If Ozzy didn't get fired from Sabbath.

If Ozzy didn't get fired from Sabbath would the Sabbath album after Never Say Die sound more like Heaven And Hell or Blizzard Of Ozz or something in the middle?

 

I would love for Ozzy to sing Heaven and Hell and Mob Rules. I know it's not happening, but it would be cool. I am an Ozzy/Sabbath fan but was just as big a fan of the Dio Sabbath. Heaven and Hell is one of the great rock albums of all time by anybody.

To answer your question, it is really hard to know. Blizzard of Oz is not the Sabbath band and the "new" Sabbath was not Ozzy singing obviously. So, I guess I have to say something in the middle.

 

I'd lean towards Heaven and Hell considering Iommi would still be the creative force there while I think it was Daisley and RR on Blizzard.

 

They would've done an album of Gilbert and Sullivan covers.

 

It would have riffs from Heaven and Hell but the vocal melodies and lyrics would be completely different. It definitely wouldn't sound like Blizzard of Ozz because that was written by the band.

 

Ozzy would have died somewhere between 1980 and 1982.

 

I think the album would have sounded more like stuff like Never Say Die. The only song that was half way written from H&H that Ozzy attempted to sing on was a different version of "Children of the Sea". Obviously, with Dio joining the recording of the album and the dynamics of the band changed drastically. The truth is, Sabbath was in a real rut with Ozzy and it was going downhill fast. The split helped revitalize both Black Sabbath and Ozzy (once he got his s- together). @Rosskolnikov might be right, though, that if they had continued as a unit, Ozzy might have died and the whole thing would have fell into a heap.

 

The answer is probably neither. RJD’s fingerprints are all over Heaven and Hell and Mob Rules. And Ozzy writes pretty much nothing, so Blizzard of Ozz tells you nothing about what a Sabbath album could have sounded like.

Since the rest of the band had some input into the RJD albums, I guess it would have sounded more like those but probably not too much. The real winner in your fantasy scenario would probably have been Quiet Riot. Imagine the “Crazy Train” riff with a Kevin Dubrow vocal over the top.

 

But he didn't, and didn't exactly slow down the cocaine usage until...well...that's debatable...
Now he's in his 70s and rather healthy (and lucky!)

 

True, but I just wonder if something like depression would have done him in if he'd continued with Black Sabbath at that stage.

 

I think the band would have just split up.

 

I don't want to live in a world without Crazy Train.

 

I highly doubt that either one would happen. Heaven and Hell, a lot of that musically is Iommi, and the lyrics and vocal melodies are total Dio. Blizzard of Ozz, Ozzy on vocal melodies and occasional lines of lyric, Daisley on lyrics, and Randy on music.
As @GodShifter said, things were falling apart, it was not working anymore, the split was necessary both music wise and career wise.

 

Definitely. It was the shake-up in both camps that caused the awesome results that we're familiar with. The same guys with the same lousy relationships doing the same drugs would not have uncorked a heavy metal apocalypse just because it was 1980. They would have made one or two more middling albums and then split.

(Now someone's going to pick a fight with me over implying that NSD was "middling" but hey, that's the risk one takes)

 

Considering those Rhoads era Quiet Riot albums, I highly doubt it would be any good.

 

I like it more than Technical Ecstacy and anything after Born Again.

 

I like everything up until after Born Again too but I still think that TE, NSD and BA were examples of Sabbath being not at their best. Pretty good, sometimes great albums created under difficult circumstances, but not masterpieces.

 

Randy Rhoads might still be alive. Think about that for a moment. Kind of a butterfly effect thing.

 

Well, thanks for ruining that pleasant interlude!

 

This is it exactly. Both sides were in a rut. It was the new blood on both sides that inspired them to break out of that rut. If they stayed together without change it would have continued going downhill. Whether they would have broken up or have deaths due to drugs/alcohol is debatable, but in any case the music would never reach the heights of their previous work. Without the new blood inspiration, it continues like it was going...... down down down down.......

 

The Butterfly Effect is far more complex than that. Sure RR may still be alive but maybe instead all of the members of Sabbath could have died in a bus accident on the road somewhere in Europe on the next tour they did since they were still together.

Ultimately leading to The Osbornes never being a TV show...hmmm....at least there would have been a happy ending.

 

Sabbath does a rock opera, based on H.M.S. Pinafore

 

Or maybe a Gilbert O'Sullivan cover...a cover of Alone Again

 

Good question. I've always thought some of Back Street Kids from Technical Ecstasy sounds like an Ozzy solo song. Such a great tune.

 

I see some compositional similarities between "Wishing Well" and "Shock Wave". Highly varied, with different moods and textures woven together. I think Iommi was on to some ideas he wanted to explore during NSD but Ozzy was really not into a lot of stuff they were doing. And I think the increasing complexity of the arrangements in the mid to late 70's had him feeling like they were getting lost in a state of overthink instead of writing quality music.

I personally feel that Heaven And Hell was the blueprint for the future not only of Sabbath but for Ozzy's career. It has since come to light that Ozzy's band all listened to that album and Ozzy was losing confidence in his musical potential because it was stunningly good, but it must have given Ozzy's band a bit more of a musical destination. Randy Rhoads may not have been much of a Sabbath fan, but he sure did travel a long way from the sound in Quiet Riot to that first Ozzy album. And I have also read that it was him who convinced Ozzy that he simply had to listen to it. I think he had his soloing technique together, but one would have to think that songwriting-wise, H&H gave him some guidance and/or maybe Ozzy explaining what he wanted. Anyway, whatever happened, when you put Ozzy's voice on stuff, it seems a guarantee that the melodic content will stand apart from everything else, and the band sounded fantastic and highly original.

Pushed to dissect things, I would say it was Dio & Iommi putting H&H together that ended up being the most important thing. I'm not sure Ozzy's band comes up with Blizzard if H&H hadn't already come out and set the tone, but I could be wrong. Both albums have aged really well. They still sound fresh to this day!