The other night, Rockline held an interview with Tony Iommi & Ozzy Osbourne. A variety of topics was discussed from the forthcoming Black Box, to Ozzfest 2004, to “When I Came Down”, and more. I didn’t get to hear the interview unfortunately, but Rob Dwyer of sabbathlive.com did. With Rob’s permission, I’m going to copy his site’s news story on the interview. Thanks Rob.
For those of you who missed last night’s ROCKLINE interview with Tony Iommi and Ozzy Osbourne, here’s a synopsis of what was said and played! Pardon me for my paraphrasing here, but I’ll at least give you the jist of what was said during the program on Wednesday night.
ROCKLINE is a U.S. based radio program that gives listeners the opportunity to call in with their questions for that evening’s guest. Last night was ROCKLINE’S 23rd anniversary show! Ozzy and Tony joined host Bob Coburn in ROCKLINE’s new home in Los Angeles.
The big question hanging in the air this week has been whether Black Sabbath will reunite for the upcoming OZZFEST 2004 tour. Bob Coburn did his best to keep bringing this subject up throughout the program. Ozzy and Tony did confirm that they were currently in negotiations for this, but could not elaborate. Ozzy said that he had learned his lesson about saying anything too soon and didn’t want to wind up with Sharon’s fist in his eye! One caller asked Ozzy the difference between a solo gig and a Sabbath show. The question prompted Bob to ask Ozzy if he’d ever do his solo material with Sabbath, to which he emphatically replied “No!”
There were many plugs for the upcoming release of the BLACK BOX, which is still on target for an April 27th release. Several songs from the new box set were played on the show, including “Paranoid”, “Sweet Leaf”, “N.I.B.” and “Sabbra Cadabra”. Samples from “All Moving Parts (Stand Still)”, “Tomorrow’s Dream” and “Solitude” were used for transitions. Bob Coburn praised the design of the new box set, commenting that it is fitting for a band of their stature. Ozzy and Tony also seemed quite pleased with how the BLACK BOX turned out and acknowledged that the tracks had in deed been re-mastered.
The bonus DVD included in the BLACK BOX was mentioned a couple of times, once by a caller. Iommi confirmed that all of the tracks are from THE BEAT CLUB, but noted that “Blue Suede Shoes” had been taped during a “camera check and sound check”. Sabbath had not intended to perform that song for the program. Iommi added that the shows producers may have actually thought that “Blue Suede Shoes” was a Sabbath number! Tony also noted: “Everyone assumed we used Orange amps after that (show).”
Jack Blades (last week’s ROCKLINE guest) left a pre-recorded question for Tony. He asked if Tony was going to have his own reality show (like THE OSBOURNES) called ‘Joe From Birmingham’ or something of that sort. Tony laughed and said no, because it would be too boring and last for only five minutes. This was followed by a discussion about Ozzy having to constantly live with MTV camera focused on him. Surprisingly, Ozzy said that he actually missed them when they were gone, since the crew had become an extended family of sorts to the Osbournes.
A few ‘internet celebrities’ also managed to get in a few questions. Joe D’Agostino got to ask Tony and Ozzy about the origin of “When I Came Down”, “The Rebel” and “Song For Jim”. Joe has been trying to get a straight answer on this one for a while and this time Tony offered a bit more background. Apparently, most of these songs had been recorded to humor their manager (Jim Simpson) who wanted them to play these songs Norman Haines had written, but the band wasn’t really keen on them. Ozzy didn’t remember much about recording that particular song, but told an earlier caller that there were NO Earth demos. Technically, he may be correct, since I’ve now determined that these demos were recorded AFTER the name change to Black Sabbath (August 1969).
Scott Lifshine tells me that he was able to get in a question about Cal Jam, but I didn’t get to hear this. I was listening via an Internet feed from KSAN-FM and the commercials were often extended much longer, thus joining Rockline already well in progress after a few breaks.
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