Iron Man: My Journey Through Heaven & Hell with Black Sabbath - Tony Iommi, T.J. Lammers (2011)

Chapter 52. Friends forever

In September 1980, Ozzy Osbourne’s Blizzard of Ozz album was released on Don Arden’s Jet Records label. After he left, we hoped that everything was going to be okay, but what do you do? Before we came to the end we tried to help Ozzy as much as we could to get him on the road, to pull himself together and do something. But it was such an uphill battle.

His being away from the band probably helped him, because he could finally do everything he wanted and get it all out of his system. For him it was either just fizzle out or get on with it, so it was good that he put a band together. And he had Sharon there; she was really taking care of him.

I didn’t listen to Blizzard of Ozz at the time, because we were so wrapped up with what we were doing ourselves. Not that I wasn’t interested; I certainly followed how he was doing on the tours and stuff, as we all did. I suppose there was a bit of a competition going on between us as well, but good luck to him. I was pleased to see that he’d got himself together and was doing the things that he wanted to do. He was probably very happy, because with us everything was built around the band, whereas now everything was built around him and he and Sharon had total control.

Ozzy did come around once to see me when I was in LA at the Le Parc hotel with my wife, Melinda, working on songs for Mob Rules. He had been going through a lot of stuff and shaved his head again at that time. At two thirty or three o’clock in the morning there was a knock on the door. There he was, bald, and wearing a long coat.

‘Can I talk to you?’

I let him in and he talked and talked, going through all these different phases of his life. It was just too overpowering for me. I hadn’t seen him for ages and suddenly here he was, opening up to me. He talked about everything, his last wife and Sharon and this and that and the other and whatever else. And then he went. It was really peculiar. He probably just needed a friend, somebody to talk to. But it was great that he came around.

Throughout the years we remained friends, despite of a lot of bullshit that went on. As soon as it got to the business again, it was a problem. But no matter what, Ozzy and me, we are still friends. And we always will be.