Ozzy Osbourne appeared briefly onstage with Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler the other night on the Grammys:
I used to love Black Sabbath. But by the time I got to see them -- in 1974 -- they could barely put on a show. They showed up over an hour late at their Madison, WI show and played for less than that. My most vivid memory (from safely off to the right up in the stands) is the lights abruptly coming back up after 45 minutes or so and the angry mob of drunken fans refusing to leave. A well-aimed, empty liquor bottle struck Bill Ward's bass drum and bounced off. Black Sabbath had sodded off, never to return. I was pissed off -- $4.50 was a lot of money to me then -- equivalent to $25 or so today.
Ozzy explains what was going wrong behind the scenes at the time:
(The clip is from Penelope Spheeris' epic "The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years"). Watching Ozzy cook bacon and pour orange juice is worth the click.
Black Sabbath still can't seem to reconcile with original drummer Bill Ward. My cursory read is that they badly mistreated him over the years and still enjoy doing so. Screw them. I won't forgive them or give them another dime until they do. Nobody lives forever, so kiss and make up.
16 comments:
Bacon
lol- at the point where Ozzie reminisces about all the various drugs they used to take - he spills OJ all over the place like a drunken fool. Though, oddly , he seems somewhat lucid.
Yeah. Bacon.
I like mine crispy.
The very end of that song video I linked shows a closeup on guitarist Tony Iommi's right hand: he is missing the tips of two fingers on his right hand and wears dark-olored protheses. He lost them in 1965 in a factory accident. He credits Django Reinhardt with inspiring him to keep playing and also attributes some of Black Sabbath's pioneering "heavy" sound with his handicap.
I just loved their songs on "Paranoid". I must have worn that LP down until I was only hearing my own memory of it, like a dog whistle nobody else could hear. The ultimate material for air guitar and drums. I still can't keep my hands still when I hear it.
Not entirely off topic since one of the tags here is "drugs".
I've mentioned that I'm on a brand new drug therapy for Hep C. It's called Sovaldi, and it looks like it's gonna be a miracle drug. It's incredibly expensive unless you have good insurance, which I do for now.
I've had this virus for 36 years. After my transplant in 2006, my viral load doubled. I guess the little bastards saw the new liver as a buffet and started fornicating like rabbits. Anyway, viruses are incredibly small, so small that one ml of my blood contains about 1,300,000 copies of the virus - at least it did. After being on this drug for 2 weeks (one pill a day) I had my blood tested and got the news today. My viral count dropped to 114/ml. I'm in week 4 now, and probably have entirely eliminated it from my blood.
This incredible drug does this with zero side effects and no drug interactions. A true miracle invention. I will be taking it for 24 weeks if my insurance approves it for that long. They have so far. They have good reason to balk at just under $1000 per pill. I pay $0, not even a copay. I know, crazy isn't it? It has a 70% cure rate so far for people with my genotype which is the most common and hardest to eliminate. I'm very optimistic. This virus acts extremely slowly, but causes cancer eventually, first in the liver, but later lymphomas and others too.
If I get cured of this after 36 years, I'll be fucking stoked. I've spent so much time, energy and misery fighting it and it's effects for so long. I suppose if I do get a cure, I'll get hit by a bus the next day.
Anyway, I'm just as pleased as a boy can be, and wanted to share the good news. Have a great weekend all. I know I will.
One gets the impression that Tony Iommi is a really horrible person.
One gets the impression that Tony Iommi is a really horrible person.
He said "Son, son, you've gone too far.
'Cause smokin' and trippin' is all that you do."
@bagoh20: "Paranoid" was their best, IMHO.
According to Wikipedia, demanding a band play "Paranoid" is the Finnish equivalent of demanding a band play "Free Bird".
And congrats on the treatment, bagoh. :)
God bless, bags.
That's great news, Bags. Glad to know! I hope you land in that 70%... I think that you will. :)
Gee, bags, once you beat the virus, your new yet-to-be-assaulted-by-serious-alcohol-abuse liver should be good for another 40-50 yrs so you can imbibe with abandon again! LOL!
Cheers! :)
Bags: Fantastic news! You're going to finally beat Hep. Wow. I don't know of any place better than medicine to marvel at the genius and creativity of the human mind.
Ozzy looks quite like Nigel Tufnel in that video.
I'm still amazed that the Ozzie Osborn reality show was so popular.
Deborah: As big of a fan as I was of his band as a teen, I never once watched his show.
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