By now, all four members of the band were staying in their rooms all day and
doing hard drugs and booze. They had cars, success, and perhaps little
motivation to release another album. Ozzy himself has said he only wanted to
release an album to make money and get fat off of beer. Ozzy would subsequently
not show up for weeks at a time for practice. They were to begin work on their
next album, "Heaven and Hell". Tony, having met Ronnie James Dio
(ex-Rainbow) by this time, then asked Bill to get rid of Ozzy. Tony was fed up
with Ozzy and was interested in having Dio as a vocalist. After the 1978 NSD
tour, Ozzy was told by Bill, that they no longer wanted him in the band. Bill
feels bad about doing this because him and Oz were best of friends and yet Bill
wanted Ozzy out of the band as well. People still ask how Ozzy left, the truth
is that both him and Tony Iommi say he was fired. Ozzy also adds that he was
relieved at this. In actual fact Ozzy was asked many times on the last day to
leave before being fired. For some time now Ozzy wanted to go into a new musical
direction and perhaps was unable to do so with the politics of the band being
the way they were. Tony, being the transportation, would never be spoken against
by the other members of the band. 1978 saw the end of the original Black
Sabbath. Their last tour would be the "Never Say Die" tour.
Appropriately named.
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