BLACK SABBATH Webmaster Comments On HEAVEN & HELL Rumors
As reported earlier today, Rafabasa webzine in Madrid, Spain reports that starting in June, 2007 there will be a reunion tour of a group going by the name
HEAVEN &
HELL. At this time, there are no dates confirmed, but the tour booking agent is offering the band to the promoters of the most important heavy metal festivals taking place next year. Under the name Heaven & Hell you will find
TONY IOMMI, RONNIE JAMES DIO, GEEZER
BUTLER and
BILL WARD. Evidently if everything is confirmed, they will be playing a set consisting of music from every single CD that Ronnie James Dio performed with
BLACK SABBATH, to include Heaven & Hell, Mob Rules, Live Evil and Dehumanizer. The reunion cannot tour under the name Black Sabbath, or
BLACK SABBATH WITH DIO, due to the fact that the copyright of the name is the property of
OZZY OSBOURNE and his wife/manager Sharon Osbourne.
During an August 16, 2006 appearance on the US syndicated radio show Rockline, Dio talked about the possibility of further collaborations with Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi:
"We've already written one (new) song together. The reason for that is that there's a release coming out, it's called
Black Sabbath:
The Dio Years - they've already done one, of course,
Black Sabbath:
The Ozzy Years; that was the beginning and, really, the best part of it all - but they've decided to do one, again, Black Sabbath: The Dio Years, and we wanted to make it a little but more special, not just give you things you've not heard from a live perspective. These are two things you'll never hear again - two new songs. We are going to do that. It's been fun already. The one we've done - the one that I've done with Tony has been really wonderful - just great to realize how magnificent a player he was. You forget that after 10 years at a time that you don't work with someone. So we are gonna be doing that. And I hope you'll like it. I think it'll be great."
On the rumors of him possibly rejoining Black Sabbath, Dio said, "There's always rumors about everything - about a RAINBOW reunion, about a Black Sabbath reunion. Our purpose was to do this because we wanted to have this product be a bit more special than anything else - not just, 'Here's a live track you've never heard before.' I mean, that's cool, but I'm sure people have heard that. We wanted to do something a bit more special, so the whole band would write and play these songs, and… They've wanted to hear them long enough, so here they are. But it's not anything that we've talked about leading to anything other than that. No, it's for that project."
Meanwhile, Black-Sabbath.com webmaster Joe Siegler has commented on the rumors as follows:
"Today was not the first time I had heard these rumours. Running this site I hear all kinds of things, and generally I tend to discount them - but this one had some more weight to it, so I decided to do some poking around on my own. While I can't get anyone to officially say anything about this, it does seem to have the air of an authentic story to me. Heck, I can't get any official word about who is even playing on the new tracks for the Dio Years set, besides Iommi & Dio. One would hope it's the same four guys (Iommi/Butler/Ward/Dio), but I can't get official confirmation of that one, either.
So it's known that the
Dio Years box set is happening. When - who knows, although I would imagine sooner rather than later. What the contents of the set are is also officially unknown. I've been hearing some rumours about specific content, but I don't really want to spread any more FUD about that issue, so I'll leave that out for now. Suffice it to say if what I heard is true, fans will really like it.
The other issue I wanted to say something about was the bit about legally not being able to call themselves Black Sabbath. A few points about this.. Ronnie has stated on many interviews and on his website that he would not be rejoining Black Sabbath. Assuming you take that as true, the rumour I heard that it was a choice to call themselves Heaven & Hell and not Black Sabbath should be taken as correct. The other side to that is the ownership of Black Sabbat". It's always been my knowledge that in the mid '80's Tony Iommi bought all the rights, and to this day retains such ownership. There was a lot of stories that in order to get Ozzy to come back in 1997, some of that ownership would have to be given to the Osbournes. Now I want to say this. I am a fan. A somewhat connected fan, but I still am a fan. I'm an idiot if I think I know everything - I do not. But I do pay attention, and I have never seen anything that tells me that the ownership situation of Black Sabbath has changed. My educated guess tells me that this bit about legally not being able to use the name Black Sabbath is incorrect, that it's a choice to do that. If I hear anything factually to counteract that, I will retract my opinion here.
Having said all this stuff, this is a very exciting possibility. To sum up:
Known facts:
There will be a Black Sabbath: The Dio Years box set. Said box set will contain at least two newly recorded tracks. Tony and Ronnie collaborated on the newly recorded tracks.
Rumours/Speculation:
These are all unconfirmed - so don't take it as fact, eh?
Geezer Butler & Bill Ward will comprise the rhythm section on the new tracks. Iommi/Butler/Ward/Dio will tour in 2007 as Heaven & Hell. They are not billing themselves as Black Sabbath due to legal reasons. The Dio Years set may include the video mentioned by Dio on the Live Evil recordings. Hopefully I can get some official confirmation about this stuff now that the "word is out" so to speak. I do work for Bill Ward and Geezer Butler, and am fairly friendly with Tony Iommi's people, so hopefully I can find out something I can officially talk about. The only "official" things are the three things listed above as "facts". The rest is speculation. I hope it's all true. And if they do tour, they'd better come to Dallas, dammit!
Hmm... Dio replaced Ozzy back in 1979, and now it's (in a fashion) being done again in 2007. Does this mean that a TV show with Ronnie going "WENNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNDY, the dog crapped on the carpet again!" is far behind?
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