February 14, 2026 • 32 mins
I look back at the story behind Black Sabbath's 4th album Vol. 4 and how it helped to lead to the eventual breakup of the band's original line up.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
My name is Eric Gasco and you're listening to the
Distorted History podcast and program. I can't give you many names,
and you're a blunder. Hey, look I'm raising I'm got
(00:24):
the Sarah A long struggle for freedom. It really is
a revolution. Welcome to Distorted History and more specifically, our
monthly bonus episode of Sound Stories, where I focus specifically
(00:44):
on music. Now, my original idea for this episode has
simply been a kind of belated honoring of Ozzy Osborne
by looking back at his first solo album. Doing so
at least in part because I have absolutely no familiarity
with Ozzie's solo career. Yeah, the more I thought about it.
In addition to the story of Randy Rhodes, which we
will definitely get to, to properly tell the story of
(01:06):
that first solo album, I'd have to tell the story
of how the original Black Sabbath lineup fell apart. In
doing so, though, I didn't want to give that tale
a short shrift. But then the problem was how to
best relate the dissolution of that original lineup, as the
easiest thing would have been just to do their last
album together, but that didn't feel right as the issues
had cost the breakup had to have gone back years,
(01:28):
and so it was a question of tracing them back
and then laying out worthy problems started and how the
cracks formed within the band until a breakup was all
but inevitable. As I did some research, then, I found
that between my initial History of heavy Metal episode and
the episode on Master of Reality, I had covered what
some consider to be the initial period of Black Sabbath,
as following their original three albums, things started to change,
(01:51):
both in their sound and within the band. Nineteen seventy
three's Volume four then was a bit of a pivotal
moment for the band, a moment where they were still
producing what many considered to be some of their best music,
but also where the seeds of their eventual schism were planted. Indeed,
upon looking back in my episode on Master of Reality,
I had mentioned that these seeds of their eventual split
were planted in the period following the release of that album,
(02:14):
meaning the time period surrounding the creation of Volume four,
Which is all to say, then, instead of one episode
on the birth of Ozzi's solo career, this will be
a bit of a serious trace in the end of
the original Black Sabbath lineup and the eventual start of
Ozzi's solo career. Now, how many episodes will this bee?
I can't say, as I reserve the right to combine
albums into one episode if I don't find them more
(02:35):
their story particularly interesting. And I also can't say if
I'll be focusing on the initial deal Led Sabbath album
or not. I'll figure that out when I get there. Yet,
before we go any further into this tale about how
the original lineup of the original heavy metal band came
to an end. First, like always, I want to give
credit to my sources for this series. Paul Wilkinson's Rat Salad,
(02:56):
Black Sabbath, The Classic Gears nineteen sixty nineteen nineteen seventy five,
Dave Marsh and Mike Stark's Black Sabbath in Oral History,
mc Wall's Black Sabbath Symptom of the Universe, Ozzy Osborne's Iamazi,
and Tony Iomi's Iron Man. My Journey through Heaven and
Hell with Black Sabbath, in addition to articles by mcwall,
Corey Grow, Virginia Croft, Scott t Sterling, Sterling, Whittaker, and
(03:19):
Michael Christopher links to all of which can be found
on this podcast, Blue Sky and kofy pages. Plus for
anyone who doesn't want to be bothered skipping through commercials,
there is always an ad free feet available to subscribers
at patreon dot com slash Distorted History And with all
that being said, let's begin. Sabbath's third album, Master of Reality,
would prove to be their breakthrough hit in the US
(03:41):
as a monster first album to reach the top ten
on the US charts. To capitalize on the success, the
band's management in nineteen seventy one set them out on
a fifty seven show US tour that lasted from July
to October, which was said to be mainly followed by
a thirty show UK and European tour. This was, to
put it lightly and incredibly rolling and taxing schedule that
(04:01):
his time went on was increasingly fueled by cocaine. According
to guitarist Tony Iomi, it all started for him in
nineteen seventy one during a stop in la As. It
was there before a show that he happened to mention
to one of the roadies how tired he was, to
which the roady suggested he should do a line of coke. Now,
according to Iomi. He wasn't sure about this, as it
wasn't a drug he was familiar with, as it was
(04:23):
more of an American thing at the time, but the
roady assured him it was fine, and for a while
he was. In fact, if anything, Iomi felt better than
ever after doing that line of coke where he had
been exhausted and worn out, he now had plenty of
energy to take the stage, which he did and felt
great doing it, so great in fact, that he would
do another line before the next show. And that's where
(04:45):
it started to spiral, as it started to become a
bit of a habit. Yet Mommy Coke kept them going
and allowed them to finish up their extended toward the States.
The first part of their follow up European tour had
to be canceled due to exhaustion from being only road
fairly constantly for five years at this point. Indeed, according
to Basiskeezer Butler, by this point, one show was just
(05:05):
bleeding into the next. There was no downtime, no time
to recover or cale like oneself physically or mentally. Instead, quote,
the trouble wasn't them days, It wasn't oh have a
few weeks off until you feel better. It was here
having a line of this or a smoke of that.
Take these pills that will keep you going. It was
about keeping going on the road until one day I
knew I'd had enough and had to stop. The others
(05:27):
weren't happy, but there was nothing I could do. I
thought I'm cracking up here. You know. The thing was
and wasn't just Geezer who was breaking down. As already mentioned,
Iomi was only still going thanks to coke. Everyone then
was exhausted. Plusy also weren't in the best of health,
thanks in part due to the on ending touring and
recording schedule that they had been a part of the
(05:48):
past five years. Indeed, among their various ailments was the
fact that singer Ozzy Osborne was now suffering from laryngitis.
It should have been fairly clear then that they realistically
could not keep this kind of SkELL The problem was
they were now a popular band, and their management was
determined to strike while the iron was hot, and so
nineteen seventy two sow another massive multi month tour of
(06:10):
the States, during which time there was appeared where all
three of their albums were charting in the US. A
tour then very much seems to feature the typical kind
of decadence coming to major bands of that era, meaning
the reprivate planes, limos and groupies of plenty, which was
all followed up by just three days of rest before
flying off to Japan, or at least on was a
plan until they ran into a stag with their entry
(06:32):
feces due to pass criminal convictions, namely Ozzie had been
convicted of theft and both Iomi and drummer bill Ward
had been busted for weed. So with the band unable
to actually get into Japan, that tour and the subsequent
Australian tour were canceled, which was honestly a bit of
good news. Sys drummer bill Wood had along the way
gun hepatitis Bee from using dirty needles to inject drugs
(06:54):
with a disease, leaving him quote jaundice for months, although
that experience did not stop from resuming his old bad
habits as soon as he jaundice went away, plaus In
addition in giving them a bit of a chance to
recover for a change, this unexpected break was also for
tuitous as they were intent on finally taking some time
to fashion their next album. As keep in mind, they
(07:15):
had released her for three albums in the span of
two years, meaning that adam necessity, those albums had been
written more or less while on the road and then
recorded in the brief breaks in between tours. The band
then wanted to take their time with this one, especially
since they're renounce certain expectations for a group's fourth release
since led Zeppelin four had come out just six months earlier.
(07:36):
Plas Iomi in particular was getting sick a sabbath being
ignored by the musical press. Unlike Deep Purple and Zeppelin,
this then was going to be the band's chance to
stretch their wings and show off a bit now that
they had some time to actually craft an album, So
the band set up shop in a studio in Birmingham
to begin work. The problem was, more often than not,
guitarist and essentially band leader Tony Iomi was left in
(07:59):
the studio by himself to come up with ideas on
his own, as while sure the others would show up
in the studio at the start of each day seemingly
ready to get to work. The issue was after a
few unstructured jams, three fourths of the band would take
advantage of the fact that there was a pub right
down the street. According to Iomi quote, it's not like
it was becoming harder to come up with stuff, but
(08:21):
the pub was only a mile away, and so just
as they were starting to come up with ideas, the
others would ditch to go down to the pub. Iomi, though,
would stay behind, intent on working, only for the others
to come stumbling back in plastered a few hours later
the see if he had come up with something, a
situation which Iomi felt put all the pressure on him.
This routine then lasted for about a week before Tony
(08:43):
was completely over it. As such, he jumped at the
proposition to pick up shop and had to La and
a move that was as much as anything else, designed
to save money, as by leaving England they would be
a voting British taxes plus studios were chieved or read
in La then they were in England. The band, meanwhile,
were passingly familiar with the city after playing a few
concerts there over the last couple of years, and they
(09:05):
liked the general vine there, with Ward noting that quote,
we felt and was pretty laid back here, so we
probably weren't tried to do the fact that it was
a much lower pace here and we could actually relax.
During their stay, the group would all live together in
a six bedroom, seven bathroom bellair mention that they were
renting from millionaire John Dupond. In particular, they would jam
(09:25):
and work on material in the mansions enormous ballroom, with
Iomi noting quote, we had the equipment set up in
a room off by the swimming pool, and we could
just rehearse writ stuff in the day and party all night.
The band then spent several weeks working on new songs
for the album, with Iomi describing it as a quote, Hey,
great atmosphere. We had a fabulous time. This then allowed
(09:46):
the band, for really the first time since they started out,
to experiment and stretch their creative wings. As you see,
their first three albums, in part because they had been
created so close together in the span of two years,
were very similar in tone, with to later stating that
the quote first three albums could have all been from
the same batch. Really, this then was an opportunity to
(10:06):
change things of a bid and add some new elements. Time,
though wasn't the only thing they had in abundance, Darring
their stay in la As also feeling the band during
this period were drugs, a lot of drugs. Indeed, reportedly,
according to their manager, the album itself, in terms of
studio time, would ultimately cost sixty five thousand dollars to produce,
while their cocaine bill during the same time came to
(10:28):
something like seventy five thousand dollars. Obviously, then the band's
drug use was beginning to spiral out of control, with
Ozzy describing the bandazy monkeys, evil twins, the junkies. In fact,
Whyomi would credit a quote enormous quantity of coke as
feeling the creation of this album. It wasn't the only
drug they were consuming, with Osbourne standing quote, we were
(10:50):
all fucked up bad dealers coming around every day with cocaine,
demorrel morphine. In fact, Ozzie would claim to have been
smoking a bag of weed of data. Quote it don't
stop my heart from exploding, presumably from all the cocaine
he was doing. Yet, while there were other drugs on offer,
including LSD, which it seems that both Gezer Butler and
Ozzie experimented with around this time, it was cocaine that
(11:13):
was seemingly the main drug of choice for Black Sabbath
at this juncture. Indeed, it seems that the fine waypowder
would arrive with the mansion hidden into turgent boxes and
then would be poured out onto marble banquet tables, so
there would be mounds of cocaine just sitting around, so
the band members could just take as much as they wanted,
whenever they wanted. It also wasn't just about the quantity
(11:33):
of cocaine that was available either, as it would also
be provided with the purest cocaine in the United States,
thanks reportedly to their manager's mob ties, who regularly had
vials of pure cocaine brought to the mansion. Now, what
are the atmosphere inside the mansions? Started getting around and
soon there was a bit of a ground regularly showing
up to experience some of what was going on the
(11:54):
band and regularly played host to all manner of groupies,
drug dealers, and various hangers on who wanted a t
to that Simpney's rock star lifestyle. In fact, the things
on offer at the mansion were so decadent and over
the top that even other rock stars like Pete Townsend
would stop by simply due to the well known quantity
and quality of the drugs available. It has to be stressed, though,
that all this was going on while they were technically
(12:16):
there to work, and while they did get some work
done in the mansion, it seems that it wasn't always
the best environment to get work done in, so while
the rest of the band and whatever guess they had
at the time, were doing their thing back at the mansion,
Iomi again found themselves spending more and more time down
at the Record Plant studio, as in addition to being
the primary creative force behind the album, this would also
(12:37):
be the first Black Sabbath record not produced by Roger Bain,
as Iomi officially took over those responsibilities, a decision that
had nothing to do with Baine or its competence, but
it was simply down to the fact that, according to
Iomi quote, we had done so much studio work by
then that we felt we knew how to do it
ourselves now. The Record Plant was a state of the
art studio at the time, not just in the equipment
(12:59):
that it offered artists to work with, but it was
also one of, if not the first, studio to offer
artists a more relaxed atmosphere to work in, with the
understanding being that it would be more conductive to the
process of creation, which certainly made it easier for Iomen
to spend more and more time in the studio working. However,
obviously the thing that really kept the guitarist working through
(13:19):
the night was of course cocaine. As for the rest
of the band, Molly would indeed regularly Joe Naomi in
the studio. They were apparently a bit more reluctant when
doing so, as according to Ozzy quote, You've got to
remember coming from the backstreets in Birmingham. Now we've got
a house in bal Air with a hit record. People
no our music and we were the kings of the planet,
(13:40):
so we experienced everything we could now. The record plant
notable and cutting edge, not just for the less clinical
(14:02):
and more relaxed atmosphere that it fostered, as it also
had the newest equipment available, which meant the band had
the ability to record more tracks than they had on
their past albums. This and allowed them to create a
heavier sound for no other reason than by being able
to give the drums more tracks. That being said, this
album is perhaps most notable for containing the band's first
full long ballad love song Changes, which may have been
(14:25):
in part an attempt to get the music press to
mention Sabbath in the same breathless groups like led Zeppelin
and The Who. Regardless, the song first started taking shape
thanks to guitarist Tony Iomi messing around with the piano
in the mansion's ballroom, an instrument that, it has to
be noted, he had never played before. He would though,
learn it bit by bit in between lines of coke,
which apparently kept him awake and focused as he worked.
(14:48):
It was during this time then that Iomi came up
with this little tune that he could play. Upon hearing this,
Ossie came in and started humming a melody over the
piano phrase that he was playing. Then, as the song
was starting to take shape, they had a melotron brought
in think and early kind of synthesizer where these sounds
are made by an audiotape which plays a recording of
different instruments when a key is depressed. Bassis Skeezer Bothered
(15:10):
then took up the challenge of toying around with this
quirky instrument and using it to add more texture to
the song, which I have to say, after listening to
Sabbath's first three albums several times to try and put
everything into context, Changes really does stand out in contrast
to everything else. Granted, they had moments of purposeful lightness
before to auset their heavier signature sound, but even in
(15:31):
the light of songs like Planet Caravan and Solitude, among others,
this is something else altogether, most notably because it's just
a piano, melotron and vocals, which was a major departure
from everything else they'd ever done. This departure from what
one would consider more traditional Sabbath extended to its lyrics,
which Gezer has said were inspired by the fact that quote,
(15:52):
Tony had just broken up with his girlfriend at the time,
and Bilm was going through a divorce, so there was
quite a melancholy air in the house, and I just
picked up on that mean mole. When the band's American label,
Warner Brothers, heard a song, they immediately saw it as
a sure fire hit single. The band, or more specifically
Tony Iomi, though, would reject this idea, selecting the album's
second track, Tomorrow's Dream, to be the soul single released
(16:14):
off the album, a track that was much more in
line with the traditional Black Sabbath sound than Changes, which
likely explains why Iomi, who was dead set on only
ever releasing one single from an album, wanted to select
that track as it was much more representative of the
rest of the album. Ban Mall Tomorrow's Dreams lyrics were
inspired by Mark Bollen and his band t Rex, a
(16:35):
group who were a massive success in England, with their
most recent album going straight to the top of the
charts in the UK, but at the same time they
never were able to find that same level of success abroad. Indeed,
that very same album would peak at just thirty two
in the States. Yet for as much as the label
loved what they had done with Changes, it doesn't seem
like everyone was completely on board with the more quote
(16:56):
unquote sophisticated direction that Iomi seemed to be pursued. Indeed,
drummer Bill Ward at one point reportedly demanded that they
should quote forget the fucking melotron and string quartets and
do some blues jams. He wanted to get back to basics,
get back to what they were best at, and stop
messing around with stuff that wasn't really Black Sabbath. Iaomi, though,
(17:17):
didn't really seem to appreciate being questioned on such matters
as Word after speaking out in this manner, started to
sense a coldness between them. Indeed, it got to the
point that Bill began to realize that his position within
the band was not as secure as he thought. Plus,
it didn't help matters that Ward struggled muddily when trying
to record another song on the album, Cornucopia, a song
about being driven mad by modern society and consumerism in particular. Ward, however,
(17:41):
would be driven mad during the recording process for a
much different reason, as while the track starts off with
a very traditional Sabbath heavy ominous riff, it quickly shifts
gears to a more bouncy upbeing rhythm and some apparently
challenging time signatures and changes that might have been a
bit more challenging than normal due to the wild controlled
drug and alcohol use going on at the time. To
(18:03):
this point. Ward would later recall that quote, I hated
the song. There were some patterns that were just horrible.
I nailed it in the end, but the reaction I
got was the cold shoulder from everybody. It was like, well,
just go home, You're not being of any use right now.
I felt like I had blown it. I was about
to get fired. That being said, the rest of the
band almost killing their drummer had nothing to do with
(18:24):
any kind of interpersonal issues, but instead was the result
of a prank gone wrong. It apparently all started out
with a night of drinking, during which time Word passed
out completely naked, at which point the others decided to
take advantage of the situation by painting their pastile bandmate
with the ample supply of gold spray paint and clear
lacquer that they had found in the mansion's garage. This
(18:46):
would prove to be an extremely bad idea, as it
wasn't long after being painted and lacquered that Word started convulsing.
The others in swiftly called an ambulance and wouldn't receive
a start talking to from the paramedics. They gave Word
a shot of a Trendlin and unless the bandy use
paintstripper to get all the pain and lacquer off of
his body. Life threatening pranks aside, Wood was likely more
(19:08):
in tune with some of the more traditional Black Sabbath
style heavier tracks on the album, like, for example, its
opener Wheels of Confusion, which had initially been about environmentalism
but was eventually reworked into a song more about growing up,
encountering the world, losing your innocence, and ultimately coming to
the realization that the world will still go on once
you're dead and gone. Vendrim was Saint Vida's Dance, a
(19:30):
song about trying to convince a friend not to break
up with a woman who they think is only after
their money, but who simply just actually loves them, with
the title being a reference to the so called Dancing Plague,
where groups of Europeans in the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries
seemingly started dancing against their will until they passed out
or even in some cases, reportedly died. Now there is
(19:51):
a neurological disorder involved the uncontrolled jerking movements of the
limbs and face that shares his name, but I suspect
they're more likely referencing the unexplained historical phenomenon, likely to
choose the title due to the kind of jaunty incher
riff that is repeated periodically throughout the song. Then there's
the album Closer onto the Sun, whose construction is according
to Ozzy fairly typical of how Sabbath works sometimes, as
(20:15):
he would basically write two songs and then decide to
make those two songs into one really good one by
taking them apart and then piecing them together. For example,
onto the song's bridge every Day Comes and Goes was
seemingly originally a different song, and was then worked into
unto the Sun, much like the Oucher for Wheels off
Confusion as dubbed thee Straightener, likely because it was originally
(20:35):
its own song idea as well. That all being said,
Sabbath always looked to put softer songs on their albums
to act as a contrast against their heavier tracks, to
make them seem that much more heavier in comparison with
the acoustic instrumental Laguna Sunrise being another example in their tradition,
a song inspired as you might have guessed pro its
name from Martin the Sun Come Up from Laguna Beach,
(20:58):
basically toning the band's head roadmaic such you had stayed
up the entire night, and upon being inspired by the
natural beauty they had experienced, the two started composing the
piece on their acoustic guitars as they tried to capture
the natural beauty they had experienced. As they did, Iomi
had the idea of adding a string arrangement to the piece,
at which point guitarist Tony Iomi and bass player User
(21:19):
Butler got a hold of a violin and a cello
as they tried to do it all by themselves. Yet
their attempt didn't exactly go as planned, as Iomi would
describe what he and Butler produced as quote, absolutely disastrous.
It sounded like a dying cat. I bought this violin,
which I have no idea how to play the bloody thing.
I don't know what I was thinking really. Butler would
(21:41):
echo the sentiment as he explained that their initial thinking
was quote you see simony orchestras and things, and you think,
oh I could play bass, or I could play guitar.
How hard can cello be? And then I got this cello.
I couldn't make head nor tail of it. So after
this failed experiment, they opted to hire session musicians who
actually knew what they were doing in doing so, though
Iomi and Spock, their afromentioned road manager, tried writing the
(22:04):
parts themselves, but that again obviously did not work, so
they again got someone who knew what they were doing
to write the orchestral part. Ultimately, though more than anything else,
this album was fueled and inspired by the toopious amounts
of drugs they were consuming. Take for example, Supernot, a
song whose main riff I initially assumed to be much
more complex than it actually is, features lyrics about wanting
(22:26):
to touch the sun in the sky all without needing
the fly, which seemingly strongly hints at the band's increasingly
run away drug use, lyrics which, by the way, bassist
Geezer Butler claims to have not much memory of writing,
which again strongly suggests the inspiration being the aforementioned drugs.
Then there was the instrumental interlude FX, which was the
(22:46):
result of Iaomi setting his guitar down in the studio
without turning the volume down first. The instrument then started
feeding back and which poet Iomi, who was blitzed out
of his mind on a combination of whed and cocaine,
quote chapped. It ened when Boy and of course the
engineers recorded it. And it was a bit man really
because we were really out of it, which might be
a bit of an understatement, as Geezer Butler would tell
(23:09):
a more detail story where after hearing this initial interesting
noise quote, Tony took all his clothes off, but he
still had his cross on, and his cross got to
bouncing up on the strings on his guitar, and he
was just messing about dancing around the studio with no
clothes on, and the engineer put an effect on in
the control room and it sounded quite good, so we
went out and started hitting the strings as well as
(23:30):
his cross. Basically, then you have a pretty high and
naked Tony Iomi dancing around with his guitar his cross,
hitting the strings, and his bandmates also coming in and
whacking at them to make weird noises. Now, Iomi, when
later hearing the product of this experience, did not take
it seriously, and as SANJ did not intend to include
it on the album, but the others were apparently insistent.
(23:51):
And then, of course there is Stone Blind, a not
so veiled reference to their cocaine News, which basically puts
these activities on Front Street as Ozzie sings about something
blow going inside his head, building dreams on flegs of snow.
And if that wasn't clear enough, there's also the stage
whisper of cocaine at the end of the first verse. Now,
this of course, was not the first song that Black
(24:11):
Sabbath had written about drugs, but it does illustrate their
shifting dedication away from the sweet leaf of weed. Indeed,
according to Ozzy, quote, we wrote stone Blind because it
was the most amazing discovery of our lives. We thought
that's what success was. Further illustrating their love affair with
cocaine was the album's liner notes that included a special
dedication to the quote Coke Cola Company of Los Angeles. Indeed,
(24:35):
the group was so infatuated with their new drug of
choice that they wanted to call the album itself stone Blind,
but what our brothers weren't super comfortable with the name
and demanded it be called something different. Reportedly, though by
the time they did so, the label could not get
into contact with anyone actually in the band, so their
manager just told in the call in Volume four, a
decision that no one in the band was happy about. Meanwhile,
(24:59):
you likely won't be some he tries to learn that
all the drugs they were consuming during their stay in
La started making at least Ozzy paranoid. Indeed, after going
to see the French Connection, in any local theater. The
singer began hyperventilating as he grew increasingly worried about the
mysterious types that were bringing them all their drugs. Also
not helping their collective nurse was the day the police
(25:19):
showed up at the mansion they were renting. Obviously convinced
that they were being raided, the band started rushing around
the mansion, dumping tens of thousands of dollars worth of
drugs as they did, only to learn that it wasn't
a rate at all, but that the cops were simply
responding to an emergency alert. As you see, apparently the
mansion had these buns that sent an alert to the
police station. Now, no one in the band knew this,
(25:40):
and so one of them earlier in the day had
pushed one of these buns, not knowing what it did.
But the next thing they did know was that the
cops aroundside and they were in a panic. Drug field
escapades aside. Once they were finished writing and recording their
fourth album, Iomi took charge of the final mixing process
while the others het it home, during which time Ozzie
was married to his first wife, Thoma and who was
(26:01):
also a father for the first time purchased a house
for his family. Meanwhile, the others also looked to take
advantage of their sudden wealth, as both Bather and Ward
would purchase Royal's voices during the spit of downtime, although
it should be noted that all this was done through
their management, who had complete control over all the money
they ban had made. Regardless, the product of all their
(26:22):
efforts and drug use would be released in the world
on the twenty fifth of September nineteen seventy two. The
im media's response to the album, though, would be mixed,
as he Buttish pressed still very much did not care
for Sabbath, with Max Bell calling the album a quote
monumental bore that being said. Over in America, Lester Banks,
who had hated their previous albums, now sounded more like
(26:43):
a fan as he wrote, quote, we have seen the
students take on the night ferrogiously and go tumbling into
its mall, and Alice Cooper is currently exploiting it for
all it's worth, turning it into a circus. But there
is only one band that has dealt with it honestly
on terms of meaningful too. Vast portions of the audience
only grappling with it any mythic structure that's both personal
and universal, but also managing to prosper as well. That
(27:07):
band is Black Sabbath. Sabbath then went from a group
that Lester dismissed entirely out of hand to being a
quote band with a conscience who have looked around them
and taken it upon themselves to reflect the chaos and
a way that they see is positive. By now they
have taken some tentative steps toward offering alternatives. Yet despite
gaining the respect of one of their harshest critics and
(27:27):
its eventual place for many among the ranks of the
band's best efforts, the sales of Volume ford did not
necessarily reflect this, as Volume four not only failed to
live up to the success of Master of Reality, but
would also prove to be their lowest charting album in
the US since their debut, as it peaked at number
thirteen on the charts. Iomi in particular came to see
(27:47):
the album as a failure that he blame on the
rest of the band for basically a quote leaving everything
up to me. As While much as Sabbath's music was
based in centator around Iomi's riffs, the band's best work
only seemed to be the product of all of them
working together. Iomi liked it better when everyone was there together,
adding their own ideas into the mix, so that he
(28:08):
could play off of them and take some of the
burden off his shoulders. Plasi also felt that the way
the album fit in with their previous work was a
bit strange for Iomi, while they did indeed want to
stretch their wings a bit so as to not get
trapped into having to do the same thing all the time.
Quote Volume four was such a complete change. We felt
we had jumped an album. Really, it didn't follow suit
(28:29):
because we had tried to go too far. We had
reached the limitous far as we wanted to go. Iomi
then was determined that next time things are going to
be different. In retrospect, though, Volume four, even though it
was lacking in the more doom metal style elements that
characterized their earlier releases, it remains a pretty high point
for the band. Yet at the same time, it also
(28:49):
seems to mark the beginning of the end for the
original lineup in some ways, as while they had not
yet begun to fall apart in earnest. The seeds of
their issues were seemingly planted here, with bill Ward later
noting how the Creational Volume four was quote not quite
the same as their first three albums. For the Drummer,
then he identifies this as he pointed, quote, when there
(29:11):
was a shift. For me, it was the end of
the innocence. It was the end of the energy force
and all that stuff that we felt. It seemed like
it was coming to an end. All of us, I
think were very tired. Indeed, it very much seems that
at this point the drunks are the only thing that
kept them going. In fact, during her subsequent tour of
the US, they had their own personal coke dealer who
followed them around with what Ozzi would describe as a
(29:33):
suitcase full of cocaine. The thing was, this could only
keep going for so long, and it all came to
a head at a gig at the Hollywood ball As
it was here that Iomi's body just seemed to give out.
According to Ozzie, quote, Tony had been doing coke literally
for days. Me all had, but Tony had gone over
the edge. He walked off stage and collapsed. For his part,
(29:55):
Iomi would describe what happened quote, I just remember going
to the last song then er boink and gone. The
doctor who examined me said, you've got to go on
the next plane back to England, go straight home and
just take it easy. According to the guitarist, then he
was on the verge of having a nervous breakdown, and
so he was prescribed valume and high doses, which he
(30:16):
said made him feel like a zombie. But the fact
of the matter was he needed rest and he break
from the lifestyle. From what Bassis Geezer Baller recalls, quote,
it was really touch and go whether he would survive
or not because he was totally depleted. So we had
to cancel the rest of the tour and we actually
took time off for the first time since the band started.
We got away from each other. The combination of exhaustion
(30:39):
from the Nostop touring and recording schedule with little to
no breaks, and their drug use, which in part was
a consequence of that groelling schedule, was beginning to catch
up with them. Tony had ultimately collapsed, while Warren had
experienced some struggles in the studio, which may have been
related to everything going on in the Mansion regardless of
the reason, though, the band was not quite the same
(30:59):
group they had been for their first three albums when
they were a unified whole working together. Now that's not
to say that the magic was gone just yet, but
the factors were seemingly starting the form Yet. The story
of Black Sabbath continuing triumphs and struggles that ultimately led
to the dissolution of the original lineup we'll have to
for now remain a story for another time. Thank you
(31:26):
for listening to Distorted History. If you would like to
help out, please rate and review the podcasts and tell
your friends if you think they'll be interested. If you
would like ad free in early episodes, I set up
such a feed over at patreon dot com slash Distorted History.
By paying ten bucks a month, you will gain access
to the special ad free feed available on Spotify or
likely through your podcast app as long as it uses
(31:47):
an RSS feed. I will continue to post sources on
koffee and Twitter, though, as it's just a convenient place
to go to access that information. Regardless, once again, thank
you for listening and until next time. Isla
My name is Eric Gasco and you're listening to the
Distorted History podcast and program. I can't give you many names,
and you're a blunder. Hey, look I'm raising I'm got
(00:24):
the Sarah A long struggle for freedom. It really is
a revolution. Welcome to Distorted History and more specifically, our
monthly bonus episode of Sound Stories, where I focus specifically
(00:44):
on music. Now, my original idea for this episode has
simply been a kind of belated honoring of Ozzy Osborne
by looking back at his first solo album. Doing so
at least in part because I have absolutely no familiarity
with Ozzie's solo career. Yeah, the more I thought about it.
In addition to the story of Randy Rhodes, which we
will definitely get to, to properly tell the story of
(01:06):
that first solo album, I'd have to tell the story
of how the original Black Sabbath lineup fell apart. In
doing so, though, I didn't want to give that tale
a short shrift. But then the problem was how to
best relate the dissolution of that original lineup, as the
easiest thing would have been just to do their last
album together, but that didn't feel right as the issues
had cost the breakup had to have gone back years,
(01:28):
and so it was a question of tracing them back
and then laying out worthy problems started and how the
cracks formed within the band until a breakup was all
but inevitable. As I did some research, then, I found
that between my initial History of heavy Metal episode and
the episode on Master of Reality, I had covered what
some consider to be the initial period of Black Sabbath,
as following their original three albums, things started to change,
(01:51):
both in their sound and within the band. Nineteen seventy
three's Volume four then was a bit of a pivotal
moment for the band, a moment where they were still
producing what many considered to be some of their best music,
but also where the seeds of their eventual schism were planted. Indeed,
upon looking back in my episode on Master of Reality,
I had mentioned that these seeds of their eventual split
were planted in the period following the release of that album,
(02:14):
meaning the time period surrounding the creation of Volume four,
Which is all to say, then, instead of one episode
on the birth of Ozzi's solo career, this will be
a bit of a serious trace in the end of
the original Black Sabbath lineup and the eventual start of
Ozzi's solo career. Now, how many episodes will this bee?
I can't say, as I reserve the right to combine
albums into one episode if I don't find them more
(02:35):
their story particularly interesting. And I also can't say if
I'll be focusing on the initial deal Led Sabbath album
or not. I'll figure that out when I get there. Yet,
before we go any further into this tale about how
the original lineup of the original heavy metal band came
to an end. First, like always, I want to give
credit to my sources for this series. Paul Wilkinson's Rat Salad,
(02:56):
Black Sabbath, The Classic Gears nineteen sixty nineteen nineteen seventy five,
Dave Marsh and Mike Stark's Black Sabbath in Oral History,
mc Wall's Black Sabbath Symptom of the Universe, Ozzy Osborne's Iamazi,
and Tony Iomi's Iron Man. My Journey through Heaven and
Hell with Black Sabbath, in addition to articles by mcwall,
Corey Grow, Virginia Croft, Scott t Sterling, Sterling, Whittaker, and
(03:19):
Michael Christopher links to all of which can be found
on this podcast, Blue Sky and kofy pages. Plus for
anyone who doesn't want to be bothered skipping through commercials,
there is always an ad free feet available to subscribers
at patreon dot com slash Distorted History And with all
that being said, let's begin. Sabbath's third album, Master of Reality,
would prove to be their breakthrough hit in the US
(03:41):
as a monster first album to reach the top ten
on the US charts. To capitalize on the success, the
band's management in nineteen seventy one set them out on
a fifty seven show US tour that lasted from July
to October, which was said to be mainly followed by
a thirty show UK and European tour. This was, to
put it lightly and incredibly rolling and taxing schedule that
(04:01):
his time went on was increasingly fueled by cocaine. According
to guitarist Tony Iomi, it all started for him in
nineteen seventy one during a stop in la As. It
was there before a show that he happened to mention
to one of the roadies how tired he was, to
which the roady suggested he should do a line of coke. Now,
according to Iomi. He wasn't sure about this, as it
wasn't a drug he was familiar with, as it was
(04:23):
more of an American thing at the time, but the
roady assured him it was fine, and for a while
he was. In fact, if anything, Iomi felt better than
ever after doing that line of coke where he had
been exhausted and worn out, he now had plenty of
energy to take the stage, which he did and felt
great doing it, so great in fact, that he would
do another line before the next show. And that's where
(04:45):
it started to spiral, as it started to become a
bit of a habit. Yet Mommy Coke kept them going
and allowed them to finish up their extended toward the States.
The first part of their follow up European tour had
to be canceled due to exhaustion from being only road
fairly constantly for five years at this point. Indeed, according
to Basiskeezer Butler, by this point, one show was just
(05:05):
bleeding into the next. There was no downtime, no time
to recover or cale like oneself physically or mentally. Instead, quote,
the trouble wasn't them days, It wasn't oh have a
few weeks off until you feel better. It was here
having a line of this or a smoke of that.
Take these pills that will keep you going. It was
about keeping going on the road until one day I
knew I'd had enough and had to stop. The others
(05:27):
weren't happy, but there was nothing I could do. I
thought I'm cracking up here. You know. The thing was
and wasn't just Geezer who was breaking down. As already mentioned,
Iomi was only still going thanks to coke. Everyone then
was exhausted. Plusy also weren't in the best of health,
thanks in part due to the on ending touring and
recording schedule that they had been a part of the
(05:48):
past five years. Indeed, among their various ailments was the
fact that singer Ozzy Osborne was now suffering from laryngitis.
It should have been fairly clear then that they realistically
could not keep this kind of SkELL The problem was
they were now a popular band, and their management was
determined to strike while the iron was hot, and so
nineteen seventy two sow another massive multi month tour of
(06:10):
the States, during which time there was appeared where all
three of their albums were charting in the US. A
tour then very much seems to feature the typical kind
of decadence coming to major bands of that era, meaning
the reprivate planes, limos and groupies of plenty, which was
all followed up by just three days of rest before
flying off to Japan, or at least on was a
plan until they ran into a stag with their entry
(06:32):
feces due to pass criminal convictions, namely Ozzie had been
convicted of theft and both Iomi and drummer bill Ward
had been busted for weed. So with the band unable
to actually get into Japan, that tour and the subsequent
Australian tour were canceled, which was honestly a bit of
good news. Sys drummer bill Wood had along the way
gun hepatitis Bee from using dirty needles to inject drugs
(06:54):
with a disease, leaving him quote jaundice for months, although
that experience did not stop from resuming his old bad
habits as soon as he jaundice went away, plaus In
addition in giving them a bit of a chance to
recover for a change, this unexpected break was also for
tuitous as they were intent on finally taking some time
to fashion their next album. As keep in mind, they
(07:15):
had released her for three albums in the span of
two years, meaning that adam necessity, those albums had been
written more or less while on the road and then
recorded in the brief breaks in between tours. The band
then wanted to take their time with this one, especially
since they're renounce certain expectations for a group's fourth release
since led Zeppelin four had come out just six months earlier.
(07:36):
Plas Iomi in particular was getting sick a sabbath being
ignored by the musical press. Unlike Deep Purple and Zeppelin,
this then was going to be the band's chance to
stretch their wings and show off a bit now that
they had some time to actually craft an album, So
the band set up shop in a studio in Birmingham
to begin work. The problem was, more often than not,
guitarist and essentially band leader Tony Iomi was left in
(07:59):
the studio by himself to come up with ideas on
his own, as while sure the others would show up
in the studio at the start of each day seemingly
ready to get to work. The issue was after a
few unstructured jams, three fourths of the band would take
advantage of the fact that there was a pub right
down the street. According to Iomi quote, it's not like
it was becoming harder to come up with stuff, but
(08:21):
the pub was only a mile away, and so just
as they were starting to come up with ideas, the
others would ditch to go down to the pub. Iomi, though,
would stay behind, intent on working, only for the others
to come stumbling back in plastered a few hours later
the see if he had come up with something, a
situation which Iomi felt put all the pressure on him.
This routine then lasted for about a week before Tony
(08:43):
was completely over it. As such, he jumped at the
proposition to pick up shop and had to La and
a move that was as much as anything else, designed
to save money, as by leaving England they would be
a voting British taxes plus studios were chieved or read
in La then they were in England. The band, meanwhile,
were passingly familiar with the city after playing a few
concerts there over the last couple of years, and they
(09:05):
liked the general vine there, with Ward noting that quote,
we felt and was pretty laid back here, so we
probably weren't tried to do the fact that it was
a much lower pace here and we could actually relax.
During their stay, the group would all live together in
a six bedroom, seven bathroom bellair mention that they were
renting from millionaire John Dupond. In particular, they would jam
(09:25):
and work on material in the mansions enormous ballroom, with
Iomi noting quote, we had the equipment set up in
a room off by the swimming pool, and we could
just rehearse writ stuff in the day and party all night.
The band then spent several weeks working on new songs
for the album, with Iomi describing it as a quote, Hey,
great atmosphere. We had a fabulous time. This then allowed
(09:46):
the band, for really the first time since they started out,
to experiment and stretch their creative wings. As you see,
their first three albums, in part because they had been
created so close together in the span of two years,
were very similar in tone, with to later stating that
the quote first three albums could have all been from
the same batch. Really, this then was an opportunity to
(10:06):
change things of a bid and add some new elements. Time,
though wasn't the only thing they had in abundance, Darring
their stay in la As also feeling the band during
this period were drugs, a lot of drugs. Indeed, reportedly,
according to their manager, the album itself, in terms of
studio time, would ultimately cost sixty five thousand dollars to produce,
while their cocaine bill during the same time came to
(10:28):
something like seventy five thousand dollars. Obviously, then the band's
drug use was beginning to spiral out of control, with
Ozzy describing the bandazy monkeys, evil twins, the junkies. In fact,
Whyomi would credit a quote enormous quantity of coke as
feeling the creation of this album. It wasn't the only
drug they were consuming, with Osbourne standing quote, we were
(10:50):
all fucked up bad dealers coming around every day with cocaine,
demorrel morphine. In fact, Ozzie would claim to have been
smoking a bag of weed of data. Quote it don't
stop my heart from exploding, presumably from all the cocaine
he was doing. Yet, while there were other drugs on offer,
including LSD, which it seems that both Gezer Butler and
Ozzie experimented with around this time, it was cocaine that
(11:13):
was seemingly the main drug of choice for Black Sabbath
at this juncture. Indeed, it seems that the fine waypowder
would arrive with the mansion hidden into turgent boxes and
then would be poured out onto marble banquet tables, so
there would be mounds of cocaine just sitting around, so
the band members could just take as much as they wanted,
whenever they wanted. It also wasn't just about the quantity
(11:33):
of cocaine that was available either, as it would also
be provided with the purest cocaine in the United States,
thanks reportedly to their manager's mob ties, who regularly had
vials of pure cocaine brought to the mansion. Now, what
are the atmosphere inside the mansions? Started getting around and
soon there was a bit of a ground regularly showing
up to experience some of what was going on the
(11:54):
band and regularly played host to all manner of groupies,
drug dealers, and various hangers on who wanted a t
to that Simpney's rock star lifestyle. In fact, the things
on offer at the mansion were so decadent and over
the top that even other rock stars like Pete Townsend
would stop by simply due to the well known quantity
and quality of the drugs available. It has to be stressed, though,
that all this was going on while they were technically
(12:16):
there to work, and while they did get some work
done in the mansion, it seems that it wasn't always
the best environment to get work done in, so while
the rest of the band and whatever guess they had
at the time, were doing their thing back at the mansion,
Iomi again found themselves spending more and more time down
at the Record Plant studio, as in addition to being
the primary creative force behind the album, this would also
(12:37):
be the first Black Sabbath record not produced by Roger Bain,
as Iomi officially took over those responsibilities, a decision that
had nothing to do with Baine or its competence, but
it was simply down to the fact that, according to
Iomi quote, we had done so much studio work by
then that we felt we knew how to do it
ourselves now. The Record Plant was a state of the
art studio at the time, not just in the equipment
(12:59):
that it offered artists to work with, but it was
also one of, if not the first, studio to offer
artists a more relaxed atmosphere to work in, with the
understanding being that it would be more conductive to the
process of creation, which certainly made it easier for Iomen
to spend more and more time in the studio working. However,
obviously the thing that really kept the guitarist working through
(13:19):
the night was of course cocaine. As for the rest
of the band, Molly would indeed regularly Joe Naomi in
the studio. They were apparently a bit more reluctant when
doing so, as according to Ozzy quote, You've got to
remember coming from the backstreets in Birmingham. Now we've got
a house in bal Air with a hit record. People
no our music and we were the kings of the planet,
(13:40):
so we experienced everything we could now. The record plant
notable and cutting edge, not just for the less clinical
(14:02):
and more relaxed atmosphere that it fostered, as it also
had the newest equipment available, which meant the band had
the ability to record more tracks than they had on
their past albums. This and allowed them to create a
heavier sound for no other reason than by being able
to give the drums more tracks. That being said, this
album is perhaps most notable for containing the band's first
full long ballad love song Changes, which may have been
(14:25):
in part an attempt to get the music press to
mention Sabbath in the same breathless groups like led Zeppelin
and The Who. Regardless, the song first started taking shape
thanks to guitarist Tony Iomi messing around with the piano
in the mansion's ballroom, an instrument that, it has to
be noted, he had never played before. He would though,
learn it bit by bit in between lines of coke,
which apparently kept him awake and focused as he worked.
(14:48):
It was during this time then that Iomi came up
with this little tune that he could play. Upon hearing this,
Ossie came in and started humming a melody over the
piano phrase that he was playing. Then, as the song
was starting to take shape, they had a melotron brought
in think and early kind of synthesizer where these sounds
are made by an audiotape which plays a recording of
different instruments when a key is depressed. Bassis Skeezer Bothered
(15:10):
then took up the challenge of toying around with this
quirky instrument and using it to add more texture to
the song, which I have to say, after listening to
Sabbath's first three albums several times to try and put
everything into context, Changes really does stand out in contrast
to everything else. Granted, they had moments of purposeful lightness
before to auset their heavier signature sound, but even in
(15:31):
the light of songs like Planet Caravan and Solitude, among others,
this is something else altogether, most notably because it's just
a piano, melotron and vocals, which was a major departure
from everything else they'd ever done. This departure from what
one would consider more traditional Sabbath extended to its lyrics,
which Gezer has said were inspired by the fact that quote,
(15:52):
Tony had just broken up with his girlfriend at the time,
and Bilm was going through a divorce, so there was
quite a melancholy air in the house, and I just
picked up on that mean mole. When the band's American label,
Warner Brothers, heard a song, they immediately saw it as
a sure fire hit single. The band, or more specifically
Tony Iomi, though, would reject this idea, selecting the album's
second track, Tomorrow's Dream, to be the soul single released
(16:14):
off the album, a track that was much more in
line with the traditional Black Sabbath sound than Changes, which
likely explains why Iomi, who was dead set on only
ever releasing one single from an album, wanted to select
that track as it was much more representative of the
rest of the album. Ban Mall Tomorrow's Dreams lyrics were
inspired by Mark Bollen and his band t Rex, a
(16:35):
group who were a massive success in England, with their
most recent album going straight to the top of the
charts in the UK, but at the same time they
never were able to find that same level of success abroad. Indeed,
that very same album would peak at just thirty two
in the States. Yet for as much as the label
loved what they had done with Changes, it doesn't seem
like everyone was completely on board with the more quote
(16:56):
unquote sophisticated direction that Iomi seemed to be pursued. Indeed,
drummer Bill Ward at one point reportedly demanded that they
should quote forget the fucking melotron and string quartets and
do some blues jams. He wanted to get back to basics,
get back to what they were best at, and stop
messing around with stuff that wasn't really Black Sabbath. Iaomi, though,
(17:17):
didn't really seem to appreciate being questioned on such matters
as Word after speaking out in this manner, started to
sense a coldness between them. Indeed, it got to the
point that Bill began to realize that his position within
the band was not as secure as he thought. Plus,
it didn't help matters that Ward struggled muddily when trying
to record another song on the album, Cornucopia, a song
about being driven mad by modern society and consumerism in particular. Ward, however,
(17:41):
would be driven mad during the recording process for a
much different reason, as while the track starts off with
a very traditional Sabbath heavy ominous riff, it quickly shifts
gears to a more bouncy upbeing rhythm and some apparently
challenging time signatures and changes that might have been a
bit more challenging than normal due to the wild controlled
drug and alcohol use going on at the time. To
(18:03):
this point. Ward would later recall that quote, I hated
the song. There were some patterns that were just horrible.
I nailed it in the end, but the reaction I
got was the cold shoulder from everybody. It was like, well,
just go home, You're not being of any use right now.
I felt like I had blown it. I was about
to get fired. That being said, the rest of the
band almost killing their drummer had nothing to do with
(18:24):
any kind of interpersonal issues, but instead was the result
of a prank gone wrong. It apparently all started out
with a night of drinking, during which time Word passed
out completely naked, at which point the others decided to
take advantage of the situation by painting their pastile bandmate
with the ample supply of gold spray paint and clear
lacquer that they had found in the mansion's garage. This
(18:46):
would prove to be an extremely bad idea, as it
wasn't long after being painted and lacquered that Word started convulsing.
The others in swiftly called an ambulance and wouldn't receive
a start talking to from the paramedics. They gave Word
a shot of a Trendlin and unless the bandy use
paintstripper to get all the pain and lacquer off of
his body. Life threatening pranks aside, Wood was likely more
(19:08):
in tune with some of the more traditional Black Sabbath
style heavier tracks on the album, like, for example, its
opener Wheels of Confusion, which had initially been about environmentalism
but was eventually reworked into a song more about growing up,
encountering the world, losing your innocence, and ultimately coming to
the realization that the world will still go on once
you're dead and gone. Vendrim was Saint Vida's Dance, a
(19:30):
song about trying to convince a friend not to break
up with a woman who they think is only after
their money, but who simply just actually loves them, with
the title being a reference to the so called Dancing Plague,
where groups of Europeans in the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries
seemingly started dancing against their will until they passed out
or even in some cases, reportedly died. Now there is
(19:51):
a neurological disorder involved the uncontrolled jerking movements of the
limbs and face that shares his name, but I suspect
they're more likely referencing the unexplained historical phenomenon, likely to
choose the title due to the kind of jaunty incher
riff that is repeated periodically throughout the song. Then there's
the album Closer onto the Sun, whose construction is according
to Ozzy fairly typical of how Sabbath works sometimes, as
(20:15):
he would basically write two songs and then decide to
make those two songs into one really good one by
taking them apart and then piecing them together. For example,
onto the song's bridge every Day Comes and Goes was
seemingly originally a different song, and was then worked into
unto the Sun, much like the Oucher for Wheels off
Confusion as dubbed thee Straightener, likely because it was originally
(20:35):
its own song idea as well. That all being said,
Sabbath always looked to put softer songs on their albums
to act as a contrast against their heavier tracks, to
make them seem that much more heavier in comparison with
the acoustic instrumental Laguna Sunrise being another example in their tradition,
a song inspired as you might have guessed pro its
name from Martin the Sun Come Up from Laguna Beach,
(20:58):
basically toning the band's head roadmaic such you had stayed
up the entire night, and upon being inspired by the
natural beauty they had experienced, the two started composing the
piece on their acoustic guitars as they tried to capture
the natural beauty they had experienced. As they did, Iomi
had the idea of adding a string arrangement to the piece,
at which point guitarist Tony Iomi and bass player User
(21:19):
Butler got a hold of a violin and a cello
as they tried to do it all by themselves. Yet
their attempt didn't exactly go as planned, as Iomi would
describe what he and Butler produced as quote, absolutely disastrous.
It sounded like a dying cat. I bought this violin,
which I have no idea how to play the bloody thing.
I don't know what I was thinking really. Butler would
(21:41):
echo the sentiment as he explained that their initial thinking
was quote you see simony orchestras and things, and you think,
oh I could play bass, or I could play guitar.
How hard can cello be? And then I got this cello.
I couldn't make head nor tail of it. So after
this failed experiment, they opted to hire session musicians who
actually knew what they were doing in doing so, though
Iomi and Spock, their afromentioned road manager, tried writing the
(22:04):
parts themselves, but that again obviously did not work, so
they again got someone who knew what they were doing
to write the orchestral part. Ultimately, though more than anything else,
this album was fueled and inspired by the toopious amounts
of drugs they were consuming. Take for example, Supernot, a
song whose main riff I initially assumed to be much
more complex than it actually is, features lyrics about wanting
(22:26):
to touch the sun in the sky all without needing
the fly, which seemingly strongly hints at the band's increasingly
run away drug use, lyrics which, by the way, bassist
Geezer Butler claims to have not much memory of writing,
which again strongly suggests the inspiration being the aforementioned drugs.
Then there was the instrumental interlude FX, which was the
(22:46):
result of Iaomi setting his guitar down in the studio
without turning the volume down first. The instrument then started
feeding back and which poet Iomi, who was blitzed out
of his mind on a combination of whed and cocaine,
quote chapped. It ened when Boy and of course the
engineers recorded it. And it was a bit man really
because we were really out of it, which might be
a bit of an understatement, as Geezer Butler would tell
(23:09):
a more detail story where after hearing this initial interesting
noise quote, Tony took all his clothes off, but he
still had his cross on, and his cross got to
bouncing up on the strings on his guitar, and he
was just messing about dancing around the studio with no
clothes on, and the engineer put an effect on in
the control room and it sounded quite good, so we
went out and started hitting the strings as well as
(23:30):
his cross. Basically, then you have a pretty high and
naked Tony Iomi dancing around with his guitar his cross,
hitting the strings, and his bandmates also coming in and
whacking at them to make weird noises. Now, Iomi, when
later hearing the product of this experience, did not take
it seriously, and as SANJ did not intend to include
it on the album, but the others were apparently insistent.
(23:51):
And then, of course there is Stone Blind, a not
so veiled reference to their cocaine News, which basically puts
these activities on Front Street as Ozzie sings about something
blow going inside his head, building dreams on flegs of snow.
And if that wasn't clear enough, there's also the stage
whisper of cocaine at the end of the first verse. Now,
this of course, was not the first song that Black
(24:11):
Sabbath had written about drugs, but it does illustrate their
shifting dedication away from the sweet leaf of weed. Indeed,
according to Ozzy, quote, we wrote stone Blind because it
was the most amazing discovery of our lives. We thought
that's what success was. Further illustrating their love affair with
cocaine was the album's liner notes that included a special
dedication to the quote Coke Cola Company of Los Angeles. Indeed,
(24:35):
the group was so infatuated with their new drug of
choice that they wanted to call the album itself stone Blind,
but what our brothers weren't super comfortable with the name
and demanded it be called something different. Reportedly, though by
the time they did so, the label could not get
into contact with anyone actually in the band, so their
manager just told in the call in Volume four, a
decision that no one in the band was happy about. Meanwhile,
(24:59):
you likely won't be some he tries to learn that
all the drugs they were consuming during their stay in
La started making at least Ozzy paranoid. Indeed, after going
to see the French Connection, in any local theater. The
singer began hyperventilating as he grew increasingly worried about the
mysterious types that were bringing them all their drugs. Also
not helping their collective nurse was the day the police
(25:19):
showed up at the mansion they were renting. Obviously convinced
that they were being raided, the band started rushing around
the mansion, dumping tens of thousands of dollars worth of
drugs as they did, only to learn that it wasn't
a rate at all, but that the cops were simply
responding to an emergency alert. As you see, apparently the
mansion had these buns that sent an alert to the
police station. Now, no one in the band knew this,
(25:40):
and so one of them earlier in the day had
pushed one of these buns, not knowing what it did.
But the next thing they did know was that the
cops aroundside and they were in a panic. Drug field
escapades aside. Once they were finished writing and recording their
fourth album, Iomi took charge of the final mixing process
while the others het it home, during which time Ozzie
was married to his first wife, Thoma and who was
(26:01):
also a father for the first time purchased a house
for his family. Meanwhile, the others also looked to take
advantage of their sudden wealth, as both Bather and Ward
would purchase Royal's voices during the spit of downtime, although
it should be noted that all this was done through
their management, who had complete control over all the money
they ban had made. Regardless, the product of all their
(26:22):
efforts and drug use would be released in the world
on the twenty fifth of September nineteen seventy two. The
im media's response to the album, though, would be mixed,
as he Buttish pressed still very much did not care
for Sabbath, with Max Bell calling the album a quote
monumental bore that being said. Over in America, Lester Banks,
who had hated their previous albums, now sounded more like
(26:43):
a fan as he wrote, quote, we have seen the
students take on the night ferrogiously and go tumbling into
its mall, and Alice Cooper is currently exploiting it for
all it's worth, turning it into a circus. But there
is only one band that has dealt with it honestly
on terms of meaningful too. Vast portions of the audience
only grappling with it any mythic structure that's both personal
and universal, but also managing to prosper as well. That
(27:07):
band is Black Sabbath. Sabbath then went from a group
that Lester dismissed entirely out of hand to being a
quote band with a conscience who have looked around them
and taken it upon themselves to reflect the chaos and
a way that they see is positive. By now they
have taken some tentative steps toward offering alternatives. Yet despite
gaining the respect of one of their harshest critics and
(27:27):
its eventual place for many among the ranks of the
band's best efforts, the sales of Volume ford did not
necessarily reflect this, as Volume four not only failed to
live up to the success of Master of Reality, but
would also prove to be their lowest charting album in
the US since their debut, as it peaked at number
thirteen on the charts. Iomi in particular came to see
(27:47):
the album as a failure that he blame on the
rest of the band for basically a quote leaving everything
up to me. As While much as Sabbath's music was
based in centator around Iomi's riffs, the band's best work
only seemed to be the product of all of them
working together. Iomi liked it better when everyone was there together,
adding their own ideas into the mix, so that he
(28:08):
could play off of them and take some of the
burden off his shoulders. Plasi also felt that the way
the album fit in with their previous work was a
bit strange for Iomi, while they did indeed want to
stretch their wings a bit so as to not get
trapped into having to do the same thing all the time.
Quote Volume four was such a complete change. We felt
we had jumped an album. Really, it didn't follow suit
(28:29):
because we had tried to go too far. We had
reached the limitous far as we wanted to go. Iomi
then was determined that next time things are going to
be different. In retrospect, though, Volume four, even though it
was lacking in the more doom metal style elements that
characterized their earlier releases, it remains a pretty high point
for the band. Yet at the same time, it also
(28:49):
seems to mark the beginning of the end for the
original lineup in some ways, as while they had not
yet begun to fall apart in earnest. The seeds of
their issues were seemingly planted here, with bill Ward later
noting how the Creational Volume four was quote not quite
the same as their first three albums. For the Drummer,
then he identifies this as he pointed, quote, when there
(29:11):
was a shift. For me, it was the end of
the innocence. It was the end of the energy force
and all that stuff that we felt. It seemed like
it was coming to an end. All of us, I
think were very tired. Indeed, it very much seems that
at this point the drunks are the only thing that
kept them going. In fact, during her subsequent tour of
the US, they had their own personal coke dealer who
followed them around with what Ozzi would describe as a
(29:33):
suitcase full of cocaine. The thing was, this could only
keep going for so long, and it all came to
a head at a gig at the Hollywood ball As
it was here that Iomi's body just seemed to give out.
According to Ozzie, quote, Tony had been doing coke literally
for days. Me all had, but Tony had gone over
the edge. He walked off stage and collapsed. For his part,
(29:55):
Iomi would describe what happened quote, I just remember going
to the last song then er boink and gone. The
doctor who examined me said, you've got to go on
the next plane back to England, go straight home and
just take it easy. According to the guitarist, then he
was on the verge of having a nervous breakdown, and
so he was prescribed valume and high doses, which he
(30:16):
said made him feel like a zombie. But the fact
of the matter was he needed rest and he break
from the lifestyle. From what Bassis Geezer Baller recalls, quote,
it was really touch and go whether he would survive
or not because he was totally depleted. So we had
to cancel the rest of the tour and we actually
took time off for the first time since the band started.
We got away from each other. The combination of exhaustion
(30:39):
from the Nostop touring and recording schedule with little to
no breaks, and their drug use, which in part was
a consequence of that groelling schedule, was beginning to catch
up with them. Tony had ultimately collapsed, while Warren had
experienced some struggles in the studio, which may have been
related to everything going on in the Mansion regardless of
the reason, though, the band was not quite the same
(30:59):
group they had been for their first three albums when
they were a unified whole working together. Now that's not
to say that the magic was gone just yet, but
the factors were seemingly starting the form Yet. The story
of Black Sabbath continuing triumphs and struggles that ultimately led
to the dissolution of the original lineup we'll have to
for now remain a story for another time. Thank you
(31:26):
for listening to Distorted History. If you would like to
help out, please rate and review the podcasts and tell
your friends if you think they'll be interested. If you
would like ad free in early episodes, I set up
such a feed over at patreon dot com slash Distorted History.
By paying ten bucks a month, you will gain access
to the special ad free feed available on Spotify or
likely through your podcast app as long as it uses
(31:47):
an RSS feed. I will continue to post sources on
koffee and Twitter, though, as it's just a convenient place
to go to access that information. Regardless, once again, thank
you for listening and until next time. Isla
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