During a recent appearance appearance on producer Rick Rubin‘s Broken Record Podcast, Ozzy Osbourne talked about BLACK SABBATH, particularly focusing on guitarist Tony Iommi.
“Geezer‘s [Butler, bass] a great, great lyricist – nobody can touch him. Bill [Ward], in his day, was a great drummer,” Ozzy said.
“Tony [Iommi, guitar], he’s always gonna be the greatest – no one can touch him. And actually, to this day, I still don’t understand how he plays guitar, ’cause he’s got no fingertips; he plays with plastic fingers.
“I mean, there is a man. When he got diagnosed with cancer [in 2012], he just dealt with it. That’s him. I’m going *imitates crying sound*, and he’s, like, ‘Whatever I have to do.’ He’s like that. He’s always been like that. Very calm.”
According to Ozzy, Tony was always the most important member of SABBATH. “He was the band, really. We were all part of the band, but he was the most irreplaceable one [out of all of us].”
“People will say to me, ‘Why did you always sing on the side of the stage?’ I don’t f*cking know. I don’t know. It’s just fear, I suppose. ‘Cause Tony, he’s one of the few people who could walk into this room right now and I would f*cking feel intimidated. He intimidates the f*ck out of me – and he knows it.”
Ozzy also expressed his disappointment that Ward ended up not being involved with the making of 13 album or the tour in support of the record.
“The only sad thing about the album was Bill wasn’t playing [on it],” Ozzy said. “We would have been still doing the f*cking album now. … He takes so much time over everything.
“Tony said to me one day, he said, ‘You know Bill‘s trouble — he still thinks everybody’s gonna rip him off,’ which I get. I ain’t no better than Bill, or any of ’em, and I’m lucky to have a wife that’s on my side. ‘Cause these f*ckers, man, they come in and they give you all this bullsh*t, drive you around in a flashy car, show you a bit of money. And you can sue them, but it takes you a f*cking lifetime to win. The lawyers win. Sharon‘s father was a renowned f*cking ripoff artist.
“We got stung for a lot of cash,” he continued. “But there again, I said to Bill Ward one day on the phone, a while ago now, I said, ‘You know what? In a way, as far as I’m concerned, it was a blessing that I never got all that cash upfront, ’cause with what cash I had, I’d done a good job of nearly killing myself.’ I wouldn’t be sitting here, and that’s for sure. If had got all the millions upfront, we would have been f*cking dead.”
Ozzy will be touring later this year with Marilyn Manson as support. Tickets for the tour are available here.
