The difference between Ozzy Osbourne and Ronnie James Dio, according to Tony Iommi
When the lead singer of a band leaves, it spells real trouble. In a lot of cases, it means the end, as the attempt to continue on without the voice or the driving force behind a group is often too impossible to even attempt. But in 1979, when Ozzy Osbourne departed Black Sabbath, the band were determined to keep going with a new face at the helm. Ronnie James Dio was the man for the job, and according to Tony Iommi, he brought something very different to the table.
After a lead singer is gone, there are three paths to take. The first, and probably the easiest, is to call it quits, disband and start something new. The second is to find a close copy of the original and attempt to move forward as if nothing has changed. The third and the bravest of the options is to change directions, find someone new and exciting, and push on into a different chapter in the group’s history.
In rock, there are several examples of that bold third option. After Bon Scott died, AC/DC called on relative unknown Brian Johnson to take over. Pink Floyd moved in a whole new direction after kicking Syd Barrett out. Fleetwood Mac reinvented themselves again and again as the lineup shifted. Then, in 1979, Black Sabbath joined their ranks as they dusted themselves off from Osbourne’s shock exit and rebuilt with the help of Dio.
“To be honest, the way things were in the band at that point was fairly dismal, you know,” Iommi recalled of Osbourne’s last years in the group. “Things weren’t happening, and Ozzy really wasn’t into it anymore. He was going through a lot of stuff at the time. And we had to either break up or replace him, which we didn’t want to do,” he said before admitting, “But it got to that.”
Both of those things happened. Initially, in 1977, Osbourne quit right before the band were about to record a new album. However, the members managed to convince him to stay, only to realise it was the wrong move. Osbourne was unreliable and uncommitted, so two years later, in 1979, the group had to cut him loose.
But what to do next? How do you go about replacing a frontman as looming as Ozzy Osbourne? The band’s answer: you don’t. Rather than even attempting to replace him, they decided to find someone completely different, making it clear that they weren’t looking for a clone of their former frontman. Dio was a perfect option.
“When Ozzy went, the first person I got in touch with was Ronnie,” Iommi recalled. “I said to the other guys, ‘Why don’t we try Ronnie and see what you think?’ This was when we lived in LA, so we got him over to the rehearsal room in the house. We had this one riff idea that we’d come up with, which was ‘Children of the Sea,’ and Ronnie started singing something, and I just thought, ‘That’s great!’ It was just such a different approach.”
Dio’s different approach would colour the band from then on. As a musician who had played in several other bands and already had a career under his belt, Dio brought in fresh ideas and a new perspective from which the rest of the band benefitted.
“The way Ronnie approached stuff was different to Ozz,” Iommi said, attempting to summarise the difference between the two frontmen. “Ozzy was great, but Ronnie was a different singer altogether,” he continued, “We wanted somebody who was different, we didn’t want to bring somebody in who was gonna sound similar to Ozz. So it was good to have somebody totally different, and Ronnie’s voice and the way he approached the songs allowed us to be able to try different things in a different way than what we’d done before. It opened up a lot more variety for us, really.”
The addition of the new member changed things in the group, as Iommi said, “It gave us a new lease of life.”
Dio’s fresh eyes and the different skills that he brought to the group encouraged the whole band to look at things differently, too. As the guitarist explained, “It also gave us that challenge. Because, obviously Sabbath has been around a while, we knew we could go out and do certain gigs and sell out certain places or whatever. But it was nice because we had to prove something.”
