TONY MARTIN: 'It's Almost As If I've Been Written Out Of The BLACK SABBATH History Books'

July 13, 2006

Adam Harrold of RockSomething.com recently conducted an interview with former BLACK SABBATH frontman Tony Martin. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

On what "went wrong" with BLACK SABBATH:

"Me and Geoff Nicholls [Martin's keyboardist and ex-SABBATH man] get asked about SABBATH a lot and we have kind of worked out this theory as to what happened. Basically, people forget that at the time I joined SABBATH that nobody wanted to work for them. They were badly in debt for a start, so they ended up going for an unknown person, which was me. I was 27 at the time and we did 'Eternal Idol' and then 'Headless Cross', which starting seeing us get on top of it, and then 'Tyr' as well. And at this time we were starting to do well in Europe and Japan — places that when Ozzy was in the band they hadn't gone to before, because they solely concentrated on the U.K. and the USA. But me and Geoff think that they must have sensed the seeds of something good and that the ground work had been laid, so they decided to get [Ronnie James] Dio back. Only thing was, it didn't work — people didn't want it. So I came back again, but then there was 'Forbidden' and the whole rap shit [a Martin and Ice T duet on 'Illusion of Power'] and then Ozzy came back and that was that. And that put bums on seats, but the sad thing is that they're still playing the same old songs from thirty years ago. And that's annoying, don't you think?"

On whether he finds it frustrating that fans don't necessarily know just how big a part of BLACK SABBATH he was:

"Yeah, but then it's almost as if I've been written out of the SABBATH history books and I don't know why really. All the books seem to go up to [Ian] Gillan and stop and then say that it was Ozzy Osbourne again. They seem to have removed those ten years. It wasn't helped by me being absent for so long either, but it's not just that people forget that I was in SABBATH for ten years, it's that they've never told!"

Read the entire interview at RockSomething.com.

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