Setting Things Straight!

Editorial by Tedrick Jacobus

Geezer, who was talking with Tony about rejoining Sabbath at the time,
accepted, and ended up jamming with Ronnie on stage and played Neon
Knights.  They go back stage, pass the bottle around, and talk about the
old days, when everything was cool in the Mark II line up camp.
(Probably H&H days)  They started talking about getting back together.  Geezer

played the go-between guy.  Trying to arrange meetings with Tony and
Ronnie, to see if there was a possibility of getting back together.  They
met I think a couple of times in England I think, and talked things
out.  Believe or not they started getting along again, and buried the
hatchet. (temporarily)

From there they started hashing out ideas, and doing some jamming
(originally with Cozy Powell).  The great experiment almost failed due to
Ronnie's and Cozy's long standing feud.  Then Cozy got into an accident,
and was unable to play.  What to do now?  Well, they decided to keep
going and replace Cozy.  Ronnie recommended Simon Wright originally, both
Geezer and Tony said NO!  Sounds too much like AC/DC.  So, they turned
to Geezer and asked him who he was most comfortable playing with.  His
response: only Bill Ward and Vinny Appice.  Some have clamed that Bill
was asked to do it originally and declined.  That's probable, considering
Geezer's long relationship with Bill.  So, they turned to Vinny, who
would have been stupid to turn it down. And Dehumanizer commenced again. 
After nearly a whole year locked away in a studio, Dehumanzer was
finally released on June 30, 1992!  YEAA!  The return of Black Sabbath,
claimed fans and critics alike.  Some didn't like it.  These same people
are usually those that don't like Ronnie's vocals with heavy drudgery
riffs (like similar criticisms of Strange Highways and Lock up the Wolves)
However, most, including myself, called it a return to traditional
Sabbath music.

Looking back on it now I would have liked more of a mix of sounds,
similar to that of H&H.  I still love Dehumanizer, but I think it may have
sold better if it had more of a mix of sounds, rather than 100% super
heavy Sab sounds.

According to Tapio (see www.dio.net), this reunion was originally
planned for a one album deal, initially.  Kind of a wait and see type
thing.  No real commitment.

So, what happened.  Ozzy was touring on his NO MORE TOURS tour, when he started having second thoughts, and somewhere down the line, decided he
wanted to get back together with Sabbath.  YES!  For two months on the
Dehumanizer tour, Tony and Geezer were in negotiations with the Ozzy
camp to have a world wide reunion tour.  Ronnie knew about it, but
apparently was not asked his feelings on it.  So, Ronnie was hurt, and
insulted.  You may argue that his feelings were mis-given, but those were his
feelings, and ultimately why he left the last time. 

The straw that broke the camels back.
The final straw for Ronnie was when Ozzy invited Tony and Geezer to
perform at his two Costa Mesa shows.  Translation, Black Sabbath open for
Ozzy.  Ronnie felt insulted again.  Not only was he not invited, but
his Sabbath band was invited to open for a man that has never had kind
words for Tony or Ronnie (remember back to 80 and 81 when Ozzy repeatedly insulted Ronnie in the press and onstage).  So, Ronnie wasn't exactly warm to the the idea of opening up for Ozzy anyway.  Side note: Black
Sabbath was scheduled for those same two days to headline in Los Angeles
(one of the big stadiums).  So, from Ronnie's standpoint, why should we
open for this jerk, when we could do our own headline gigs.  Also,
Ronnie felt that Sabbath was too big to open for anyone, especially Ozzy.

Ronnie has said that Black Sabbath Mk II didn't talk for the last two
months of the tour.  Ronnie and Vinny were at one end of the bus, and
Tony and Geezer at the other end.  Is he exaggerating, maybe.  Who is to
blame.  Well, actually that's a tough one.  Ronnie had every reason to
not want to play the Costa Mesa shows.  Ronnie had every reason to be
hurt by Tony and Geezer.  Tony has professed that he had no idea of
Ronnie's feelings at the time.  So, blame failure to communicate!  It was
childish on everyone's parts, including Ozzy, who I still believe
instigated the whole thing.  Ronnie should have spoken up, and said HEY GUYS!  What about our band?  What does this mean for our band?  I am
uncomfortable with this "reunion" tour.  Why would you want to do that tour,
when we just reunited?

Of course you know Tony and Geezer did not take that into
consideration, and were definitely thinking about the big $$$ that would come from it.

Now, Sabbath was recording Cross Purposes the entire time they were
talking to Ozzy's camp for the reunion tour.  Interesting enough, they
recorded it with Tony martin.  Tony Iommi has said that they were planning
on doing the tour with Ozzy first, then release CP and commence Sabbath
with Tony Martin.  Which makes you think that maybe Ronnie's fears of
being "permanently" replaced by Ozzy, were misplaced.  This could have
been avoided if they just communicated with each other.

Why do I think Ozzy instigated the whole thing.  Ronnie was Ozzy's
biggest rival in the early 80s.  Even to this day, there is probably more
comparisons between the two Sabbath eras and singers than any other
group (even Van Halen).  Throughout the 1980s everyone always asked Ozzy
when he would get back together with Sabbath.  What happens in 92,
Sabbath reunites with Ronnie instead.  BITCH SLAP!  From the Ozzy camp's
standpoint.  If I were Ozzy, I would have considered it that way.

Then when Ronnie quits Sabbath, again, Ozzy drops talks of reunion. 
Doesn't even tell Tony and Geezer personally.  They received a fax from
Sharon's office.  BITCH SLAP!  After that, I am really surprised Tony,
of all people, would have ever had anything to do with Ozzy.  Go figure. 
Probably money.  Whether or not Tony gets tired of waiting for Ozzy to
come back to Sabbath, or tires of Ozzy's wish-washy ness remains to be
seen.

There you have it.  A semi-detailed look at the 91-94 era of Sabbath.

Tedrick Jacobus is from Muskegon, MI
He runs the following groups in continued support of metal: TwistedForever@yahoogroups.com,
StateofEuphoria@yahoogroups.com

as well as a brand new forum:
http://groups.yahoo.com/subscribe/MetalWire

Tedrick told TMOASM that he wrote a paper some years back  titled the "Unsung Hero" about Ronnie James Dio and would likely share this with us here in coming issues.