The Set List: Black Sabbath

This month, metal legends Black Sabbath make their first appearance in the Middle East when they play Abu Dhabi on May 29th. The best news for fans? The current incarnation of Sabbath includes three of the four founding members: guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler and Ozzy Osbourne on vocals. It’s the same lineup that recorded the band’s hugely successful 2013 album, 13. And, says Iommi (the band’s only constant member), “It feels great to be back with the guys. It feels like home. Feels like where we should be. And I think the togetherness is better than it’s ever been.” 

Sabbath rose to prominence in the Seventies, as they transformed from a blues-rock covers band (with some jazz influences) into the brutally loud godfathers of heavy metal. They’ve gone on to influence numerous artists from several genres, from grunge legends like Nirvana and Soundgarden to hip-hop acts, punk bands and beyond.

And regional metalheads can take heart from Iommi’s stories of Sabbath’s formative years, when the band were shunned by the mainstream music industry in the U.K. as people struggled to ‘get’ their sound. “In the early days, it was very difficult,” the guitarist says. “We got slagged a lot for what we were doing. It frightened some people. They didn’t know what it was. Radio wouldn’t play it because it was ‘satanic’ and god knows what else. We were labeled with everything. But eventually we managed to get a hold. People realized we couldn’t be beat, and they had to play these songs, because people wanted to hear them.”

Iommi says the band never considered throwing in the towel. “We believed in what we did, and the people who liked what we did believed in it too, so it was just a matter of sticking to it. It’s easy to give up. It’s hard to decide to fight for it.”

On the following pages, Iommi selects 10 of his favorite Black Sabbath songs from Osbourne’s time with the band. (The singer was fired in 1979 as his issues with drugs and alcohol became too much for Iommi to handle. It was 2011 before the original members – including drummer Bill Ward – announced they were reforming to record a new album and to tour, although Ward is not featured on 13.)

“Black Sabbath” Black Sabbath (1970)

“I remember doing this song at a blues club,” Iommi says. “And afterwards people were coming up and going, ‘Wow, man. That was really strange. What was that?’ And we were all really pleased about it: ‘Oh, that’s one of our own songs.’ It was great.”

Iommi says “Black Sabbath” was just the second original song the band ever wrote. “We were just playing blues-y, jazz-y stuff [before], and one day in rehearsal we started doing our own stuff. I came up with ‘Wicked World,’ and then the next one was ‘Black Sabbath,’ which was really different. I played this riff, and we all went ‘Wow!’ That’s when we knew what we wanted to do. That’s really when we became Black Sabbath. It formed what we were going to be doing for the future.”

The band members were barely in their twenties at the time, and Iommi admits that the thrill of blasting their amps as loud as they could go was a major part of finding their new sound. “The thrill of the whole thing, really. And certainly on ‘Black Sabbath,’ there’s the feel of the space where Ozzy would sing his vocal – that was such a different thing back then that we were doing, and none of us could really put a finger on what it was, but we really liked it.”

“Paranoid” Paranoid (1970)

Probably Iommi’s most famous riff (or, at least, the most imitated in guitar shops), “Paranoid” began life as a last-minute filler track. “We were in the studio, and the producer said, ‘We haven’t got enough songs to fill the album, we need one more. Can you think of anything?’ I think the other guys had just popped out for a sandwich. And I just sat there for a bit and came up with this idea. When the others came back, we played it to them, and we made it into a song. It’s probably the simplest song we’ve ever done. Such a simple thing. But it worked, that’s for sure. You can guarantee that’s going to be on the radio once a day somewhere. It’s definitely the most successful filler we’ve ever had.”

“Iron Man” Paranoid (1970)

“Always start with the riff.”

That’s Sabbath’s way of working, Iommi says. “Then Ozzy’d get a melody going, then we’d be on the next stage of putting a change in there, an uptempo bit, or a solo, or whatever it needed, and we’d build the song that way.” The riff for “Iron Man,” he explains, “is one of those you can whistle, or sing, ’cause the vocal is the same as what I’m playing. It’s a powerful song. It’s got better and better over the years. I really enjoy playing it. And the kids really enjoy hearing it.” 

“War Pigs” Paranoid (1970)

“Great old song,” Iommi says of Sabbath’s classic anti-war track. Unusually, the song was created out of a jam session – as opposed to Iommi bringing a fully formed riff to the rest of the band. Even more unusually, it was created live onstage. “We were in Switzerland, I think,” Iommi says. “We’d been booked for a residency where we had to play seven 45-minute slots a day. Which was horrendous. We played there six weeks and we couldn’t wait to get out, I’ll tell you.” He does allow that, experience-wise, the booking taught the band a lot. Not least that trying to get away with a 45-minute drum solo to fill one of the sets wouldn’t go down too well. But since they didn’t have enough material to fill the time, they began to improvise onstage, and “War Pigs” arose from one of those jams. Meaning that, somewhere in Switzerland, there are people who can honestly claim to have been present during the creation of one of metal’s most iconic songs. Although, not very many people, if Iommi’s recollection is correct.

“To be honest, you could count the audience on one hand,” he says. “Sometimes we’d be playing to one prostitute and a nutcase. It was a really strange booking.”

“Into The Void” Master of Reality (1971)

For some of Sabbath’s third album – including this track – Iommi tuned his guitar down three semi-tones, creating a bass-y, (even) heavier feel to his riffs. The LP is often credited as an inspiration for stoner metal, and indeed, Kyuss, among others, have covered “Into The Void.”

“I like the mood of it,” Iommi says of the song. “All the different changes in it. You’ve got the powerful riff at the start, and it’s instrumental for a while before Ozzy comes in.”

“Supernaut” Vol. 4 (1972)

Another killer riff from Iommi, one that artists from Beck to Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham have declared their favorite of Sabbath’s wide repertoire. “That  was one of Frank Zappa’s favorites too,” Iommi says. “We became friends over the early years. I’d go round to his house and pay him a visit. And he’d play me his stuff.”

Iommi says he wasn’t particularly a Zappa fan, “but he was a nice guy and he helped us out a couple of times.”

Zappa was due to appear onstage with the band at Madison Square Garden in the early Seventies, but it didn’t happen. “He had his gear set up,” Iommi says, “and he wanted to come on and play with us, but we had such a bad night – everything was going wrong – that I sort of said, ‘Probably not a good idea tonight.’ And he’s just stood at the side of the stage.”

“Sabbath Bloody Sabbath” Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (1973)

Unsurprisingly, given that they were embarking on their fifth album in three years, the band decided a change of scene might be good for the writing process on Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. They were very very wrong. Their sojourn in Los Angeles was a disaster for Iommi. “It didn’t work at all,” he says. “We got into rehearsal and I just went blank. I couldn’t think of anything. It was really weird. I had this writer’s block and it frightened me to death.”

Sabbath returned to the U.K. and Iommi took a couple of weeks off. They reconvened at Clearwell Castle in Gloucestershire – a mock-gothic mansion complete with dungeon. Which is where Iommi found inspiration again. “That difference in atmosphere... god!” Iommi says. “I just started coming up with stuff. And ‘Sabbath Bloody Sabbath’ was the first one. And then we were off. We knew that we’d broken the spell.”

The song was something of a departure, according to the guitarist. “That was a turning point for our music, really. It was a different direction. We started using strings and stuff like that.” The result is one of the band’s most enduringly popular tracks.

“Symptom of the Universe” Sabotage (1975)

“I just really like playing it. It’s uptempo with some really good changes in it,” Iommi says of this track.

The album was written while Sabbath were in the middle of a court case against their old management. “It was very awkward,” Iommi says. “One minute you’re in court with a suit and tie on, next minute you’re in your jeans in the studio. I think the music was a release from all that [tension].”

Plus, he adds, “it gave Geezer some subjects to write about.” (Butler wrote the majority of Sabbath’s lyrics.)

“Age of Reason” and “God is Dead?” 13 (2013)

Two tracks that proved to those who feared the reformed sexagenarian Sabbath would be a pale imitation of their Seventies incarnation that there was nothing to worry about. “God is Dead?” highlights the sense of dynamics that was always a feature of Sabbath’s best work (and that was such an influence on Nineties grunge bands including Soundgarden and Smashing Pumpkins). “It’s got a great feel,” says Iommi of the Grammy-winning single.

“It’s funny,” the guitarist adds of Sabbath’s reformation. “Because the same themes [of our original work] are still relevant.”