Tony Iommi For Ozzy Osbourne: “I Didn’t Even Think He Could Sing Or Anything”
In a new appearance with the musical instrument manufacturing company Gibson, Tony Iommi, one of the four founding members of the heavy metal band Black Sabbath, has recalled his first days with Ozzy Osbourne and revealed rare-known facts about him.
While he talks about their decide to form a band together with Billy Ward, he said they saw Ozzy Osbourne‘s advert in a music shop. But he added that he think this Ozzy is wasn’t Ozzy he knew. But that was him.
“I was in a band with Bill Ward, Mythology. When we broke up we came back to Birmingham, and we decided that we wanted to stick together and form a band together.
“We went into the music shop in Birmingham and there was an advert saying, ‘Ozzy Zig requires gig.’ And I said to Bill, ‘I know an Ozzy, but it can’t be him; he can’t sing.’
“I didn’t even think he could sing or anything. So anyway, sure enough, we go around to his house, we followed the advert, knocked on the door; his mom came to the door, and we said, ‘We’ve come about the advert.’
“And she said, ‘John, it’s for you!’ So he comes up, and I’m seeing him walk up the hall, I said to Bill, ‘Forget it, forget it! I’ll tell you later…’ [Laughs]”
After their meeting, Tony said that Ozzy came to him with Geezer Butler and asked him that if he knew a drummer.
“So, anyway, we talked to him for a bit, and then we left and never made any decisions or anything. And then two days later, Ozzy came around to my house, because I lived not that far from where he lived.
“We all lived in the same sort of area, so he came around with Geezer [Butler, bass] to my house. And we had a shop – my mother and brother’s shop at that point – so they came around and said, ‘Do you know any drummers?’ I said, ‘Yeah, Bill’s a drummer.’
“And Bill said, ‘I’m not doing anything unless we go together.’ I said, ‘We’re sticking together.’ So we decided to get together and give it a go, and what a rally it was.”
He continued: “I mean, it was absolutely horrible because me and Bill, the band we were playing before, we really got sort of tight and you know, used to everybody.
“Then we got together with Geezer and Ozzy… Geezer’s never played the bass before – he was a guitar player – and it was a shamble. It’s amazing how we stuck with it. It came together really quickly.
“We were virtually living with each other all the time, and it developed into what it did.”
On March 7th, 2017, the legendary heavy metal veterans announced their disbandment through their social media accounts. During their golden career, Black Sabbath released 19 studio albums in total.
