BLACK SABBATH Vocalist TONY MARTIN

BLACK SABBATH Vocalist TONY MARTIN On The OZZY Reunion - "How Many Times Do You Want To See Them Do The Same Stuff?"





Über Röck's Mark Ashby recently interview former BLACK SABBATH singer
TONY MARTIN who fronted the band from 1987 to 1990 and again from 1993
to 1997; an excerpt follows:


What do you remember of how it felt when you got that call asking if you wanted to be a part of Black Sabbath?






Martin: "It was weird, because my manager at the time was already
friends with them. I mean they used to go to school together, and he was
their tour manager during the '70s: basically, he gave me a call one
day and said 'Oi, kid, I want you meet me somewhere, we're gonna take
and drive' and I said 'oh alright, where we going?' and he said just to
meet him. So, I met him and we drove for a while, and ended up at this
big house: he got out and rang the doorbell and Iommi answered the
door... I was like 'bloody hell, you could have warned me!' but in I
went, nervous as hell, played him a few things and next thing I had
audition in London, and that was it - I was in!"


There seems to have been a deliberate attempt to expunge that whole
period of Sabbath's history, covering the years and albums involving
Tony Martin.


Martin: "It seems a bit of a waste of ten years of the band's
history. To cut that out, they're not just cutting me out, they're
cutting themselves out. It seems like cutting your own nose off to spite
your face. Why would you want to delete ten years of your history? It
seems to me that they've got their minds elsewhere, and whatever brings
them the most money seems to be what they go for. I mean, the Ozzy
reunion. How many times do you want to go and pay to see them do the
same stuff? OK, people argue that those old songs are people's
favourites, well; it's probably that way because you keep ramming it
down people's throats and don't give them a chance to buy anything else.
It seems disjointed and disconnected to me, and I don't understand why
they would want to even cut themselves out of that history."


To read the interview in its entirety, click here.