The Black Sabbath collaboration Ozzy Osbourne tried to prevent in 1978: “Others were complaining:
It’s remarkable to think that a band like Black Sabbath were able to make albums that sounded so monumental and deafening with only four members, let alone just three instrumentalists.
Generating this much noise as a relatively small ensemble is impressive in any era, but was especially so for the 1970s, when the technology arguably wasn’t as advanced and couldn’t stand up to modern standards of production. Black Sabbath were an absolute beast of a band in this regard, and it’s understandable why so many modern metal outfits still regard them as the most important act to have ever existed within the genre.
The thing is, not only was it impressive, but why on earth would you ever feel the need to add anything to the formula when it already worked so well? For the first half of the decade, Sabbath barely needed to alter their approach due to how well they managed to tighten up their songwriting and musicianship, but things would eventually reach a point where this simple approach no longer worked in their favour.
Towards the end of the decade, the band were finding themselves slowly running out of steam and ideas, both due to exhaustion and spiralling struggles with substance abuse affecting various members. In order to reinvent themselves, guitarist Tony Iommi began to throw out some suggestions that had the potential to rescue them from the doldrums, hoping that a new challenge would improve their fortunes.
However, while many would argue that more guitars would have been the appropriate option for a heavy metal outfit such as them, what Iommi proposed was something that would alienate certain members of the band.
During a 1994 interview with journalist Gary James, Iommi was quizzed on why he suggested that the band should bring in a string section for one of the sessions for their 1978 album, Never Say Die!. However, the response that he received from Ozzy Osbourne in particular suggested that he wasn’t on board with this supposed sophistication of their sound, even though that wasn’t Iommi’s intention with the move.
“I think what Black Sabbath was all about was expanding,” Iommi recalled of the dispute between him and Osbourne. “We just didn’t stay in one bag. Ozzy realises that now of course. He’s done it himself now. I also brought in the complete London Choir on one as well, for one instrumental tune I’d done. That’s what we were about. We were about expanding and trying things.”
Both the strings and choir made it onto ‘Breakout’, the instrumental song that Iommi had composed for the album, and he remembers that despite initial pushback, it was eventually accepted. “Everybody liked it in the end, so none of the others were complaining,” he added. “They thought it was a great idea. I mean, I just didn’t do it on my own power. I said to everybody, ‘What about this?’ and they’d say, ‘Oh yeah, let’s try it.’”
It worked for other bands, so why wouldn’t it have worked for them? Ultimately, Osbourne wasn’t aggrieved by the decision; he was just tired of fronting the band, and consequently, Never Say Die! would be the last Black Sabbath album he contributed to for 35 years.
