Tony Iommi Explains The Biggest Differences Between Ozzy Osbourne and Ronnie James Dio
Tony Iommi Explains The Biggest Differences Between Ozzy Osbourne and Ronnie James Dio
Tony Iommi chatted with rock and metal website Loudwire about Black Sabbath’s legendary career. In this interview, when asked about Black Sabbath’s "Dio era", whose two classic albums - "Heaven and Hell" from 1980 and "Mob Rules" from 1981 – which will be reissued in remastered and expanded versions - Tony had some interesting things to tell.
Iommi started by telling about the time when he heard Ronnie James Dio for the first time.
Tony said:
"It was Rainbow — probably the first Rainbow album. I thought it was really good and that Ronnie had a great voice. ", and then tells if he even thought about having him in the band sometime: "Before Ronnie joined, I was getting despondent about things. I was frustrated and wanted to get to work. I met Ronnie at a party, and we talked about doing a project together. So I was on the verge of doing something with him and when Ozzy left, that’s when I said to the other guys, “Why don’t we try Ronnie?” We got him over for a rehearsal and it worked.”
Then, Iommi talks about the initial difficulties of having an American in the group.
He said:
"We’re known as a British band and it did come across as that, but when we heard Ronnie, I thought, “This is the guy.”
We had a lot of barriers to climb over with Ronnie. Everybody knew Ozzy and we never worked with another singer, so bringing somebody else in was a big challenge. To expect the fans to take Ronnie on was a big barrier. Don Arden, who was managing us at the time, was against Ronnie singing for us. He said, “You can’t have a midget singing for Black Sabbath.” I said, “He’s got a great voice, it’s working with what we’re doing,” and that’s why we parted ways with Don."
After explaining that Geezer was a little absent for personal reasons and that Ronnie's entrance gave the band a boost, causing him and Bill Ward to "work harder", Iommi talks about the style difference between Sabbath with Ozzy and with Dio:
"It was hard for Ronnie to step in somebody’s shoes and front Sabbath, especially someone like Ozzy who was a showman. Ronnie was more of a professional singer and Ozzy was more of an entertainer.”
In another interview with Gibson’s YouTube channel, Iommi highlighted the main differences between the way Ozzy Osbourne and Ronnie James Dio sang. The two were Black Sabbath's first vocalists, with Dio replacing Ozzy in the late 1970s, and responsible for the band's most revered albums.
Initially, Iommi commented that the album "Never Say Die!" from 1978 was hampered by Osbourne's "come-and-go" in the band.
Tony said:
"Ozzy left in 1977 and came back in 1978, it was chaotic. We had another singer in the middle which was Dave Walker, from Fleetwood Mac. We did some songs with him, but although he sang well, it didn't sound right," he said.
Then he explained:
"Ozzy came back, which was great, but he came back two days before we're due to go bloody record the album, which we didn't have because he couldn't use any of the songs we've done. It had to be Ozzy involved, so Bill Ward ended up singing one of the songs and it was really hard."
After that, Ronnie James Dio joined Black Sabbath and the differences with respect to Ozzy Osbourne became clear. "It was good, it was all working, we could actually write new stuff in a slightly different direction to what we've been doing.
"Because with Oz, a lot of this stuff was riff-based, which we liked, but when we had Ronnie, Ronnie wasn't used to singing over riffs like that. He'd sing across them and used to singing on maybe chords, as opposed to riffs."
The guitarist stressed that Dio had a "fantastic" voice. "It was an amalgamation of the two of them. 'Let's try this, let's try that...'. And his voice, I mean, there's no two ways about it. fantastic, you can't believe it would come out of that little body, such a big voice." he said.
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