Tony Iommi - Rock musician HARDtalk


Tony Iommi - Rock musician

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put out the burning forests. For all. -- time for HARDtalk. The crew

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are of metal, the king of the heavy riff. His band is topping the chart

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again. Although looks at his bed and her all the behaviour of Ozzy

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Osbourne, the guitarist, Tony Iommi has led to the full and now cancer.

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Still recording and touring, what keeps in mind? - are what keeps him

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Tony Iommi, will come to heart talk. How does it feel to be back on top

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after all these years? Fantastic. I mean, to have a number one all over

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the world - what can you say? It is just brilliant. You even managed to

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knock Rod Stewart OP the top! Mark are mack. Much you think burning

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home influenced what became black Sabbath -- Birmingham. A lot. This

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is the background of an hour music. The industrial side of it. Being

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brought up around going and not particularly very nice. We wanted

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to get out but you were trapped, really. Is it was the way to be

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able to get out. It eventually did get you out but for some time you

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were there, practising, and learning to trade. We often think

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the 60s was the swinging time, a and? I do not think so. Knights. We

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touring. touring. All the power house -- for

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our house stop. Was it a reaction to all that he's an up stop? Yes.

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It was talking about the nice things and we came out talking

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about the things that really are happening in the world - divorce -

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the other side of life. Not a particularly cheap or perspective

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or message to put out. It refects how you felt about?

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I think so. The based on was responsible for most of lyrics. --

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the bass player. I did the music side. I get blamed for that. Even

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so, you were part of the bike, the scary music thing. Ozzy Osbourne

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said you came up writing scary music because he grew up from it -

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across the road from a cinema which showed horror films. It was that

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feeling of being frightened. Are That

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that in mus?I ? that in museat. A liked to have that same feeling

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from the music. In in the didn't happen at all. Told me about the

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accident? The acts and happen before Black Sabbath. -- the

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accident. I had just been offered this job to go to Germany. You were

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way out there. Absolutely. I really liked playing with them. My mother

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of... Are at work and a work in a factory doing welding. Somebody

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used to cut the metal and stone the down to me and I would world. One

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day, these pose and didn't come so that we on the machine and I had

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never worked on the machine ever. The thing came down on my hand and

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as I pulled back, it took the edge of my finger off. What happened

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before that, I'm sorry, I went home for lunch and are said to my mother,

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I'm not going back in to work today. I am going to stop. She said, you

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go back in and make sure you finish up your day and that is what

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happened. She must have felt quite at about that. She probably did.

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But it is strange how things happen like that stop it is weird. It i it

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had not gone, my stock would change - it may create a start of play.

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Explain that. It was almost serendipity. It was. It made me

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invent a way of playing because I had to make these caps for my

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fingers. I went to the hospital and they said, you might as well keeper,

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basically. That would not except that. But all it must be a way. The

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manager of the foam who own work for, brought me a break cut round

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and he said, can I play it. I said I was not in just that. It did not

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feel up run. Which has listen to it. I said, that was great stop and he

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said, this guy plays with two fingers. And it inspired me to do

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what. I made some tips myself. washing up ?I ? washing up n?

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And noted it down, got a hot soldering iron and made a hole in

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it until it in my finger. I just sat there for ever running down to

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make the shape of a finger. Then had to to find something that would

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end. At the end of the day a come up with that much so that would

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grip the string and a good that. Very primitive, Robinson Crusoe

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thing - but it worked. If you listen to what some of your fellow

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musicians and said, the king of the heavy riff, without him, it would

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not exist. It ended in to hit the metal. We knew topped the poll,

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they praised the highly its dinky white he played. -- the way you

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play. Let's eat some of your plane. What make that kind of playing

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special and the stink it? -- distinctive?I ? distinctive... I

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used to be able to play proper court in a conventional way but I

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had to come up with a different way altogether because I could not play

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the same way. I had to work on how to press on the strings because

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they could not feel anything apart from the pain. You could not feel

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how much you have been in the strings. Even today?It is still no

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sign. I still use chips that are made for me now. You can afford it?

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I still have to put Labour on. I have an old jacket from the 60s. --

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an end there. I use that. They last about three weeks. Not everyone is

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impressed by heavy metal music. For all its pervasiveness, it really

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inspired a lot of music, the bulk of the music, he says, macho, speed

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demon solace, and drums - it is a bit unimaginative. What can I say

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to that? What you say to that?I do not know. I do not know how to

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answer that. I do not cast ourselves as he be metal. A lot of

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Power. You try to create some kind of vibe. It was not just the music.

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It was a distinctive side. That is what unknowns people about the

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music. They fill in I think it exploits their emotions. It tries

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to build atmosphere and it is actually a bit, in that sense, a

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bit unhealthy. I do not think it is. We have at a lot of... It depends

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what bands you are on about... What we do, we have at a lot of letters

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over the years, from people who said, and got the music. You have

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helped me tremendously through these hard times because they went

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through the songs, the lyrics, the field, and it has genuinely helped

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people. And yet, you perform in a way that plays up the satanic image.

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You're not a coulters? Not at all. We dabbled in it in the early days

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because we were young and you're inquisitive. As far as any kind...

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Win over sacrificed any body of the age or anything like that. -- we

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never sacrificed. When we did the first album, the record company did

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the cover and that is what done it. The inside of the cover was an

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upside down Cross. So that started everybody OP. You're wearing the

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Cross today the right way up. Is it disingenuous - was it a cheap

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thrill or the audience was my we believe in what we didn't play.

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Everything we played we have to feel it and believe it. The

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audience - we have been here for 45 years. You answer that. What about

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the diminish it was Mark that, again, was just something I like.

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And never even knew about it to be on us when it first did it. I did

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not understand or back. We were 19 the use. Would you explain for

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people-watching. What was behind that. Black Sabbath was the sop but

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-- the first on that had that. Apparently they are the notes you

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never use. But I never knew that. To me it was creating music and

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that's all I do, I create music. I do not tried to create anything to

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upset anybody, destroy people. It has helped more people. We are not

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satanist, certainly not. For some quite... You talk about a nurse who

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killed herself and paradise was playing beside her. That is right.

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We never knew what the reason was. There is always going to be

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something they will find. Does it bother you? You hate for anybody to

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have killed themselves. There is not saying it was ours. It is

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saying that at paradigm on the turntable. Ozzy Osbourne was

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talking about a guy that killed all those women, he had the lyrics

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written on the wall. Ditch you thank you had gone too far? No, the

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lyrics are about what was going on in the world. You have to talk to

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the geezer. He would write about what he had seen and what we felt

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we were going through, people we were bumping into, the type of

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people. You say the lyrics you wrote but you were part of that,

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part of building the environment, their image, the sound which was so

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important - that creates some responsibility, does it not?

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you're looking into it that deep, yes, we look at it as music. The

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lyrics written because geyser or was said to me, he has to write

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powerful lyrics to go with the powerful music. It was your fault,

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You could have Rolls-Royces, Lamborghini is, quite a lifestyle.

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You look back on that lifestyle with a tete with affection? I can't

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change it but there are things, certain things, you could have done

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differently. What things?A lot of the staff. Give me some examples.

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The drugs side. If I'd known that, I would have not done that to that

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extent. Ozzy Osbourne described cocaine as a cancer to the band.

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was, absolutely. How much long-term damage did it do? As far as the

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band is concerned, I think it did a lot of damage. Initially we thought

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it was great and helping us be creative. At the end of the day,

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when it came to the point where we had to replace ourselves, we were

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in a bad way. He was certainly in a bad way. We had to fire him, which

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was awful. Did you do that face to face? Actually, the drum up told

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him. We were going to it all tell him to go there but Bill step in

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and told us - -- told him without us. It was a terrible thing. He got

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to the stage where he was not into it any more and he was doing too

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much of everything, we all doing this stuff. He was worse than us, a

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few stages ahead. What were you doing? Cocaine, way ludes, all of

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the stuff around at that time. Not acid or anything like that. Indeed

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some things starting off as a practical joke that you look back

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upon now th?I ? upon now th practical joke. Spraying one of

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York band members gold which may have killed him? Another one got

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third-degree burns on his legs after setting fire to his legs.

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Beale was the drummer, he was the one we picked on and he liked it,

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to be honest. If he did not play out that day, he would ask why we

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did not pick on him that day. was different to the kind of

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practical jokes that you would have done in the school yard back in

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Birmingham when you were kids. This different scale. It got really

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silly. When we sprayed him caught, we were laughing at the time but we

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did not realise how silly that was. A gifted the drugs make you lose

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respect? Probably, yes. I think it does in the end. You do get taken

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over by them. It depends upon what you do. Does it make you want to

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sort of reach out to some of the younger musicians now and say to

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them, if you knew what I knew, you would not be touching this stuff.

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It's like what my parents would have said to me. You have to

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experience certain things sometimes. However much I said not to do these

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things, don't do this or that, are they going to do it? I don't know.

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You think you were setting a bad example to the fans and the people

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buying your music? They still bought the music and half the time

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you were composing while of your face. I don't think it was a bad

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example. It was a personal thing brass. We did not share it or give

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people things. We did it for Russ, experimentation. Trying stuff. We

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once we hit America, I never did anything until America. Then it

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went berserk. You spoke about firing Ozzy Osbourne which you did

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at the end of the 70s. He has obviously come back to the band

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after a long period away. At one point you were having a legal

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dispute over the ownership of the name Black Sabbath. He said as a

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kid he was a real pain at school. I get the impression it's been quite

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a complicated relationship? school, the school we went towards

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a tough school. Ozzy Osbourne was younger than me. That was always

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the case when I first went to the school we were picked on by the

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older kids, that's just the way it was. So you pick on him?We did not

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pick on him, he was a pain and a nuisance. He is funny now when we

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look at it. But at that time he was. You would probably give him a clip

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around the ear. But years later, that and nor in quality deduce some

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favours when you had a little pain that you were not thinking about

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doing anything about? I'm talking about the diagnosis. Yes, yes, that

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knocked me for 61 were found out I had cancer. Ozzy Osbourne made you

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get it checked out? We were working at his house in Birmingham. We were

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riding the album. I was getting some preening in my groin. He said

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to me, you don't look well. I did not feel well and I told him what

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was happening. He told me to go and get checked out and organised a

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doctor. I told him I would sort it out. I did. I saw a doctor in her

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Los Angeles. They wanted to cut something off to see what it was.

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There may told you? Back in England, they told me. I went to the

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hospital to have a prostate problem. I had an operation. While they were

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Cutting they took out a lump and they told me that it was not

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Prostate cancer but they found lymphoma in that lump. I was very

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disappointed. I said, oh no. What is lymphoma? I kind of new. When

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you before you'd lost one of Ozzy Osbourne replacements. He had

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stomach cancer. Did you think you would get the same thing? Yes, I

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did, absolutely. Ronni was complaining about his stomach. I

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told him to see the doctor. He said yeah, yeah, I will after the tour.

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Of course it was too late for him. After the tour, it had spread.

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think the cancer had an effect to the band, playing a part in this?

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think it brought us closer together than we ever have been. It kind of

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suddenly reality about what may happen. Everybody called together

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