Manager Number Two

Needing a new manager, Don Arden was hired. Don's management was the same company that their last management had parted from. Don managed Black Sabbath while his daughter, Sharon (then 18) was his receptionist. Ozzy and Sharon met when Ozzy walked into his office wearing a tap faucet around his neck and sat on the floor - refusing to use a chair. Sharon was terrified of Ozzy upon first sight. She even tried to get another woman working in the office to bring him a cup of tea, rather than bring it to him herself. The two of them would get to know one another quite well over the years as Don and the Sab four conducted business. Money and fame were no longer problems for the four of them, instead the only challenge was how to come up with another best selling album. A very audible change in the bands musical direction began to show in their 1974 album, "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath". Despite the title, the album contains deep lyrics with many different musical arrangements. The songs seemed more uplifting and vibrant than their previous dark, gloomy sounding material and a more energetic sound. Electronic instruments also changed the way they were able to record songs. This album, probably their best album with Ozzy as vocalist, placed 4th and 11th respectively in UK and American charts.

TECHNICAL ECSTASY ----------------- "Technical Ecstasy" was released in 1976. This album was considerably less heavy then previous albums, and perhaps was due to the band just being fed up with it all. They had succeeded in making a lot of money, owned as many cars as we own socks, and were getting burned out from constant touring. T.E. would contain a song titled, "It's Alright" featuring Bill the drummer on vocals, a very gentle song. The album cover also set the stage for something entirely new from the band. No more dark images, this artistic cover showed two robots having sex (or so it has been said). Sadly, Technical Ecstasy did not sell very well. The late 1970's also saw some deep trouble for the band. On January 20,1978 Ozzy's father passed away. Here is a small portion of an interview with Ozzy regarding his father: "In England, they don't tell you, y'know. What they did to my father was, he hadn't eaten a fucking thing because of his -- whatever the fucking tube -- he had a lump here like a fucking black ball, in his sagophagus or whatever the fuck it is; he couldn't eat any food. Plus the fact that he had cancer of the fucking intestines, the bowels, so he couldn't shit. He never ate a thing for thirteen weeks. They operated on him about a fucking week before he died. They took the whole tube out and put a plastic one in. I don't know what it's like in the states, but in England...they put him in a fucking closet with the fucking mops and buckets, because he was on the death ward and it was too distressing for the rest of the patients so they put him in a cot, sort of a crib thing, a giant crib. They strapped him...like a boxer, fucking bandages on his hands, with a glucose drip going into his arm. He was stoned out of his head. You know, the most amazing thing he said to me. I told my father one day, "I take drugs. I said to him, "Before you go, will you take drugs?" He says, "I promise you I'll take drugs." He was on Morphine. Totally out of his mind on Morphine, because the pain must have been horrendous. They had the operation on a Tuesday, and he died on Thursday...No one could understand what he was talking about, because he was so out of it. He says to me -- he only understands drugs as "speed" -- he says, [whispers, a drawn-out, rattling imitation] "ssspeeeeed." And he died in my arms. I haven't got over it yet. The twentieth of January, I'll go freaking like a werewolf. I'll cry and I'll laugh all day long, because it's the day my daughter was born and the day my father died. Like a fucking lunatic. When they go, they're out of their misery. But what freaked me out more than anything else was the funeral. I was singing fucking "Paranoid" in the church...Seconal, drunk... it blew me away. All the family came that I'd never seen for fucking years, and they were making comments. In England, it's a weird scene at a fucking death. My father hated his brother Harold -- my whole family's fucking nuts." This took a toll on Ozzy and he decided to quit Black Sabbath. Ozzy's father, Jack, who thought his son would either end up in prison or end up being someone very special, died knowing his son had made something out of himself. While on his leave of absence, Ozzy asked Glenn Hughes (another vocalist who would eventually spend some time in Sabbath) about the two of them forming a band. Oz was fed up with Sabbath by this time, though he kept his feelings about this to himself. Glenn did not join Ozzy in his desire. Meanwhile the band had to continue work on its upcoming album, "Never Say Die".

NEVER SAY DIE ------------- They took in Dave Walker (who used to be with Fleetwood Mac) to write new material for their album. Ozzy decided he wanted to rejoin the band, but he refused to sing any of the songs written with Dave Walker. So Dave left and the band had to rewrite all of their songs. Tony booked a studio in Toronto, Ontario because it was where the Rolling Stones had recorded one of their albums. The band traveled up there in the middle of winter to record the album. Ozzy has since said it was a stupid thing to do and that it was freezing up there. Tony was just trying to keep the band together in a time of turmoil. Ozzy had this to say on the album: "The fucking studio's a pile of shit, the fucking -- we had two songs half- written before we'd gotten into the studio. The reason we'd gone to Canada was because of the tax-exile thing, because the taxes are so high in England. In the end, it cost us nearly 500 fucking thousand dollars to make that album, and it was the biggest pile of horseshit that I've ever made in my life. I'm embarrassed with that album." There is one song titled "Junior's Eyes" which is available on the "Archangel Rides Again" bootleg, featuring Sabbath with Dave Walker on vocals. Junior's Eyes was kept for the final album with the same music but Ozzy rewrote the lyrics in a way as to say goodbye to his father.

Junior's Eyes ============= Junior's eyes looked up to the skies in tears He prayed that his maker, the giver and taker, would `pear Junior sighed, as his hands reached out to the sky Junior cried, the day that his best friend died (chorus) You're coming home again tomorrow I'm sorry it won't be for long With all the pain I've watched you live within I'll try my hardest not to cry But it is time to say goodbye Junior's eyes, they couldn't disguise the pain His father was leaving, and Junior is grieving again Innocent eyes watched the man who had gave everything Junior's sorrow, who knew what tomorrow would bring? (chorus) Junior's eyes looked into the skies once more Now he knew well, this life was hell for sure He desperately tried, his fingertips stretched to the stars, yeah Reaching for reason, along with the time and the stars (chorus)

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