“The mix was outrageous… the bass was so high they couldn’t play it on the radio”: Ian Gillan is really, really glad Tony Iommi wants to remix Born Again, one of Black Sabbath’s most maligned albums

Black Sabbath in 1983 — (Image credit: Williams/Mirrorpix/Getty Images)

Deep Purple singer Ian Gillan has expressed his excitement for a remix of the sole album he made with Black Sabbath, Born Again.

Gillan briefly sang with Sabbath in 1983, following the exit of previous frontman Ronnie James Dio. He performed on the Birmingham metal pioneers’ 11th album and the subsequent tour, before leaving to join a then-reuniting Deep Purple.

Even though the collaboration should have been something of a rock’n’roll clash of the titans, Born Again was met with backlash from fans and critics. Its artwork and mix have been especially criticised over the years.

Now, talking to Rolling Stone Brasil, Gillan calls the songs on Born Again on “great”, but decries everything else about the album as “ridiculous”.

“The mix was outrageous,” he adds (via Blabbermouth).

He goes on to say it was so bad that it was comparable to something out of famous 1984 mock-rockumentary This Is Spinal Tap: “If you ever saw the movie Spinal Tap, then that’s the story of Born Again. The bass level was so high, they couldn’t play it on the radio!”

Although Gillan says it was “always a joy” to write music with founding Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi, and that “we certainly had some fun making the record”, he praises the choice to remix Born Again, something Iommi first announced his intention to do in 2021.

“I think the album is actually great,” Gillan continues. “I always thought, we always recognised the fact that Ozzy’s [Osbourne] the singer with Black Sabbath, and people identify with that. So it was a kind of a weird hybrid kind of situation. But all in all, thank God they’re gonna remix it.”

The original lineup of Sabbath – Osbourne, Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward – will play their final show together on July 5, at Villa Park in their hometown of Birmingham. The band’s last studio release was 2013’s 13 but, last year, Iommi remastered and reissued three of their albums: 1989’s Headless Cross, 1990’s Tyr and 1994’s Cross Purposes.

1995’s Forbidden was also reissued, albeit with a completely new mix overseen by Iommi.

Sabbath’s Born Again touring cycle was an influence on This Is Spinal Tap. A mistake that the band made when ordering a Stonehenge stage prop for the shows (then-manager Don Arden wrote the dimensions down in metres instead of feet) was lampooned in the film.

While Sabbath are gearing up for their last hurrah, Deep Purple, with Gillan still in the fold, continue to tour and record. They released their 23rd studio album, =1, last year and have a handful of concerts booked for 2025. See their planned dates via their website.

Artists

Louder’s resident Gojira obsessive was still at uni when he joined the team in 2017. Since then, Matt’s become a regular in Metal Hammer and Prog, at his happiest when interviewing the most forward-thinking artists heavy music can muster. He’s got bylines in The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, NME and many others, too. When he’s not writing, you’ll probably find him skydiving, scuba diving or coasteering.