The three Black Sabbath albums Tony Iommi hates: “It related to drugs”
Tony Iommi is the architect of Black Sabbath. Although Ozzy Osbourne takes the bulk of the plaudits due to his iconic status as their hell-raising frontman, Iommi shaped the band’s sound and brought metal to the masses.
Iommi represents the heart and soul of Black Sabbath. While he released one solo album in 2000, even that record featured contributions from Osbourne and drummer Bill Ward. The band runs through his DNA and represents an intrinsic part of his life that he’ll never escape despite retiring.
While Black Sabbath will undeniably be remembered for changing the face of heavy rock music, that’s not to say they left behind a flawless back catalogue. Like any other band that existed for half a century, Sabbath made several mistakes along the way, including three albums Iommi looks back upon with regret.
With ‘Paranoid’, Black Sabbath essentially invented heavy metal, or at least popularised the genre. Their pioneering instincts are admirable, but not everything they touched during their journey turned to gold. While they kept their experimental intuitions alive throughout their tenure and developed a more textured sound as the years progressed, life was never straightforward for the group.
Even when Sabbath were creatively firing on all cylinders, conditions were chaotic, and turmoil was always loitering around the corner. According to Iommi, substance abuse and a revolving door policy on singers would hamper their artistry.
The first LP that Iommi expressed remorse regarding is 1981’s Mob Rules. Iommi and Geezer Butler were the only founding members of the group who appeared on the record following the departures of Osbourne and Ward. To worsen their problems, following the album, their replacements, Ronnie James Dio and Vinny Appice, also left the group before returning a decade later.
“We were all going through a lot of problems at that time, most of it related to drugs,” Iommi admitted to Guitar World. “Even the producer, Martin Birch, was having drug problems, and it hurt the sound of that record. Once that happens to your producer, you’re really screwed. Mob Rules was a confusing album for us. We started writing songs differently for some reason and ended up not using a lot of really great material.”
Another album from their catalogue that doesn’t leave Iommi brimming with pride is Technical Ecstacy. It marked their final record with Osbourne during his first spell with the group. Things had grown tired for the group, and they attempted to freshen things up but ultimately missed the mark. “Black Sabbath fans generally don’t like much of Technical Ecstasy,” Iommi said. “It was really a no-win situation for us. If we had stayed the same, people would have said we were still doing the same old stuff. So we tried to get a little more technical, and it just didn’t work out very well.”
Iommi’s reasoning for disliking Mob Rules and Technical Ecstasy is somewhat similar. On both occasions, Black Sabbath attempted reinvention and suffered from an identity crisis, which made the albums lack conviction. However, the album Iommi condemned in the strongest terms is Born Again, their only record made with Deep Purple vocalist Ian Gillan. The guitarist claimed the lack of chemistry with the singer was an issue, and this was the only LP they made with his involvement. “When we first put that line-up together [Ian Gillan, Iommi, Butler, Ward], it was only on paper – done purely by lawyers,” Iommi said.
“Ian is a great singer, but he’s from a completely different background [Deep Purple], and it was difficult for him to come in and sing Sabbath material,” he added. “To be honest, I didn’t like some of the songs on that album – and the production was awful.”
Considering the circus surrounding Black Sabbath throughout their career and the challenging conditions they worked under, it’s a miracle that only three albums are on this list. Nevertheless, while Iommi would rather these records didn’t exist, they all play a significant role in shaping the story of Sabbath, even if the music missed the spot.
