Black Sabbath’s Geezer Butler Laments Dio’s Death, Ponders Black Sabbath’s Future.
Geezer Butler explains Dio’s death has left many close to him in a state of both personal and professional turmoil.
Tag Archive for 'Heaven & Hell'
Bassist Geezer Butler has released the following statement regarding the passing of legendary heavy metal singer Ronnie James Dio:
It’s impossible to express in mere words the relationship Ronnie and I, Wendy and my wife Gloria had. He was much more than a friend, fellow musician, band mate. If I have a soul, then he is part of it. I truly believe God, fate, destiny, whatever it’s called, brought us together again in 2006, after not seeing each other for 14 years, to do one final tour, which turned into three major tours and an album. We were having a blast together, enjoying each other’s company more than we had ever done before, talking about maybe doing one more album, when fate intervened again. We were planning on doing a two- or three-part North American tour, after having toured South America and Europe in spring/summer 2009, but on the first leg of the North American tour, Tony’s [Iommi] hand ligaments were in a bad way, Vinny’s [Appice] shoulder became dislocated, and Ronnie was having terrible stomach pains. We decided to cut the tour, get healthy, and carry on the following year. Tony and Vinny had successful procedures to fix their ailments, but Ronnie’s stomach pains were worsening. I saw him at the Dio Halloween party, but he wasn’t drinking, unusual for Ronnie who liked his tipple. He was telling me he had made an appointment with a specialist, to see what it was…..
Wednesday, 12th May 2010
Wendy invited Gloria and I to lunch in Santa Barbara. A few close friends of Ronnie and Wendy, Omar, Simon, Paul, Tim, and Diana, had dropped by. Ronnie had no appetite whatsoever — the disease and the chemotherapy were taking an immense toll. As usual, we talked sports and had a laugh together — it would be the last time. That night, I had a beautiful email from him, that I will treasure forever. I sent him an email saying I’d see him during the following week.
Friday, 14th May 2010
Wendy called to say she had taken Ronnie to hospital. The pain had become unbearable. We got to the hospital around 2 p.m. The doctor eventually sedated him. More and more friends were coming to visit — we took it in turns to hold Ronnie’s hand, and whisper our thoughts to him. Wendy wouldn’t leave his side — she stayed curled up on his bed the whole night. Gloria’s assistant, Debi, kept her company. I emailed Tony to prepare him for bad news.
Saturday, 15th May 2010
There was no mistaking Ronnie’s room. There were around 25 to 30 friends outside his room. We knew the end was imminent. We all wanted to say our goodbyes. It was a day filled with tears and reflection. In the evening, the chaplain came, and we all gathered around Ronnie’s bed and prayed. Ronnie wasn’t going easily. At 11 p.m., most of us left, leaving Wendy her privacy to say her last farewell. The devastation was palpable.
Sunday, 16th May 2010
7.46 a.m. As we were preparing to leave for the hospital, Gloria called Wendy to see if she wanted a coffee or any breakfast — she broke the sad news. Ronnie had just passed away.
Wendy Dio has been a true saint through all this. She has been with Ronnie every step of the way. Her courage has amazed us all. Even as I write, she is ensuring Ronnie has the finest send-off possible. God bless you, Wendel.
Most people who were there for those last days chose to keep their thoughts private. I wanted to keep my thoughts private, too, but I’ve been overwhelmed by emails, and requests from the media and fans for comments.
I can truly say I’ve never known anyone to have such loyal, loving friends, fans, and family as Ronnie. He really was a special person, blessed with a unique voice and presence. He loved his fans — he would stay meeting and talking to them until the early hours of the morning.
One of my fondest memories of him comes from last year, at the Sonisphere Festival, Knebworth. He noticed my sister and her husband at the side of the stage. During our opening song, he took the time to go over and hug them. Just a little thing like that made him special to me.
Of course his music will live on forever, as will his influence.
I have never seen so many tributes from so many musicians and fans, so many good wishes, no cynicism, just pure love and appreciation for a great man.
God bless you, Ronald — thank you so much for the wonderful memories.
(via)
Totally saddened by the news that the Godfather of Metal and the genre’s finest vocalist, Ronnie James Dio, has passed away. He was 67.
Official word from Wendy Dio:
“Today my heart is broken, Ronnie passed away at 7:45am 16th May. Many, many friends and family were able to say their private good-byes before he peacefully passed away. Ronnie knew how much he was loved by all. We so appreciate the love and support that you have all given us. Please give us a few days of privacy to deal with this terrible loss. Please know he loved you all and his music will live on forever.
- Wendy Dio”
There was speculation yesterday on the internet that he had died, which sent the Twitterverse into overload. Wendy Dio reported that, although he was not doing too well, he was very much alive.
Sadly, today, he lost his battle.
It was only a month ago that Dio, 67, spoke about his battle with cancer with the Artisan News Service on the “black carpet” of the Revolver Golden Gods Awards, which took place on April 8 at Club Nokia in downtown Los Angeles. When asked about how he had been feeling since he was diagnosed with the disease late last year, Dio said, “Well, I feel good and bad at times. It’s a long process. Chemotherapy is a… I never realized what a difficult thing it was to go through. It’s a real cumulative effect — the more you have, the more it piles up on top and it takes longer and longer to get over it. I find it very difficult to eat. I don’t like to eat anyway, so I guess that’s OK. But I know I have to. But this makes it very, very hard. But if you’re determined to beat it, then you have to go with what you believe is going to beat it for you, and in this case it’s that. I go to a great hospital in Houston called M.D. Anderson, which I think is the best hospital in the world, I have the best doctor in the world, Dr. Ajani, who I really trust and I really believe in, so I think I’ve done all the right things. It makes me feel positive about my life and positive that there is a lot more of it to live.”
Earlier this month, HEAVEN & HELL canceled its summer tour plans in Europe due to Dio’s treatment for stomach cancer. The band said in a statement that Dio wasn’t “well enough to tour this summer. We hope that everyone understands and want to thank fans and industry colleagues for their continuing support at this time.”
It is hard to put into mere words the influence Ronnie James Dio’s music has had for the majority of my life.
It was through Ronnie that I discovered the majesty of Black Sabbath some 30 years ago with the album ‘Heaven & Hell’. An album that to this very day, I have never grown tired of. It remains one of the defining moments of the Heavy Metal genre, an absolute classic opus of monumental melody, lyric and song. It is a masterpiece.
Such was Ronnie’s influence in all that he touched.
His music has stood the test of time and like his spirit and golden voice, will live on forever and ever when all of us have come and gone.
I am saddened by his passing but joyous that his music remains.
The world of Metal lost its voice today.
Looking back at all the amazing releases throughout 2009, it proved to be a monumental task in trimming it all down to a mere top 10.
There was no hard and fast criteria on how I got to these 10 gems, but out of pure enjoyment and repeat playability throughout the course of the year – this lot stood out like the proverbial.
It is a bit of an eclectic mix. Punk, Alt, Metal, Electronica and Rock. Why limit yourself to one genre when there are so many wonderful flavours out there huh?
So without further delay, here are my top 10 albums of 2009.
Beyond the shadow of any doubt, Black Sabbath are one of the greatest bands to have walked on this Earth. They single handedly created the genre known as Heavy Metal and have a career that has lasted decades. But when one really dissects the band’s original classic line-up of Ozzy Osbourne, Geezer Butler, Tony Iommi and Bill Ward – after the first 5 masterful albums – it went all downhill. Fast. In a sea of booze, drugs and debauchery – the mighty Black Sabbath was a shadow of its former self and very much on life-support.
When Ozzy was replaced in 1980 by the diminutive Ronnie James Dio – the band was once again reborn and spawned some of the most amazing and classic albums of the Metal genre: ‘Heaven & Hell’, ‘The Mob Rules’ and the often maligned ‘Live Evil’ are as classic and timeless as those first 5 slabs of Sabbath goodness – if not better.
So whilst Ozzy has been relegated to the role of bumbling idiot on yet another stupid television show ‘The Osbournes Reloaded’ – the rest of the band have gone on to create more magic in the form of Heaven & Hell’s ‘The Devil You Know’.
It was with great anticipation I was awaiting the results of this collaboration. When the band wrote three new songs for ‘The Dio Years’ compilation a couple of years ago, the resultant output pretty much picked up where the band left off after 1992′s brilliant (and often overlooked) ‘Dehumanizer’ album – which was the last recorded output from the Dio, Iommi, Butler, Appice version of Black Sabbath.
And here we are.
After all the musical chairs that has been Black Sabbath throughout the 90′s and after the highly successful reunion with Ozzy – we have come to the moment of truth where we are finally getting new output from Sabbath – albeit under a different monicker – it is still very much a Sabbath album.
And a classic album it is. Reminding me more of ’92′s ‘Dehumanizer’ than the masterful ‘Heaven & Hell’ and ‘Mob Rules’ albums of the early 80′s – ‘The Devil You Know’ pretty much kicks things into gear and is one solid track after the other. The Lord of the Riff, Tony Iommi delves deep and has procured some classic doom-laden riffs that would even have ole Lucifer himself reaching out for the tennis racquet.
First single ‘Bible Black’ is as close to a Sabbath classic as you can get. Intertwined with Dio’s soothing vocal stylings in the intro, it twists into a monster of a song with that repetitive Sabbath guitar and bass bludgeoning along to Appice’s merciless BOOM-CHUCK-BOOM-CHUCK beat. Fucking insane! Fucking INSANE! This is what a juggernaut sounds like! This is what it sounds like when an irresistible force meets an immovable object. BANG!
And if that wasn’t enough it all pours into the next track ‘Double The Pain’ which ups the tempo slightly and chugs along again with a riff that only the Devil himself could muster out of an aging Gibson guitar. Iommi just shines and delivers riff upon riff with also some of his best lead guitar work in ages.
It is difficult to compare this album to the brilliance that was ‘Heaven & Hell’ and ‘Mob Rules’. You’d be crazy to. But geez, it comes close and is still a superbly crafted, sinister, mindfuck of a release and one that has not left my iPod for over a week.
Geezer Butler: ‘If We’d Written This Album With OZZY, We’d Still Be Working On The First Track.’ – And there endeth the sermon!
Heaven & Hell’s new single, “Bible Black”, is available for streaming in its entirety on Noisecreep.com (look for the audio player in the middle of the page and click on the play button).
After finishing several heralded world tours as Heaven & Hell last summer, Ronnie James Dio, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and Vinny Appice were tighter than ever before, both musically and personally.
Agreeing that it would be a shame to stop making music together at tour’s end, the quartet began writing, first in England at Iommi’s home studio and later in Los Angeles at Dio’s studio. “The band had gotten too good to just walk away,” Dio says. “We wanted to show people that we were still capable of giving them new music that measured up to what we’d done in the past.”
With that goal in mind, the band once again converged on Rockfield Studios in Wales last winter, the same place they used 17 years earlier to record their last album, “Dehumanizer”. The result is the long-awaited new album, “The Devil You Know”, featuring 10 soon-to-be-classic tracks from the Dio-fronted version of Black Sabbath. The highly anticipated set arrives on April 28 from Rhino for a suggested list price of $18.98 (physical) and $9.99 (digital).
It took less than three weeks to finish the album, with most of the songs only needing a couple of takes. “It was good to play them live in the studio. It keeps you on edge,” Iommi says. “I mean, somewhere along the line we were gonna have to play them live; might as well start in the studio.” Butler adds: “We’ve learned from the past that you can kill a song doing it over and over. The first SABBATH albums were done in two or three days. Technically they weren’t great, but vibe-wise they were great. If you capture that feeling, that’s all you need.”
“Bible Black”, the epic first single, begins with Iommi on acoustic guitar behind Dio’s plaintive wail before the rhythm shifts to a menacing stomp for the rest of this dark tale about a book of sinister scriptures. One of the first songs written for the album, Dio says it established a tone for the rest of the album. “When you start off with a blockbuster like that, it makes the rest of the album so much easier because it gives you a benchmark to measure the other songs against.”
Iommi proves he hasn’t lost the ability to inspire six-string envy, unleashing riffs like a pack of rabid hellhounds on “Atom And Evil”, “Fear”, “Neverwhere”, and “Eating The Cannibals”, a tune about doing more than biting the hand that feeds. Butler and Appice slow the pace while ramping up the intensity on “Follow The Tears” and “Double The Pain” and “Breaking Into Heaven”, the latter diverging from its glacial procession for Dio’s majestic chorus about fallen angels planning an attack on paradise.
What’s better than the original Sabbath line-up recording an album? Well, this is! The Dio led Sabbath/Heaven & Hell are about to release a highly anticipated new opus on April 28. Let’s face it, with Sharon Osbourne dictating to her bumbling husband Ozzy when to shit, drink, eat or utter an indistinguishable muttering – a full-fledged Black Sabbath album is nigh on impossible. But, the Dio era Sabbath is what I grew up on!
Ronnie James Dio, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Vinny Appice returned to the stage after 15 years in 2007, launching a triumphant world tour as Heaven & Hell. Revitalized and inspired by its time on the road, the quartet recently returned to the studio, recording the band’s first album since 1992′s Dehumanizer. The highly anticipated album, THE DEVIL YOU KNOW, will be available from Rhino on April 28.
“Everyone had so much fun playing together that we didn’t want it to end,” says the group. “We started writing together and the songs started flowing like we never stopped. We wound up writing and recording an album that stands up to anything we’ve ever done. We’re really proud of the music and excited for people to hear it.”
The dark tone heard on THE DEVIL YOU KNOW is clear from several of the album’s song titles, such as ‘Bible Black’, ‘Rock & Roll Angel’, ‘Breaking Into Heaven’, ‘Atom & Evil’ and ‘Eating The Cannibals’.
The seeds of the new album were planted in 2006, when Dio, Iommi, Butler and Appice returned to the studio to record a trio of new songs for Black Sabbath: The Dio Years, a recent compilation of essential tracks taken from the quartet’s four albums together. Soon after, the band launched a run of sold-out shows around the world, electrifying audiences with its malevolent metal fury.
Iommi told Billboard last summer that “it really is Black Sabbath, whatever we do,” but said the artists had chosen to tour as Heaven And Hell “so everyone knows what they’re getting [and] so people won’t expect to hear ‘Iron Man’ and all those songs. We’ve done them for so many years, it’s nice to do just all the stuff with did with Ronnie again.”
