Was it just a time constraint at Ozzfest that was stopping that from happening before?
Well, because of the Ozzfest, you are definitely limited to your time. I think this lineup is a lot more serious. With Ozzy, he’s going around throwing buckets of water on people, which to be honest, has never been Sabbath. He brought that in from his solo stuff. He never used to do that many years ago. Then, of course, he got into this with his own lineup, throwing water over people and squirting them and stuff, which has been his thing.
But when we came back to reunite with Sabbath, he was doing it again, and we thought, ‘Oh my god, what’s going on?’ because it just doesn’t go with what we’re doing really. What we’re doing now with Dio does, and Ronnie doesn’t go and throw buckets of water over people. It’s a serious show, and we really get off on each other’s singing and playing and make it a show.
How long is the Heaven And Hell touring going to last?
After this tour here, we’ve got another two and a half weeks, then we go back to England, we’ve got 10 days off or so. We do Europe for another month, then we’ve got a couple weeks off, then we do Australia, so we’re going to the end of the year.
Of course, I have to ask the question. Is there any chance of this lineup doing an album together?
I don’t know. As I said, we haven’t planned anything. We just said we’d tour this year. I would like to think we could do that, and it would be quite easy really, because of the way we work, and we could get things going quicker than most. I don’t think we’d have a problem doing it, because once we get together, we really do battle on with it.
Would that be a Heaven And Hell album or a Black Sabbath album?
Oh, I don’t know. I haven’t even thought of that. Haven’t got there yet. There’s talk of us doing an album with Ozzy, but there has been talk for many years. We’ll see what happens. I’m open for anything at the moment—we all are, I think. That’s the great thing about it these days, there’s no restrictions. We can just have a go at it and see what happens. If we get a chance to do one with Ozzy, we’ll probably do one.
The Dio Years and Live At The Hammersmith Odeon are available now through Rhino. The 2007 live album will be released this August, and Heaven And Hell will be appearing live May 19 at PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel. For more info, check out heavenandhelllive.com
Photo Credit: Mick Hutson
