10Speaker 1: very positive about the future the band had got then.
- 31:13Speaker 1: So I think Dias a sort of person who at
- 31:18Speaker 1: that point he would have been easy perhaps to fall
- 31:20Speaker 1: out with, because he did like he had his own opinions,
- 31:22Speaker 1: strong opinions maybe, and I suspect and Iomi makes reference
- 31:26Speaker 1: to this in his book that he's he doesn't like
- 31:29Speaker 1: those sort of scenes and fights and arguments. Really, that's
- 31:32Speaker 1: not in his nature.
- 31:36Speaker 2: The Book Down Rock podcast is part of the Boneless
- 31:39Speaker 2: podcasting Network. If you're a fan of classic rock and
- 31:41Speaker 2: classic film like I am, go to Boneless dot Lovable
- 31:45Speaker 2: dot app to find over twenty great shows there that's
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- 31:52Speaker 2: dot com the Bonness podcasting network. It is what you
- 31:55Speaker 2: want to be listen with confidence. By the time The
- 32:01Speaker 2: Humanizer came out in ninety two with Ronnie on there
- 32:04Speaker 2: metal had changed dramatically. What impresses you most about that
- 32:07Speaker 2: album today?
- 32:09Speaker 1: Yeah, that's interesting. I think that it's a strong album.
- 32:13Speaker 1: I particularly like about it that it kind of for
- 32:16Speaker 1: me if you wanted to know what Black Sabbath back
- 32:21Speaker 1: in the Osborne era the earlier could sound like with
- 32:24Speaker 1: Ronnie James Doo, I think The Humanizer has some of
- 32:27Speaker 1: that going for it. Certainly. Iomei's riffs are crunching a
- 32:30Speaker 1: more sledgehammer style than they were on the Moberles in
- 32:34Speaker 1: Heaven and l album. It very definitely does sound like
- 32:36Speaker 1: Black Sabbath to me. But again, in the recording of
- 32:41Speaker 1: the album it had been a tortuous roots where as
- 32:44Speaker 1: who was actually going to sing on it in the
- 32:46Speaker 1: first place. It hadn't originally been intended to be Ronnie
- 32:51Speaker 1: that was going to be involved. I think I think
- 32:53Speaker 1: they'd wanted other people. They'd had a flirtation with Ian Gillen,
- 32:56Speaker 1: hadn't they. You probably remember that, Yeah, So, yeah, and
- 33:01Speaker 1: Tony Martin at one point came in when they'd had
- 33:03Speaker 1: another fall out with Deo on the making of the
- 33:06Speaker 1: Humorser album, and I need'd come back in for a
- 33:10Speaker 1: bit and then running come back again, so it's all
- 33:13Speaker 1: quite confusing.
- 33:14Speaker 2: Really what and then Deo was a again? What happened then?
- 33:18Speaker 2: Same type of thing for different times?
- 33:20Speaker 1: Well, I mean, just to Humanized. I think it got
- 33:24Speaker 1: again one of their best songs for me on it.
- 33:27Speaker 1: You know, if you're making like a compilation, if you
- 33:29Speaker 1: ever done this of like your car or whatever, so
- 33:34Speaker 1: you look and think about what would be the best
- 33:37Speaker 1: songs you might pick. I think I under Humanizer is
- 33:40Speaker 1: one of my very favorite songs with Ronnie James.
- 33:43Speaker 2: It wasn't one of the singles. TV Crimes and Mastery
- 33:46Speaker 2: of Insanity were the singles.
- 33:47Speaker 1: That's right. My favorite is I. I think that's an
- 33:51Speaker 1: incredibly strong song that they came out with, and they
- 33:55Speaker 1: always kind of played it live, so they must have agreed,
- 33:58Speaker 1: I guess. But again, the fallout comes because of this
- 34:01Speaker 1: thing of Ozzie having to retire and wanting to finish
- 34:05Speaker 1: off by having a reunion with the guys from Black
- 34:09Speaker 1: Sabbath that these last shows, where was it costing me?
- 34:14Speaker 1: So wasn't it? And I think that they wanted to
- 34:17Speaker 1: have this reunion.
- 34:18Speaker 2: Okay, So that led to them saying to Ronnie, look,
- 34:20Speaker 2: we've got to do this well.
- 34:22Speaker 1: The idea was was that Black Sabbath would support OZSI
- 34:27Speaker 1: on his last two shows, and that Ronnie would come
- 34:29Speaker 1: in and do the set with the guys, and then
- 34:33Speaker 1: he would effectively go off assiou do a set and
- 34:36Speaker 1: then would come on for the encorse with Geezer, Tony
- 34:39Speaker 1: and Bill and Ronnie, And you know, I've got to
- 34:43Speaker 1: have some sympathy with him on this sort of said well, no,
- 34:46Speaker 1: I'm not going and supporting the guy that I replaced
- 34:49Speaker 1: in the band, so you can forget it sure, And
- 34:55Speaker 1: I think that's fair enough. I really I don't think
- 34:57Speaker 1: there's any of us watching this podcast who would have
- 35:00Speaker 1: done it differently, because you can see the writing on
- 35:03Speaker 1: the wall. I mean, you can clear his day, see
- 35:05Speaker 1: what the possibilities are going on there, can't you.
- 35:08Speaker 2: Well, what was the relationship with Ozzie and Ronnie over
- 35:10Speaker 2: the years. What did they say about each other in
- 35:13Speaker 2: the press, How much did they know each other personally?
- 35:17Speaker 1: I've read different things. I've read that they got on okay,
- 35:20Speaker 1: that they were kind of respectful of each other. There
- 35:22Speaker 1: were certainly incidences where they were less than respectful of
- 35:25Speaker 1: each ither. Mean, it has to be said that certainly
- 35:27Speaker 1: comes from. I mean, you've got Ronnie Doo saying calling
- 35:31Speaker 1: Assie a clown. I don't want to support that clown,
- 35:34Speaker 1: but he was obviously an angry guy at that point,
- 35:36Speaker 1: so you can understand that. And then you've got Doo
- 35:40Speaker 1: having a dragon on stage and a dwarf figure I
- 35:45Speaker 1: think was nicknamed Ronnie at one point in his show.
- 35:49Speaker 1: So but you know, at the end of the day,
- 35:52Speaker 1: I think it's just just as what it is, isn't it.
- 35:56Speaker 2: Yeah, it just didn't seem as ugly as the David
- 35:58Speaker 2: Lee versus Sammy thing. There were some jabs taken, but.
- 36:04Speaker 1: No, Yeah, it's an odd one, isn't it. You're right,
- 36:06Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, with wrath and we haven't I.
- 36:10Speaker 2: Mean, don't think about all the articles you read about
- 36:12Speaker 2: Day versus Samy, you don't. You don't see that a
- 36:15Speaker 2: lot Asi versus Ronnie every now and then. Maybe, but
- 36:19Speaker 2: I don't think they facilitated that as much as David
- 36:22Speaker 2: Sammy did with the shots they would take out each other.
- 36:26Speaker 1: Yeah, you're right when you put it like that, and
- 36:29Speaker 1: it's almost hard to understand, isn't it. It is? I mean,
- 36:33Speaker 1: I see Van Halen with Sammy is quite a different
- 36:39Speaker 1: entity to what they are with Wrath, I really do.
- 36:41Speaker 1: And I think because they're different entities, I can't see
- 36:44Speaker 1: why they get so upset and you've got deep purple
- 36:47Speaker 1: with their changing singers and so on and so forth.
- 36:50Speaker 2: Yeah, as you returned to Sabbath in ninety seven, that
- 36:52Speaker 2: reunion lasted through two thousand and six until Ronnie returns again.
- 36:57Speaker 2: They renamed the band Heaven and Hell this time. The
- 37:00Speaker 2: name change. Legal reasons for.
- 37:01Speaker 1: That undoubtedly, So I think I think there's probably two things.
- 37:05Speaker 1: I think one is they probably couldn't go out as
- 37:07Speaker 1: Black Sabbath because I believe the name was at this
- 37:11Speaker 1: point was owned by I was the osborn and Tony Iomi.
- 37:16Speaker 1: I think that the Osborns had got part of the
- 37:21Speaker 1: legality of the name, and when they had helped out
- 37:24Speaker 1: Tony with an incident earlier on, so I believe they
- 37:26Speaker 1: could have vetoed it. And in any case, I think
- 37:30Speaker 1: it was it was the right thing to do. I mean,
- 37:34Speaker 1: I think in honesty the projects all along shouldn't have
- 37:36Speaker 1: been called Black Sabbath. And I think Ronnie had never
- 37:40Speaker 1: been quite happy about doing the ear as songs, even
- 37:44Speaker 1: though he'd done War Pigs. When he was back in
- 37:46Speaker 1: the Elf days he covered Warpigs, So we did love
- 37:49Speaker 1: early Black Sabbath, but I never personally thought he sounded
- 37:54Speaker 1: too comfortable an Iron Man or even Black Sabbath, because
- 37:59Speaker 1: for me, I think he put a bit he goes
- 38:01Speaker 1: overly dramatic on both those songs. It always makes me
- 38:04Speaker 1: smile a bit, you know, as he used to get
- 38:06Speaker 1: this kind of quite almost a sinister normality to the
- 38:12Speaker 1: way he does Black Stuffath. He sounds like a guy
- 38:14Speaker 1: who has encountered something quite evil and he's quite still
- 38:17Speaker 1: shocked by it. And I think Dio's version goes a
- 38:20Speaker 1: little bit towards pantomime with a small p really the
- 38:25Speaker 1: way that he does it, And I understand he's trying
- 38:27Speaker 1: to put the drama into it, but I don't think
- 38:29Speaker 1: that that drama necessarily was needed or indeed helped. So
- 38:33Speaker 1: I think he was certainly quite glad that now they
- 38:35Speaker 1: got all this material, we won two three albums and
- 38:39Speaker 1: so on behind them, and a couple of songs on
- 38:41Speaker 1: a new compilation, they could go out as Heaven and
- 38:44Speaker 1: help different name put the names underneath so everyone knows
- 38:47Speaker 1: who's actually involved. For those who haven't figured out who
- 38:50Speaker 1: they are and do an entire set of their own material,
- 38:54Speaker 1: and I think that was the right way to do it.
- 38:56Speaker 2: Yeah, and there was a great response to it.
- 38:58Speaker 1: Well, it's a great set of songs, isn't it. And
- 38:59Speaker 1: we've just been talking about some of their songs. It's
- 39:02Speaker 1: it's it's just a fantastic rock metal set list from
- 39:06Speaker 1: four absolute stars of the genre. So I mean, yeah,
- 39:09Speaker 1: they couldn't really go wrong.
- 39:10Speaker 2: At all, which leads to the live album, which was
- 39:13Speaker 2: a smart move, the live from Radio City Music Hall
- 39:15Speaker 2: album oh seven, and then they decide to record a
- 39:18Speaker 2: studio album two thousand and nine is the Devil you know,
- 39:21Speaker 2: it's under the Heaven and Hell name, So talk about that.
- 39:24Speaker 2: What are your thoughts on this album, Debuty number eight?
- 39:28Speaker 1: It did. I think it's got some very very strong
- 39:32Speaker 1: songs on it. It's got again, it's got one of
- 39:34Speaker 1: the very very best songs on it, the Bible Black
- 39:37Speaker 1: is you can put that up there of anything. It's
- 39:41Speaker 1: a great way for Ronnie to go out and unfortunately
- 39:44Speaker 1: this is his last studio recordings really with Black Sabbath
- 39:50Speaker 1: of Heaven and Hell, we should say, and I think
- 39:52Speaker 1: it's a really good final album. It's as good, I
- 39:55Speaker 1: think as it could possibly be.
- 39:57Speaker 2: Yeah, what a what a premise to a song the
- 40:00Speaker 2: Black Bible. It's a dark, twisted version of the Holy Bible.
- 40:05Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's just it's just come out and
- 40:07Speaker 1: has been reissued with the live albums from this era
- 40:10Speaker 1: as well as a new re release and I haven't
- 40:14Speaker 1: got that yet, but I'll just be hoping that the
- 40:16Speaker 1: remaster is worth getting it for and so on and
- 40:18Speaker 1: so forth. But again, yeah, it's just a fine tribute.
- 40:22Speaker 1: I know that they wanted to do another album together.
- 40:26Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the thing. I mean, where could they have gone?
- 40:28Speaker 2: Sadly Ronnie dies in twenty ten. You know, maybe this
- 40:32Speaker 2: was the time where they were finally like the future
- 40:34Speaker 2: was free and clear, you know, as he was doing
- 40:38Speaker 2: his thing and that was it. But then again, you know,
- 40:40Speaker 2: you got the demand for Sabbath with Azie, so I
- 40:44Speaker 2: think that would have gotten in the way. You could say, again,
- 40:48Speaker 2: but they you said they did plan on another album, Well.
- 40:51Speaker 1: They were, I mean, I mean in the ending, whichever
- 40:53Speaker 1: way you look at it, on both routes that effectively,
- 40:57Speaker 1: Tony and Geezer have got working with Ronnie, working with Ozzi,
- 41:02Speaker 1: both of them sadly end up because of the singer's
- 41:05Speaker 1: passing away. It's health in the end. And this is
- 41:10Speaker 1: where we are at now. I mean a lot of
- 41:13Speaker 1: the people watching this and the what not. Every week
- 41:15Speaker 1: I'm looking at the rock places, I look online and
- 41:17Speaker 1: another one of my kind of treehouse gang as I
- 41:20Speaker 1: call them, of stars and musicians has passed away. That's
- 41:24Speaker 1: how it is. If they had done another album with Ronnie,
- 41:28Speaker 1: there wouldn't have been any surprises. I don't think. I
- 41:30Speaker 1: don't think they would have bout that anymore. You would
- 41:33Speaker 1: have got more of the same and fair play to them.
- 41:37Speaker 2: Fair play to them, I guess it would have been
- 41:39Speaker 2: a pretty big deal though. If they did put on
- 41:41Speaker 2: a show or maybe tour with both errors, that would have.
- 41:47Speaker 1: Been God you think, can you imagine?
- 41:50Speaker 2: Yeah? Find the bookdown Rock website at bookdown rock dot com.
- 41:56Speaker 2: There you can find all the back episodes of the show,
- 42:00Speaker 2: episode in video and audio, links to all of the
- 42:02Speaker 2: platforms where you can listen to the podcast, plus all
- 42:05Speaker 2: the social media platforms were on Blue Sky, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok,
- 42:10Speaker 2: and x. Also check out the book down Rock blog.
- 42:13Speaker 2: Find your local independent bookstore, find out all the latest
- 42:16Speaker 2: hot rock book releases, and before you go, check out
- 42:19Speaker 2: the book down Rock online store, pick up some book
- 42:21Speaker 2: down Rock merch. It's all at booked on rock dot com.
- 42:26Speaker 2: The history of Black Sabbath. When that is written, what
- 42:29Speaker 2: do you think the ultimate legacy of the do era
- 42:32Speaker 2: really is?
- 42:33Speaker 1: Well, he certainly saved the band as a name as
- 42:37Speaker 1: Black Sabbath, whether you think they should have carried on
- 42:39Speaker 1: as Black Sabbath or not. They had that brief flirtation
- 42:43Speaker 1: with Dave Walker when Izzie had first walked away, and
- 42:46Speaker 1: that wasn't anything terrific from what we saw from the
- 42:49Speaker 1: one performance. I think he gave them a really really
- 42:54Speaker 1: great second bite at the cherry. Didn't he like a
- 42:56Speaker 1: second wind? It's a strong era. I do know people
- 42:59Speaker 1: who prefer the years we've running to the years we've seen.
- 43:04Speaker 2: That's interesting.
- 43:06Speaker 1: He preferred that they find that that's more to their taste,
- 43:10Speaker 1: and I think this is I think running. I mean,
- 43:13Speaker 1: look at the guy. I mean, he'd recorded three of
- 43:15Speaker 1: the biggest albums in rock and metal ad and he
- 43:18Speaker 1: done Rainbow Rising, which is one of the greatest Holy Diver.
- 43:21Speaker 1: I guess you know in heaven and Hell he's got
- 43:24Speaker 1: those three three different bands that given acts. There's not
- 43:27Speaker 1: many people can say that. And Tony Iomi, I mean,
- 43:31Speaker 1: what a riff machine, what a monster. There are so
- 43:33Speaker 1: many colossal riffs and throughout this work and solos that
- 43:38Speaker 1: he done with Running and Geezer Butler. Absolute legends, all
- 43:42Speaker 1: of them, absolute legends.
- 43:43Speaker 2: And this book captures it all. Black Sabbath, the Deal years,
- 43:46Speaker 2: every album, every song out now find it wherever your
- 43:49Speaker 2: books are sold. I know in the UK always best
- 43:51Speaker 2: to go to BURNINGSHD dot com. Yeah, you could go
- 43:54Speaker 2: to Amazon if you'd like to get a copy. In
- 43:57Speaker 2: the States, look for a Juniorest bookstore. Booked on rock
- 44:00Speaker 2: dot com. You can always find your nearest in your
- 44:02Speaker 2: penny bookstore now, Chris cof. People can find you online
- 44:06Speaker 2: or you got to bring your website.
- 44:07Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm glad you said that. It's words on music.
- 44:12Speaker 1: That's one word.
- 44:12Speaker 2: Dot online words our music that online, which I've I've
- 44:17Speaker 2: been to it, and I want to thank you because
- 44:18Speaker 2: you have posted I think all of our interviews there.
- 44:21Speaker 1: I thought I had. Then I found some bits and
- 44:24Speaker 1: edits and video clips that you'd put and I've missed. Ah.
- 44:27Speaker 2: Yeah, so you've got to keep up.
- 44:31Speaker 1: Yeah, we'll be linking to this. It's been an interest.
- 44:35Speaker 1: I've got tons and tons of material and ideas of
- 44:38Speaker 1: things to put on, going back to when I started
- 44:43Speaker 1: back in my ear going to the Birmingham ode in
- 44:46Speaker 1: in Birmingham, So you'll be getting a lot of detail.
- 44:48Speaker 1: The one thing I will say is I'm not doing
- 44:50Speaker 1: short stuff on there, so either read it in bits
- 44:54Speaker 1: or don't read it, because there won't be anything like
- 44:57Speaker 1: short and quick.
- 44:59Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, I don't do that.
- 45:02Speaker 1: And what the other thing I intend to do is
- 45:04Speaker 1: a lot of the interviews that I've done for these books,
- 45:06Speaker 1: you kind of have to use clips here and clips
- 45:10Speaker 1: there and so on, so you'll start to see them
- 45:13Speaker 1: come up as they were in a sequence. So already
- 45:16Speaker 1: on there. It's a very interesting interview. I think we
- 45:19Speaker 1: Mike Butcher, who co produced and engineered Black Subbath Sabotage
- 45:24Speaker 1: album that's already on there, and he's very interesting talking
- 45:29Speaker 1: about how they recorded Sabotage and what happened. That's the
- 45:32Speaker 1: whole piece. So you haven't got a way through my
- 45:35Speaker 1: book on Black Sabbath and the seventies to find the
- 45:37Speaker 1: Butcher bits. They'll be there.
- 45:39Speaker 2: Yeah, here we go and you got your book right
- 45:40Speaker 2: there on the front page.
- 45:42Speaker 1: Yeah. Can I say thanks by the Waiting books, I
- 45:44Speaker 1: mean thanks to your show. I get emails messages from
- 45:49Speaker 1: Americans mostly, it has to be said. The Sparks book
- 45:52Speaker 1: was colossal to me if I got from that, and
- 45:57Speaker 1: it's really great to I love hearing from people. So
- 45:59Speaker 1: if anybody wi to get in touch, ask any questions
- 46:01Speaker 1: or anything, I'll reply to everybody.
- 46:03Speaker 2: Yeah, thanks so much, Chris. Even if I can help
- 46:05Speaker 2: sell one more copy of a book than I've done
- 46:08Speaker 2: my joke.
- 46:10Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, thanks. This is always the greatest thrill to
- 46:15Speaker 1: come on and talk to you.
- 46:16Speaker 2: Oh you are I've I have folks that I call
- 46:21Speaker 2: a friend of the podcast, and you've been on many
- 46:22Speaker 2: times and I always love having you. Now we have
- 46:24Speaker 2: great discussions, so I'm looking forward to to what's next.
- 46:28Speaker 2: I mean, I don't know, man. I just you mentioned UFO.
- 46:31Speaker 2: Has there been a Sonic Bond book on UFO?
- 46:34Speaker 1: Yeah, somebody else did it, which is great. I've met
- 46:37Speaker 1: a lot of musicians over the years.
- 46:39Speaker 2: I'm working on Colkington that did the UFO book.
- 46:43Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it was. I mean because of you,
- 46:45Speaker 1: any effect and all this and the linked sparks in
- 46:48Speaker 1: the eighties is sort of happening.
- 46:50Speaker 2: In the core.
- 46:52Speaker 1: I'm working on that. I'm working on the entire book
- 46:54Speaker 1: and Alice Cooper's Billion Dollar Babies.
- 46:56Speaker 2: Okay, oh man, that's awesome.
- 46:59Speaker 1: And I've got material for that that nobody's ever seen
- 47:02Speaker 1: or heard before, which has blown me away from some
- 47:05Speaker 1: very generous people. And I'm doing another history book, which
- 47:09Speaker 1: is outside. I've wrote quite a few history books. I've
- 47:12Speaker 1: got another one of those on the way as well.
- 47:14Speaker 2: Cool. You look forward to Alice Cooper's book in the
- 47:16Speaker 2: fall very much.
- 47:19Speaker 1: Do you know? One of the problems. I think you
- 47:22Speaker 1: put this on. But one of the problems is knowing
- 47:24Speaker 1: when to stop, because you put out requests for interviews,
- 47:27Speaker 1: and as you'll know, some people don't reply. It's gone
- 47:29Speaker 1: to their spam. They've forgotten it. It was the wrong day,
- 47:32Speaker 1: something happened, and then they'll come back months later, or
- 47:34Speaker 1: maybe they weren't. You have to send another reminder and another,
- 47:37Speaker 1: so you keep chipping away, but you always think, shall
- 47:40Speaker 1: I stop now, or shall I hang on and try
- 47:42Speaker 1: again for that one or personal two people maybe order
- 47:45Speaker 1: it that I really would like to get their input,
- 47:48Speaker 1: and that that kind of is a problem. I had one.
- 47:51Speaker 2: But I love to talk to you though, because you've
- 47:53Speaker 2: talked with all the guys, I mean, most of the
- 47:56Speaker 2: members that he's worked with that it's done away.
- 47:59Speaker 1: Yeah, there's that. There's there's people. I mean, for example,
- 48:02Speaker 1: the one I'm trying to get for Billion Dollar Babies
- 48:05Speaker 1: is Donovan. Okay, and he sings. He sings the lead
- 48:09Speaker 1: vocals on Billion Dollar Babies with Alice Donovan, the folksinger.
- 48:12Speaker 1: He's the other vocalist. And I got to reply from
- 48:16Speaker 1: Donovan to say he would talk to me, and which
- 48:18Speaker 1: was beyond exciting. But now he's for whatever reasons, and
- 48:22Speaker 1: there could be a lot of reasons, he sort of
- 48:24Speaker 1: goes gone quiet. And that's okay. I understand that, but
- 48:28Speaker 1: you're still thinking, well, I don't want to finish this
- 48:30Speaker 1: book without him, and you.
- 48:31Speaker 2: Never know why. Maybe they have second thoughts, maybe there's
- 48:34Speaker 2: legal issues. Sometimes they are not allowed NDAs, they can't
- 48:37Speaker 2: say it too much. You never know what it is.
- 48:41Speaker 2: You never know. But at this point, now they see,
- 48:43Speaker 2: now that you've got this increasing body of work, these
- 48:46Speaker 2: books out, you know you can you get a little
- 48:50Speaker 2: more leverage each time.
- 48:51Speaker 1: I think, so I mean, that was the main reason
- 48:54Speaker 1: for having a website. That it was because you could
- 48:57Speaker 1: then say to people you're trying to get hold of, Look,
- 49:00Speaker 1: you can read the kind of thing I do. You
- 49:02Speaker 1: can read this until I'm not going to stitch you
- 49:04Speaker 1: up because I don't put everything in. I mean, people
- 49:07Speaker 1: do tell you stuff, and I try to send the
- 49:09Speaker 1: interview material back to them and say, look, this is
- 49:12Speaker 1: what you said, and on some occasions people have come
- 49:15Speaker 1: back and gone, well, I didn't mean to say that,
- 49:18Speaker 1: or I'd like to put that in a different way.
- 49:19Speaker 1: And that's okay with me because I'm not attempting to
- 49:23Speaker 1: do a journalistic kind of heavy approach on these things.
- 49:28Speaker 1: You're a fan, They're my heroes. I'm a fan.
- 49:30Speaker 2: You're a fan as much as you are a journalist.
- 49:34Speaker 2: The website thing is interesting because there was a time
- 49:36Speaker 2: there where I thought, raw, maybe you don't need a website,
- 49:38Speaker 2: But then I read all these articles about just marketing
- 49:41Speaker 2: and get getting the word out about because look, you know,
- 49:43Speaker 2: I'm an independent show here, so I got to work
- 49:46Speaker 2: hard to get the word out and it is actually important.
- 49:48Speaker 2: It's that you wanted to be the one stop, one
- 49:52Speaker 2: stop shopping type of thing or the hub for all
- 49:55Speaker 2: things your product. So when you do email somebody, you
- 50:01Speaker 2: could get too wordy or you just say, here's a
- 50:04Speaker 2: brief introduction, here's the link to my website. It's got
- 50:07Speaker 2: all the videos, got all the audio shows, it's got
- 50:10Speaker 2: the got a brief bio page. It's got everything that
- 50:12Speaker 2: you need to know. And I didn't realize that, but
- 50:15Speaker 2: that is an important thing. Websites are still important, especially
- 50:19Speaker 2: on the social media places you got to. You gotta
- 50:23Speaker 2: have a link to your website there, so it takes
- 50:25Speaker 2: them to everything. Link Tree is another good one, though
- 50:27Speaker 2: I don't have link Tree, but I have friends who
- 50:29Speaker 2: do link Tree, which is just a listing of all
- 50:31Speaker 2: their you know, all the websites that they're involved with,
- 50:35Speaker 2: or where they write, who they write for and all that.
- 50:37Speaker 2: But that's important to make it easy for people to
- 50:41Speaker 2: find you and find out about you.
- 50:43Speaker 1: It was quite an eye on the really just starting.
- 50:45Speaker 1: You think, I'll have a website so that that will help.
- 50:48Speaker 1: And I have no idea what I was letting myself.
- 50:50Speaker 2: I thought, I did oh, it's all yeah, right, I
- 50:53Speaker 2: did my I do my own website. Man, when I
- 50:55Speaker 2: first did it, I was like oof, I look back
- 50:57Speaker 2: at it and I was like, not too good. Still,
- 51:00Speaker 2: I have work to do on it.
- 51:01Speaker 1: But yeah, we've got one at work. And what's taken
- 51:05Speaker 1: off for us is the fact that we've got some
- 51:08Speaker 1: youngsters who want to come in and do TikTok, Instagram
- 51:12Speaker 1: and all this stuff, and they're talking in a language
- 51:16Speaker 1: I can barely understand, and I thought I knew this
- 51:18Speaker 1: stuff right. I mean, it's like those short clips on YouTube.
- 51:25Speaker 1: When did that become a thing that you sort.
- 51:26Speaker 2: Of It's a huge thing, Chris. I'm telling you, the
- 51:30Speaker 2: shorter the length of a video, the more views I get.
- 51:34Speaker 2: So the shorts are a minute or less now I
- 51:37Speaker 2: think YouTube allows a little over a minute now, but
- 51:40Speaker 2: those get more views. People their attention spans get smaller
- 51:44Speaker 2: and smaller, shorter and shorter, so you have to get
- 51:47Speaker 2: get them any way that you can. But then there
- 51:50Speaker 2: is the audience that does enjoy sitting down for an
- 51:53Speaker 2: hour and listening to an interview like us in full form.
- 51:55Speaker 2: But then there are people that That's why I cut
- 51:57Speaker 2: them up into highlights too, because sometimes people prefer just
- 52:00Speaker 2: five minutes, ten minutes. So there's all these different variations
- 52:04Speaker 2: of it's interesting it is. It's a lot of work,
- 52:09Speaker 2: but the folks that you're working with, they are younger.
- 52:13Speaker 2: It's important to have him because it's like he got
- 52:15Speaker 2: to keep up with the changing times. I would never
- 52:17Speaker 2: have social media for my own personal life because quite frankly,
- 52:20Speaker 2: I don't think anybody would give a crap. But I
- 52:22Speaker 2: need it for the show, so I you know, and
- 52:25Speaker 2: TikTok is for a younger audience, but hey, if I
- 52:27Speaker 2: grab a few more people, because quite frankly, I have
- 52:31Speaker 2: my nephew who's twenty years old, and he's got a
- 52:34Speaker 2: friend who loves classic rock and he's the same age,
- 52:36Speaker 2: twenty years old, So you don't know, there are people
- 52:39Speaker 2: out there that love classic rock that are younger. Most part,
- 52:43Speaker 2: when I look at the research, it shows that the
- 52:45Speaker 2: people that like reading the books that you write and
- 52:49Speaker 2: listening to the podcasts like I have, they're usually between
- 52:52Speaker 2: like I think, forty five and sixty five is like
- 52:55Speaker 2: the target, you know, because that's the age range that
- 52:58Speaker 2: grew up on it.
- 53:00Speaker 1: A girl working with some work experience recently and she said,
- 53:04Speaker 1: what do you do when you're not working here? And
- 53:06Speaker 1: I said, well, actually write books. And I've got a website,
- 53:10Speaker 1: that's what I like to do. Said, oh, who have
- 53:11Speaker 1: you written books about? And she said, and I swear
- 53:14Speaker 1: this is true, she said, who are a c DC?
- 53:17Speaker 2: Oh god, oh my god.
- 53:23Speaker 1: And that was my banker of the list of bands
- 53:25Speaker 1: that I looked at and thought, well, that's that's gonna
- 53:27Speaker 1: be okay.
- 53:28Speaker 2: No, see, now that's become Yeah. So now if guarantee
- 53:33Speaker 2: that they know a song by a CDC, probably a
- 53:36Speaker 2: handful of songs that they've heard they just don't know
- 53:38Speaker 2: it's CDC.
- 53:39Speaker 1: Yeah, that's what it's. Yeah. I think we're definitely looking
- 53:45Speaker 1: at the end of an era maybe, and I suppose
- 53:47Speaker 1: some of the songs will survive, won't they As you say,
- 53:49Speaker 1: they won't know it's a they don't even care what.
- 53:53Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, Chris, thanks again for coming on all the
- 53:58Speaker 2: best with this new book on Black So the deal Yu. Yeah,
- 54:01Speaker 2: we look forward to having you back on again, especially
- 54:03Speaker 2: for that book on the Alice album. We look forward
- 54:05Speaker 2: to that.
- 54:06Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, I'm not sure where that one's going to
- 54:07Speaker 1: actually pan O. I know how I'd like it to go.
- 54:12Speaker 1: And I think it'll be very interesting book because I
- 54:14Speaker 1: think it is a very interesting album and an era
- 54:18Speaker 1: in American history as well as Alice Coop's own personal history,
- 54:21Speaker 1: so I think hopefully I want to get.
- 54:23Speaker 2: A lot of that across it, all right, Chris, thank you.
- 54:26Speaker 1: Thank you again. Eric you take care. That's it. It's
- 54:35Speaker 1: in the box.