The 1980 Black Sabbath show in Milwaukee that ended after only two songs: “You hit Geezer on the head”
Given how much they’d fallen from the highs of their impeccable six-album run that kicked off the 1970s, it shouldn’t have come as a surprise to Black Sabbath that some sort of unrest would come their way when the classic lineup began to show signs of faltering.
The foursome of Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward were untouchable in the early years of the project, but when they started to change their approach and introduce new ideas, things slowly began to fall apart at the seams, with the band ending the decade by releasing two of their weakest albums in Technical Ecstasy and Never Say Die!.
Osbourne’s departure after the release of these records rocked the group, who would have to scramble to find a suitable replacement for the peerless frontman who had helped to define them. While 10 people in total have assumed the role, one of the most significant names, and one of the most long-running replacements for Osbourne, was Ronnie James Dio, who had previously proven his stock as a rock vocalist in the British group Rainbow.
One might think that with Dio having taken his place at the helm after Osbourne’s departure, the turbulence would be immediately able to come to an end, and a certain sense of normalcy would be able to resume as they embarked on tours and returned to the studio with their new-look setup. However, their 1980 US tour alongside Blue Öyster Cult proved that they still had plenty of problems to iron out before they could return to their peak.
Despite their decline in fortunes and the loss of an integral member, Sabbath were still able to command a huge audience in the States, but when they arrived in Milwaukee, over halfway through an extensive string of dates that saw them play a total of 74 shows, the proverbial shit immediately hit the fan. The band had already gone through significant upheaval by this point in the tour, with drummer Bill Ward having also stepped aside from his duty due to an increasing issue with substance abuse, but his absence proved to be the least of their problems.
As they took to the stage for their headline set at the Mecca Arena, the audience were already restless, having sat through a changeover between sets that lasted longer than an hour, and even though Sabbath would eventually appear before them, fans were aggrieved that they’d had to wait for so long. One member of the audience, in his frustration at the delays, launched a projectile at Butler as he was playing the intro to their second song, ‘NIB’, knocking him out.
The band were forced to cut the set short, having only completed one song prior to the bassist’s injury, something that Dio immediately called the crowd out for. “You’ve thrown something for the last time,” he lectured. “You hit Geezer on the head. We don’t appreciate that either. We wanted to give a lot for you, but not our blood.”
Butler was rushed to the hospital, but it’s not there that the drama ended… When it was officially announced by the show’s producers that the performance would not continue, the crowd broke out into a riot, with the police eventually having to get involved to break up the ensuing fracas.
Sabbath may have continued with their tour the next day, but if there’s any evidence that the band were still feeling the effects of a turbulent end to the ‘70s, it’s the catastrophic events of this performance in Milwaukee that barely lasted two songs.
