Metal Monday: What If Ozzy Never Left Sabbath?

posted in: Features • Rock

Many years ago in a galaxy known as metal, some stuff happened that would change the course of the genre forever (but you probably knew that already). We’re here to ponder things like “what if that never happened” in regard to some of metal’s most momentous events and happenings – What might the metal world be like today?

1979. What a year, right? Metal was really starting to gain some traction with breakout bands like Judas Priest, Motí¶rhead, etc. and all seemed well, except over in the Black Sabbath camp. For lack of a better description, the Sabbath camp was a drunken, dysfunctional mess by 1979, and that atmosphere ultimately led to Ozzy Osbourne being kicked out of the band. Ten years into the band’s legendary career, they cut ties with their vocalist. End of the road, right? WRONG. Instead, Sabbath hooked up with equally legendary voice Ronnie James Dio, and cranked out one of the most legendary metal albums of all time: Heaven & Hell.

The rest, as they say, is history. But what if Ozzy never left? Just imagine how different things from 1979 through 1980 could have been!

First of all, Ozzy’s solo career would have been pretty unlikely at best. As a whole, this is a pretty huge deal, even if for no other reason than no one would have ever really discovered how incredible Randy Rhoads was. As a guitarist and human being, Randy was easily one of the best metal has ever seen. Sure, he was in Quiet Riot for a few records, but that material didn’t showcase Randy’s talent nearly as well as Ozzy’s solo records.

On the Black Sabbath side, obviously, Heaven & Hell would never have happened. What would this have meant for Dio at the time? Having just left Rainbow due to creative differences with Ritchie Blackmore, Dio was already looking for new things when he joined Sabbath. It was not to last long, though – Dio and Vinny Appice would leave Sabbath to form Dio’s new project, the aptly named “Dio.” Thankfully for everyone, Dio still had it, releasing Holy Diver to massive critical acclaim. Something tells me he would have been just fine, even without his stint in Black Sabbath (though, is there really any doubt that this gave him a major boost in popularity?).

One word can describe Black Sabbath between the years of 1982 and 1992: forgettable. Having only two consistent members (Tony Iommi and Adam Wakeman), the slots of bass, drums, and vocals were constantly shifting and the records released in that time make it quite apparent–erractic sound, lack of cohesion, and worse. All was well by the end of the ’90s, or so it would seem, as Ozzy/Tony/Bill/Geezer/Adam were back together. No new records at that point, though.

Dysfunction aside, it’s hard to imagine that any of these things would have been even close to reality if Ozzy hadn’t been forced out of Black Sabbath back in ’79. Which reality would you most miss if all these things would not have happened?