A story going around today on Blabbermouth about the Iommi/Ward/Butler/Dio reunion as “Heaven & Hell” is claiming that a representative with Tony Iommi’s camp has said that the reunion is “officially happening”.
As you probably know, I work for both Bill Ward & Geezer Butler, as well as having my own connection to Iommi’s people, and I have a good source (if not direct) to Dio as well. I will investigate this on my own.
Remember this. Nothing is “official” until you seen an announcement from one of the parties involved. Since that has not happened yet….. I wouldn’t hold my breath. It may yet happen, but be careful when you read unverified stories claiming “official”. Still, I’ve inquired on my own, and if I find anything out, I’ll report back.
Let’s just wait and see what happens. I’m with you all. Don’t forget, I’m a fan of the band too, despite my connections, so I want to see this happen. But I’ve learned in doing this site to wait for honest, real, OFFICIAL announcements, and not to hang my hopes on Internet rumours.
One last word. These words appear at the end of the Blabbermouth story.. “If all goes well…”. So even the Blabbermouth article which people are emailing me about throws out the possibility that it might not happen.
UPDATE: I was emailed back by someone in Iommi’s camp saying that this news was posted on the Iommi forums last night here. Now whether or not this is a formal official confirmation, I can’t say yet, as one of the others from one of the other camps wrote me back too and said that “it’s still being discussed”, so I’m not sure exactly what the heck is going on now.
UPDATE #2: I got written back again by Tony’s people and said that it is an official announcement; it now also appears on Tony’s site with this language:
Heaven & Hell – Dio, Iommi, Butler, Ward: Official Announcement
The highly anticipated reunion of Ronnie James Dio, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and Bill Ward appears to be shaping up and taking a new form. After various promoters have approached their respective management; the guys have started taking all of this very seriously, as they have wanted to reunite for some time now. It looks as if the new shape may be that of Heaven and Hell – that’s the moniker that the band is likely to use on their new venture.
If all goes well, Heaven and Hell should be hitting the road in early 2007.
The end of their email said this, so it’s looking like it’s official now. “But yes, it’s all official, that’s the official statement from all camps. No doubt you’ll be adding it to the Butler and Ward websites pretty soon!”
UPDATE #3 – Wed 10/25 @ 11:00PM: Later in the afternoon on Wednesday, this text appeared on Ozzy’s site:
Tony Iommi and Ronnie Dio are working on a project together which has nothing to do with Black Sabbath. There is only one Black Sabbath. Ozzy, Tony, Geezer and Bill will be touring late next year along with new Black Sabbath album. However, Ozzy wishes Tony and Ronnie much success in their project together.
I have attempted to get some sort of confirmation of that. For me personally as a fan, the fact that we have never heard anything about new album/tour in 2007 from anyone, and the fact this “news” turns up in an small comment on Oz’s site the same day as the H&H announcement seems highly suspicious. Now if it turns out to be true – so much the better. But the timing of the thing seems rather suspiciously like an attention grab. This is just the opinion of myself, I have no facts to back up that theory.
UPDATE #4 – Thu 10/26 @ 10:30AM: Last night the same press release text was added to Ronnie Dio’s website, and this morning I was instructed by Gloria Butler to put it on Geezer Butler’s website as well. However, Geezer’s site has an additional piece of text that seems to imply that this is not a 100% signed, done deal… That text is:
Geezer would like it to be known that, although, it is looking likely, the last paragraph is there for a reason. There are still some unresolved issues; which, hopefully, will be sorted imminently
While I’m not privy to what these “issues” might be, my guess is that it’s just legal contractual stuff. This all looks promising to me (the fan). :)
My last question about all this…. Is Geoff Nicholls involved?
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