Geezer Butler on the Black Sabbath album that “revived” the band
Geezer Butler from Black Sabbath has revealed their album Heaven and Hell “revived” the band following Ozzy Osbourne’s exit. The LP was their first with Ronnie James Dio.
Butler made the remarks during a new interview with Planet Rock. Looking back at the tumultuous point in their career when Osbourne was on the brink of leaving, he said: “Yeah, ’cause we all knew that the end had come for the original lineup of the band. Ozzy really wasn’t into it anymore; I don’t think any of us were, really. And we tried to write another album together and it just wasn’t happening. Ozzy was in a bad physical and mental shape, and he needed to just go away and get himself together. And he’d already left once the year before.”
He continued: “Tony had met Ronnie, and he came in one day and he says, ‘Well, I’m gonna work with Ronnie, this great singer that I just met the other night. He’s really enthusiastic about what he wants to do. He’s got some great ideas.’ And I just thought it was gonna be Tony and Ronnie getting together and doing an album on their own.”
On Osbourne’s exit, he elaborated: “And then the whole Ozzy thing happened — Ozzy left; well, he was pushed out, for his own good, to go and get help. And Tony said, ‘What about listening to this guy that I met, Ronnie?’ So Ronnie came over. And we’d been working on ‘Children Of The Sea’ at the time, but [there were] no vocals on it. And Ronnie came in and just put these vocals to ‘Children Of The Sea’. We [just went], ‘Wow. This is brilliant.’ He got exactly what we were trying to do.”
From that moment, everything had fallen into place with Dio rescuing the band and keeping Black Sabbath alive while Osbourne went solo. Their first album together Heaven and Hell sold over a million copies, re-energising the group.
Reflecting on the album, Butler said: “We were told that there was no way you can go out and not have Ozzy as your singer. So we weren’t expecting that much. And then the album came out and it did incredibly well — [it sold] millions. And the gigs sold out straight away. It was like being revived again — it was like from the ashes, the phoenix rises. It was incredible.”
Meanwhile, Butler recently confirmed he doesn’t want to participate in another Black Sabbath reunion, stating, “I don’t want to do anything anymore”.
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