Three songs to define Black Sabbath, according to Tony Iommi
Speaking as a bassist, I’d love to believe that no bandmate is irreplaceable. In an ideal world they’re not. Maybe more bands should be like U2, who were so shaken by Adam Clayton missing a gig in November 1993 that they thought they might have to split up as a result. The truth is though, as much as we don’t like to admit it, everyone is replaceable apart from the singer. Even on the rare occasions that the singer is replaced in the band, like with Black Sabbath, it’s pretty clear that really, a different band has been formed altogether.
Which is no bad thing, to be clear. Sabbath with Ozzy and Sabbath with Dio were two very different beasts. With the Osbourne patriarch, they were an altogether darker, more parochial beast. There was something intrinsically British in their thunderous riffage, a telepathy that could only come from a shared upbringing in 1950s and 1960s Birmingham. Ozzy’s wail very much resembled his lyrical voice in the band, untrained and primal, yet still able to unnerve and in some cases, devastate.
Dio’s Sabbath was much more theatrical and much more fun. The man who literally invented the devil horns (depending on who you asked) had already spent four years fronting Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow so the distinction is obvious. Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward needed a singer with a little more professionalism than the man who drank himself out of Black Sabbath(!), so they got one. Sure, the band sounds more like a standard metal band and less like the inimitable melting pot of English Occultism and American Blues that they were, but that still kicks more ass than basically any metal band out there.
So, when Iommi was interviewed by Songfacts, he wasn’t asked about Black Sabbath’s defining song. Which is fair, even if they had stuck with one singer their whole career, Sabbath’s output is diverse enough to need a few. He’s asked about the defining song of the Ozzy era and the Dio era. Fittingly enough, the Ozzy era is so ridiculously stacked that he can’t narrow it down to one, so he picks two.
He tells Greg Prato “I always relate to ’Black Sabbath’ And ‘Iron Man’.” Which you would, wouldn’t you, considering that they’re arguably the two most famous pre-Metallica heavy metal songs ever made. There is one song from that era that many would have assumed is on there, but no matter how hard that song goes, he doesn’t include ‘Paranoid’ on that list. He explains, “The song was written as a filler for the album – it was never intended to be anything else. But it became a single because it was a short song.”
When it comes to the Dio era, there’s one clear favourite, just as there would be in the eyes of fans, I would say. He picks “‘Heaven And Hell’ because that was on our initial album, and that track has stood the test of time. Even Ronnie, when he went out on his solo thing, he’d always play ‘Heaven And Hell.’ It became a very popular song.” He’s not wrong. While Ozzy is and always will be the singer of Black Sabbath, it’s heartening to see just how proud Iommi is of the work they completed with Dio.
Later in the interview, they talk about how, when Dio rejoined Sabbath in 2006, they changed their name to Heaven And Hell to reflect what we all already knew. Which was that Sabbath with Dio was its own band. Not because they’re not as good as they are with Ozzy, you understand. In fact, they didn’t play any of their Ozzy material on that tour, and it’s still one of the band’s most beloved eras in the eyes of fans. It’s because bands change and develop with time no matter the lineup, and as fans, we’d do well to appreciate that while we have the chance.
