Black Sabbath are rightly enshrined as one of many forefathers of heavy steel. The band’s unique line-up – singer Ozzy Osbourne, guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Invoice Ward – had been accountable for one of many best run of albums in music historical past, stretching from 1970’s self-titled debut to 1975’s Sabotage.
However following 1976’s Technical Ecstasy, the wheels began to wobble on the Sabbath wagon. The band themselves had simply emerged from a expensive battle with their ex-manager, tax payments had been mounting up, their existence had been lastly catching up with them and report gross sales had been beginning to tail off.
“I’d had sufficient,” Ozzy wrote in his 2009 autobiography, I Am Ozzy. “There didn’t appear to be any level any extra. None of us was getting on. We had been spending extra time in conferences with attorneys than we had been writing songs; we had been all exhausted from touring the world just about continuous for six years; and we had been out of our minds on booze and medicines.”
In late 1977, Ozzy lastly snapped. “At some point, I simply walked out of a rehearsal and didn’t come again,” he stated of his determination to abruptly give up the band he co-founded practically a decade earlier.
For the remainder of Sabbath, it left an enormous downside: how do you change such a charismatic frontman as Ozzy? Fairly than undergo the chore of sitting by limitless auditions, the band determined to faucet up somebody they knew. Enter Dave Walker.
Born in Walsall, a couple of miles northwest of Sabbath’s hometown of Birmingham, Walker had been a member of early 60s band The Redcaps, who counted Tony Iommi as considered one of their followers. Walker subsequently went on to interchange future ELO chief Jeff Lynne in his pre-fame band The Idle Race, report an album with choogle-rockers Savoy Brown, and even briefly joined Fleetwood Mac (he sings on two tracks on 1973’s largely forgotten Penguin album). However by 1977, he may see his possibilities of hitting the large time disappearing within the rear view mirror. After which he bought a message asking if he needed to sing for Black Sabbath.
“I used to be in California with a band known as Mistress that was falling aside,” Walker instructed Traditional Rock in 2014. “I bought a name from Sabbath’s street supervisor, and I flew over to start out rehearsals at an previous mill close to Rockfield Studios in Monmouth.”
The remainder of the band had continued writing songs for the follow-up to Technical Ecstasy regardless of Ozzy’s departure, which they performed for Walker.
“Instantly they let me hear the tracks they’d been engaged on and instructed me they wanted lyrics,” he stated. “There wasn’t what I’d name one full tune, simply reels of tape with little concepts on them. I wrote a shitload of lyrics, however I had no concept that Geezer was their major lyricist.”
Initially, Black Sabbath appeared dedicated to creating it work with their new singer. On January 6, 1978, the band and Walker appeared on Look! Hear!, an area TV present produced in Birmingham, the place they carried out Sabbath basic Warfare Pigs and a model new tune titled Junior’s Eyes. No footage exists of the present, although audio of the latter tune seems on YouTube, illustrating how totally different Walker’s bluesy vocals are from Ozzy’s demented howl.
Ozzy himself had tried to launch a brand new band, an early model of Blizzard Of Ozz that includes members of the band Necromandus, however was struggling to get it collectively. Sabbath themselves hadn’t utterly severed ties with their former singer. Walker instructed Traditional Rock that he even met his predecessor.
“Ozzy got here to fulfill us at some point in a pub,” he stated. “I felt actually unhappy for him, as a result of he was actually shaking. I’ve been across the block with medication however once I noticed poor Ozzy I assumed, ‘God almighty.’ There was no suggestion that he may come again, however I had the sensation he was having second ideas.”
Walker’s instincts proved proper, although it was additionally turning into obvious that issues weren’t understanding for him in Sabbath.
“I knew issues weren’t going properly musically, and it was made worse by the truth that my spouse and Invoice Ward’s spouse clashed,” he recalled.
The tip, when it got here, was sudden. “At some point I turned up the place they had been rehearsing close to Evesham and so they had been having a gathering, after which Invoice instructed me, ‘We’re in, you’re out,’” Walker recalled. “No warning. I nonetheless don’t even know if Ozzy had agreed to come back again then.”
Regardless of the chronology, Walker’s tenure within the band had lasted just some months. When Sabbath launched their subsequent album, By no means Say Die!, in September 1978, it featured the reinstalled Ozzy on vocals. Junior’s Eyes, the tune which Walker had sung on that lone TV look, made it onto the album, albeit with retooled lyrics.
As for Sabbath, they ploughed on with Ozzy, however the underpowered By no means Say Die! had didn’t recapture previous glories, and the singer’s alcohol and substance issues had been turning into an insurmountable difficulty. In April 1979, he left the band as soon as extra – although this time he was fired by his bandmates, who changed him with Ronnie James Dio and made 1980’s basic Heaven And Hell album.
Dave Walker would proceed enjoying music along with his eponymous band and, later, a reunited Savoy Brown. And in his defence, he wasn’t the one singer to have been recruited by Sabbath after which allotted with shortly afterwards – the identical destiny befell David Donato, who was briefly a member in 1984. Walker himself was sanguine about his temporary stint in Black Sabbath.
“I knew that on the creative aspect we actually weren’t appropriate,” he stated. “It was form of cool, however there was quite a bit left to be desired.”