And that goes for Ian Gillian, Tony Martin, solo Iommi with Glenn, Geezer’s solo work, Bill Ward’s solo work, all the way down the line. So when Ozzy blew up as a solo act I still thought of him as part of Black Sabbath. I wore Black Sabbath like a chip on my shoulder and never looked back. Sabbath was the property of the ignored, the forgotten, the abandoned, the rejected, and that was how I began to prefer it. A tiny bit of our solidarity with that heavy sound was lost.
When Quiet Riot’s “Metal Health” album hit number one on the Billboard charts, and all of those “smart” kids began singing those songs in the hallways, it actually pissed me off a little. I had always hoped that Black Sabbath would grow more popular and accepted by the world but I still wanted them to be mine. They were savagely outnumbered by students who were generally more popular and probably got better grades who thought that Duran Duran, Talking Heads, and Depeche Mode were the gospels of music. Sabbath and Zeppelin fans were there, but more often than not, they were counted among the misfit kids, the burnouts, and the troubled. Not to mention the fans, and if your high school hallways in the ’80s were anything like mine, electro-pop, soft rock, and boring solo artists ruled the day. They had a gigantic stigma attached to them due to misunderstandings and misjudgments of those in the industry, music critics who let their inflated egos get in the way of impartiality, religious and civic leaders who used the band as scapegoats in their closed-minded crusades, and radio stations who shunned any music that could be considered controversial or could lead to public judgments about their own beliefs, political convictions, and corporate motivations. Lots of people today have no idea how reviled Black Sabbath was in the ’70s and ’80s. Heavy Metal had a following, to be sure, but in many ways, it was a black sheep of the music world. I took personal pride in Ozzy’s breakout success, as it exposed Black Sabbath to a new generation of fans, and helped to alter the negative zeitgeist of the time against the band.
Now, to be honest, I have followed and pretty much adopted as family everyone involved with Sabbath over the years. For reference, my high school senior yearbook attributed my favorite phrase as “We’re off to the witch!”
My high school years were bookended by the Holy Diver and Intermission releases, which covered Ronnie’s most successful period as a solo artist. When he left to form Dio, I was crushed that Sabbath was changing, but also very curious to hear his solo work, I wanted clarity on how much of Black Sabbath’s successful second act could be attributed to his input. I got into Black Sabbath in a very similar fashion as Joe Siegler, during Ronnie’s first stint with the band, in the very early ’80s. And the 10th anniversary of his death next year will no doubt be filled with many testimonials and remembrances from so many people all over the world that I feel like this is a better time to share mine. I’ve recapped this monumental and bitter-sweet event a couple of times on over the years from the standpoint of a reporter, but today I want to share some personal memories of that night, and of Ronnie’s impact on my life. And it was also the last hurrah of the Mach II Black Sabbath lineup (or IIA for Bill Ward loyalists). It’s the 10th anniversary of the final concert performance of Ronnie James Dio. Enjoy….Īugust 29th, 2009 is yet another heavy metal milestone day. That’s what this post is – a story by my friend Damian who did the nitty gritty work of filming at the show.Īs today is the 10th anniversary of that Heaven and Hell concert, Damian whipped up this excellent story looking back on the events of that day. What hasn’t really been told before is the story of how that video came about. I was fortunate to be able to send a couple of guys to film video of the last show on that tour (in my name – I wasn’t there), and y’all have seen the product of that before – I’ve posted the video many times since. 10 years ago today, was the last time that Ronnie James Dio took the stage for a concert.
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