Date: Mar 31, 2025,
News Release
Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler, and drummer Bill Ward have opened up to Rock Candy for the magazine’s latest expansive cover story marking 50 years since the release of the band’s seminal sixth studio album, ‘Sabotage’, in 1975.
The three musicians recall the stresses and strains of going though litigation with former manager Patrick Meehan over missing monies, while at the same time trying to create new music that was designed to push the boundaries of what the Birmingham group had previously deemed possible.
“We were obviously immensely p*ssed off because we had hardly anything to show for five years of constantly touring, writing, and recording,” Butler explained to Rock Candy Mag editor Howard Johnson. “It was difficult dividing time between creating music and time spent in lawyers’ offices, with QCs, and in law courts. But with our backs against the wall I think some of the songs on ‘Sabotage’ were the angriest that we’d ever written.”
“It wasn’t easy, because as it turned out the court case happened smack bang in the middle of recording ‘Sabotage’,” says Iommi. “One minute you’d be worrying about whether a riff was right for a song, the next you’d be sat in court.”
Yet despite such immense outside stresses, Sabbath were absolutely determined to forge ahead on their musical journey.
“We were in an experimental phase at the time,” says Butler. “We’d introduced different instruments on the [previous] ‘Sabbath Bloody Sabbath’ album, and once again were looking for new directions. Synths were relatively new at that time, so we had a go at introducing them on some songs. It was fun playing around.”
With their backs against the wall, Sabbath dug deep to produce some of the most exciting rock music of the ’70s – or any other decade.
“‘Hole In The Sky’ and ‘Symptom Of The Universe’ are two of my all-time favourite Black Sabbath songs,” confirms Geezer. “I still love playing them, and they really come alive when we perform them live.”
“I was really, really happy with the writing,” says Bill Ward. “I think we were expanding, allowing ourselves to expand. We’d come a really long way from the song ‘Black Sabbath’, as great as that song is. I thought the richness of what we were doing on ‘Sabotage’ was brilliant.”
You can read our exclusive Black Sabbath ‘Sabotage’ story in issue 49 of Rock Candy Mag, together with in-depth stories and interviews with Billy Squier, Angel, Machine Head, Don Airey, L.A. Guns, Jethro Tull, and more.
