Why Ozzy Osbourne By no means Listened to Black Sabbath’s Dio Albums

Ozzy Osbourne not too long ago praised his Black Sabbath substitute, Ronnie James Dio, for doing “a very good job” together with his outdated band — regardless that he by no means listened to the albums they made collectively.

The Prince of Darkness mirrored on his successor in a new episode of “Ozzy Speaks” on SiriusXM. “Ronnie did a very good job,” Osbourne admitted of the singer, who first joined Sabbath from 1979-82 and sang on 1980’s Heaven and Hell and 1981’s Mob Guidelines. (He returned a decade later for 1992’s Dehumanizer, and he later shaped Heaven & Hell with Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler, releasing The Satan You Know in 2009.)

Nonetheless, being changed within the band he co-founded was a troublesome capsule for Osbourne to swallow. “On the time I used to be fucking unhappy as a result of … they had been the one factor that ever actually occurred to me,” he mentioned.

Osbourne counseled his Sabbath bandmates for “[getting] any person fully completely different” moderately than hiring one of many countless “Ozzy sound-alikes” who had been clamoring for the place. However regardless that he revered Dio, he by no means listened to Black Sabbath’s Dio-era albums. “It is like my ex-wife … [when] you permit a band like that, it is identical to getting divorced,” he mentioned. “You do not go, ‘How’s your new bloke? Is he higher than me?'” Though Dio’s preliminary tenure with Black Sabbath was quick, it revitalized the band creatively and commercially, and lots of followers rank Heaven and Hell among the many band’s finest works.

Iommi additionally praised his former bandmate in a current Kerrang! interview, calling their collaboration “a very thrilling interval for us.”

“Ozzy was nice, however Ronnie was a special singer altogether,” the guitarist added. “We wished any person who was completely different; we didn’t need to carry any person in who was gonna sound just like Ounces. So it was good to have any person completely completely different, and Ronnie’s voice and the best way he approached the songs allowed us to have the ability to strive various things differently than what we’d finished earlier than. It opened up much more selection for us, actually.”

Osbourne finally reunited with Sabbath from 1997-2006 and once more from 2011 till their retirement in 2017. His remaining tenure with the band additionally produced the chart-topping studio album 13. With the advantage of hindsight, the singer acknowledged that the Dio interval was fruitful for his cohorts. “Wanting again, it was the very best factor that ever occurred,” he mentioned. “As a result of that they had a very good begin once more.”