Black Sabbath
The 50 Best Albums of 1972
Last year, when helping assemble SPIN‘s 50 Best Albums of 1971, I wondered if that year could have been popular music’s absolute peak. Now I’m asking myself that same question all over again. As I built a spreadsheet for 1972, gathering our writers’ votes alongside my own weird choices, I was once again struck by how many bronze-cast classics came out that year: LPs from David Bowie, Al Green, Aretha Franklin, The Allman Brothers Band, Yes, Stevie Wonder, Roxy Music, and on and on. Run down basically every genre – glam, soul, prog, art rock, Southern rock, metal, folk, MPB — and you’ll find the very best shit, whether eternally famous or sadly obscure. (My poor spreadsheet, swelling each day, originally had hundreds of worthy records. But you have to start chopping eventually.) Here’s wher...
Tony Iommi Looks Back at Black Sabbath, Meeting Dio and His Friendship With Eddie Van Halen
As one of rock’s most legendary guitarists, the creator of the ominous riff for the song “Black Sabbath” — not to mention the soundscape of the ubiquitous chant-along “Iron Man” and many dozens of other iconic Sabbath songs, Tony Iommi is one easygoing, unassuming bloke. His melodic sense has even led some to term Sabbath “The Dark Beatles.” Iommi, 73, has been a constant throughout Sabbath’s eight singers, a definite aural architect of the Sabbath’s sound over 50 years. Black Sabbath enjoyed several discrete eras: the Ozzy Osbourne years began in 1968. The first of two time periods with Ronnie James Dio at the helm started in 1980, then came round again under the Heaven & Hell moniker in 2006. (The name is taken from Dio’s first LP with his Sabbath brethren.) Recently, Black Sabbath r...
The Reissue Section: Winter 2021
While it’s been a challenge for bands to collaborate in person over the last year, archival releases have been booming. And over the course of this first quarter, lots of goodies have dropped. Here are some of the most worthy entries in the reissue world. Black SabbathVol. 4 Deluxe Edition (Rhino)Heaven and Hell Deluxe Edition (Rhino)Mob Rules Deluxe Edition (Rhino) What we have here are three essential Black Sabbath albums from two distinctly different periods in the band’s timeline. 1972’s Vol. 4 is renowned mostly for the hedonism and drug use that went down during the album’s creation in Los Angeles. But nearly 50 years later, it stands as the creative pinnacle of the Ozzy era. By bringing the production duties in-house, the original lineup of Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bi...
The 50 Best Albums of 1971
It’s become a cliché, even for post-Baby Boomers, to look back wistfully on the early ’70s as some kind of untouchable golden age for popular music. But when you survey all the era’s best albums in list form, it’s hard not to trust that instinct. I mean…holy shit. In 1971, the psychedelic era hadn’t completely wilted; prog was nearing its popularity apex; Motown was still a revolutionizing soul music; the folk-rock movement was in full flight. The possibilities were limitless. You know it’s a banner year when 50 albums don’t begin to scratch the surface — when both John Lennon and Paul McCartney release definitive LPs and neither make the top 10. Was 1971 the greatest album year ever? We’ll save that debate for another time (or maybe another list). For now, we present 50 stone-cold cl...
Watch Post Malone Cover Black Sabbath and Alice in Chains With Slash, RHCP’s Chad Smith, and More
Bud Light Seltzer’s New Year’s Eve livestream was appropriately headlined by the human incarnation of Bud Light itself, better known as Post Malone. But if fans were expecting Posty to stick with his own tracks, they clearly hadn’t been paying attention to last year. Much like how the Crocs collaborator busted out his own take on Nirvana classics toward the beginning of quarantine, he closed the year with “Rooster” by Alice in Chains and “War Pigs” by Black Sabbath. And similarly to how the Nirvana set featured Travis Barker on drums, Malone got some help from his famous friends like Slash, Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer (and Will Ferrell lookalike) Chad Smith, and Jane’s Addiction bassist Chris Chaney. The stream also included sets by Steve Aoki, Saweetie, Jack Harlow, and Sebastian Y...
Geezer Butler Thinks Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s ‘WAP’ Is ‘Disgusting’
Old guys and hating on mildly controversial new music, is there a more predictable combination? Black Sabbath’s founding bassist, Geezer Butler, apparently doesn’t care for Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s “WAP” and called it “disgusting” in an interview with Kerrang! magazine. “A friend of mine didn’t know what the song was about but his 10-year-old girl was singing it,” he continued. “I was, like, ‘What?!’ To put it on an album, fair enough. But to put it out as a single? That’s… a bit much.” Of course, Butler isn’t the first person to take issue with “WAP,” but it’s a little funny coming from someone whose entire legacy is founded on a band that offended countless folks 50 years ago. Although he’ll clearly never see the track as the catchy feminist anthem some believe it to be, Butler ...
Ozzy Osbourne Says Eddie Van Halen Once Asked Him to Join Van Halen
In a recent episode of his SiriusXM show, Ozzy Speaks, Ozzy Osbourne told a tale about Eddie Van Halen calling him with an offer to join Van Halen. A potential Oz Halen would have been a “shot in the dark,” but the Black Sabbath icon in lieu of Diamond David Lee Roth or Red Rocker Sammy Hagar obviously did not come to pass. Osbourne recounted the tale: “He phoned me up one time and asked me if I wanted to sing in his band — way after Sammy [Hagar had exited the band]. I think he was a bit drunk,” the singer said, adding, “We’ve all done one of them — calling at four o’clock in the morning, going, [intentionally slurs speech].” In 1978, Van Halen opened for Sabbath, and Osbourne recalled Van Halen’s guitar wizardry with awe. “You think you’ve see...
Ozzy Osbourne Says ‘No Way’ to Black Sabbath Reunion
In a wide-ranging Rolling Stone interview ahead of tonight’s (Sept. 7) debut of Biography: The Nine Lives of Ozzy Osbourne on A&E, Ozzy Osbourne said he was “done” with Black Sabbath even though guitarist Tony Iommi is up to play with the legendary lineup again. Osbourne did admit, however, that he regrets not doing Sabbath’s 2017 farewell show in Birmingham with founding drummer Bill Ward. “I felt really bad about that. It would have been so nice. I don’t know what the circumstances behind it were, but it would have been nice. I’ve talked to him a few times, but I don’t have any of the slightest interest in [doing another gig],” Osbourne said. Osbourne’s health issues of the last several years have included a Parkinson’s-related diagnosis, a fall, and surgery, and the frontman sa...
Mastodon’s Brent Hinds Covered Black Sabbath’s ‘Electric Funeral’ With Marcus King
Mastodon’s Brent Hinds teamed with Marcus King on Monday night to cover Black Sabbath’s “Electric Funeral” and ZZ Top’s “Thunderbird” during a livestreamed charity concert. The show was the third installment of King’s “Four of a Kind” live stand supporting MusiCares, the Recording Academy’s nonprofit organization helping musicians during times of crisis. Spotify’s COVID-19 Music Relief project is matching donations up to a collective total of $10 million. As Jambase reports, King will close out the series with a tribute to The Band’s The Last Waltz. In May, Mastodon guitarist Bill Kelliher noted that the band has “20 rough songs” recorded for their upcoming eighth LP, which follows 2017’s Emperor of Sand. They’re also contributing a song to the upcoming Bill & Ted sequel. Dru...
Leather Pants and Chicken Wings: The Real Stories Behind Live Aid
Take it from Rob Halford: It is difficult pulling leather chaps over sweaty legs. The Judas Priest frontman would learn that lesson anew when his band arrived at the since-demolished John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia to perform as part of Live Aid, which unfolded on two continents 35 years ago today. “It was an absolutely boiling, scorching, muggy day — I remember that,” Halford recalls of the ambitious, 16-hour-long benefit concert experienced globally by more than a billion people in over 140 countries. “As I was putting my leathers on, I was going, ‘Oh, here we go again … mad dogs and Englishmen going out in the midday sun.’” As Live Aid was happening, Halford — like all of the big-name musicians and actors who’d brave the Philly summer heat that sweltering day — knew that the fir...
Dave Grohl, Jack Black, and More Honor the Late Ronnie James Dio in Video
The late, great Ronnie James Dio would have turned 78 today (July 9). Though he wasn’t around to celebrate, his longtime pals did instead. In a video that was released by the Ronnie James Dio Stand Up and Shout Cancer Fund, a number of Dio’s peers and friends honored the late-singer in footage that was compiled from over the years. Dave Grohl remembered the singer as “one of the greatest singers of all time,” and cited seeing him perform on TV when he was “13 or 14 years old” as one of the reasons why he wanted to become a musician. “He would give all of his time, energy and love and attention to do good things,” he said. Jack Black agreed, saying that Dio was one of the greatest heavy metal singers of all time and that he “such a sweet, genuine dude.” Black Sabbath’s Geezer Butler an...
