While Heaven and Hell era Black Sabbath fronted by Ronnie James Dio was riding high on the success of their new grouping, problems with their former frontman Ozzy Osbourne made some news in 2009. In April Geezer Butler went on the record about the difference between Dio and Ozzy: Heaven & Hell/Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler has told Decibel magazine that working with singer Ronnie James Dio is a hell of a lot easier than working with Ozzy Osbourne.
"Ronnie's a songwriter in his own right — he's got tons of ideas," the bassist said. "Whereas Ozzy... in the old days, he'd come up with a vocal line and I'd write the lyrics. Ronnie is 100 percent involved in both the musical side and the vocal side, and he writes his own lyrics as well."
Ozzy never took Butler's musical ideas seriously, either. "If we were with Ozzy and I came in with the killer riff of all time, Ozzy wouldn't even think of doing it because I'm not the guitarist and that's the way he thinks," Butler said. "When we tried to do a Sabbath album in 2001, we all gave each other CDs of our riffs or song ideas. Ozzy didn't even listen to mine. Because I'm not a guitarist, he felt I shouldn't be playing guitar. That's why it was so bloody hard to write anything."
Geezer Butler on Heaven & Hell's debut CD, "The Devil You Know": "If we'd written this album with Ozzy, we'd still be working on the first track." more.
Then in June Ozzy decided to take legal action over Black Sabbath: Ozzy Osbourne has launched legal action against Tony Iommi, demanding a share of the rights to the Black Sabbath trademark.
Iommi owns the name outright and is entitled to do anything he likes with it. But Osbourne says he's been arguing the point for three years, and believes all four founding members of the band - himself, Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward - should co-own the brand.
He says he's been forced to go to court after failing to persuade Iommi to "do the right thing" by any other means - and he's only taking action "with regret". In a statement Osbourne explains: "In the mid-1990s, after constant changes in band members, the brand of Black Sabbath was in the toilet, and Tony, touring under the name Black Sabbath, was reduced to performing in clubs. Since 1997, when Geezer, Bill and myself rejoined the band, Black Sabbath has returned to its former glory. - It did? Read more here
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