Few bands have had two truly iconic singers, but Black Sabbath can lay claim to that honour thanks to Ozzy Osbourne and Ronnie James Dio.
Ozzy was there from the beginning, fronting Sabbath on eight albums that would define the sound, attitude and aesthetics of heavy metal.
After his departure in 1979, his former bandmates Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward recruited former Elf and Rainbow singer Dio, whose dramatic voice was a world away from Ozzy’s howl.
Both incarnations have their cheerleaders. For many, Ozzy-era Sabbath remain the definitive metal band, thanks especially to the unmatched run of albums they released between 1970’s landmark self-titled debut and 1975’s Sabotage.
For others, the Dio-fronted line-up gave Sabbath a new lease of life. They may have only recorded two studio albums during their original run, 1980’s Heaven And Hell and 1981’s The Mob Rules, but both are classics that ensured the band didn’t die after Ozzy’s departure.
But how did they view each other? Brand new documentary Ozzy: No Escape From Now, which streams on Paramount+ from October 7, sheds a little light on their very first meeting – and it nearly ended in bloodshed.
Ozzy had been fired from Sabbath in April 1979, due to a combination of disinterest in the band’s musical direction (he described the previous year’s Never Say Die! album as “the worst piece of work I’ve ever had anything to do with”) and his out-of-control alcohol and drug use. “I was loaded all the time,” he later admitted.
The change in personnel seemed to work for both parties. The two Dio-fronted Sabbath albums were the work of a band reborn, while Ozzy’s solo career soon eclipsed that of his old group thanks to albums such as Blizzard Of Ozz and Diary Of A Madman.
Still, Ozzy felt betrayed at his bandmates’ actions. “I was no more fucked up than the rest of them,” he told Classic Rock in 2012. “It was bullshit.” And as for his replacement? “I couldn’t imagine someone singing for that band that wasn’t me,” he said.
There was no love lost between the two at the time. Ozzy mocked Dio for his height, while Dio called his predecessor unprofessional. Whether by accident or design, their paths rarely crossed, but when they did it was inevitable there were going to be fireworks.
In the No Escape From Now documentary, Ozzy’s wife Sharon recalls the memorable time Ozzy first encountered the man who replaced him.
As recounted by Rolling Stone, Sharon reveals that while Ozzy was convalescing following a stay in hospital, he watched a lot of TV and YouTube. His favourite topics were apparently murderers and war – specifically WWI and Vietnam.
More surprisingly, the also watched a lot of YouTube interviews with Dio. In the documentary, Sharon recalls asking Ozzy why he was watching clips of a man he seemingly hated.
““It was like, ‘Why are you watching Ronnie?'” says Sharon. “He goes, ‘I feel sorry for him. I feel terrible.’
“He never really to any of those [Dio-era Sabbath] records at all. He never knew Ronnie. The first time he met him was when he tried to stab him at [LA hangout] The Rainbow – with a fork. It wasn’t a knife – it was a fork.”
The date of this cutlery-based assault is lost to time, as is what exactly prompted it. Neither man ever discussed it publicly, and it’s unclear just if Ozzy seriously intended to hurt his rival. There’s a high likelihood that alcohol was involved, at the very least
Indeed, while the Prince Of Darkness may not have listened to the records his old band made without him, he did subsequently soften his view of Dio.
When Dio died in 2010, Ozzy said: “Metal has lost one of its greatest voices.” In 2022, on his Ozzy Speaks Sirius XM radio show, he acknowledged that his American counterpart “did a good job” with Sabbath.
In the new documentary, Sharon sheds a little light on her husband’s unlikely fascination with Dio.
“He never really knew the guy and never knew his music, so he feels really bad,” she says. “So he watches Ronnie James Dio interviews and I’m like, ‘What the fuck are you doing?'”
Ozzy: No Escape From Now streams on Paramount+ from October 7.
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