Ian Gillan on his time with Black Sabbath: “That was the longest party that I ever went to”
Black Sabbath is an unrelenting force with its music. Its sound is heavy, unforgiving, and packed with energy. The band also lived a life that was equal parts heavy, unforgiving, and packed with energy. This eventually drove the band to breaking point, as Ozzy Osbourne’s nonstop partying and addictive behaviour led to a rift forming in the band that wouldn’t be soon fixed.
Black Sabbath’s issue when they asked Osbourne to leave the band was that they couldn’t find a singer to replace him. He had an excellent voice, one that packed a punch and fit the band’s style perfectly, but it was a lot more than that. He had charisma and came across as a likeable man, so much so that he was given his own TV show as people wanted to know more about him. How do you replace someone who has such a big impact?
Sabbath started with Ronnie James Dio, someone with an unbelievable voice—so much so that many people would argue he was better than Osbourne—but he couldn’t replace Osbourne’s stage presence. There were a lot of question marks about Dio joining the band, and though an album they would make ten years later, Dehumanizer, would end up being one of Sabbath’s best, he initially left after one year as he couldn’t find his feet.
In 1983, Black Sabbath enlisted the help of Ian Gillan. He was able to find his feet in the band a little bit better after already experiencing some of the biggest highs that a musician could ever encounter. As the vocalist for Deep Purple, the traction gained by songs such as ‘Smoke On The Water’ amounted to what other bands could only dream of, so he was an ideal fit for the band.
While the pairing might make sense, it happened on a night when all involved were in a completely nonsensical state. On a night out with Black Sabbath bassist and guitarist Geezer Butler and Tony Iommi, Gillan decided to join the band after a conversation he doesn’t even remember having.
“That was the longest party that I ever went to. That lasted about a year, the recording and the tour,” he said. “I was at a loose end, I had no band and they had no singer. It worked out pretty conveniently for all of us really. Yeah, we went out and got smashed one night, Tony, Geezer and I. We ended up under the table and had to be swept out.”
Waking up the following day, Gillan received a message from his manager. “My manager called me the next day and said, ‘If you are going to make career decisions, maybe you should give me a call first’. I said that, ‘I don’t know what you are talking about’, but apparently, I had agreed to join Black Sabbath the night before.”
The two worked well together and ended up recording an album called Born Again, which was released in 1983. It’s by no means Black Sabbath or Ian Gillan’s best, but it’s a solid piece of music, with Gillan’s voice sounding in full force and Sabbath not pulling any punches instrumentally.
Gillan and the band both consider the experience positive. Even though it didn’t last long, it helped them out of creative slumps and produced an excellent piece of work. “It was one of those things, and I had a fantastic time,” Gillan concluded. “I have great memories of it, and I am still in touch with Tony. We do a few bits and pieces together. I’m just following his progress…”
