Metal-Rules.com
by Marko Syrjälä
Photo by: Mark Weiss
Alright, since you brought it up... in August you'll be once more hitting the road with HEAVEN & HELL, alongside JUDAS PRIEST, MOTÖRHEAD and TESTAMENT?
Right, that's going to be awesome.
That being the case, has the band given any thought to the set list for this tour, like are you going to be playing stuff that you didn't on the previous tour?
Oh yeah, we're playing different songs, but we're not playing SABBATH songs. We're going to play some different songs from HEAVEN AND HELL.
Really, you're going to shuffle around the set list for this upcoming tour?
Oh yeah, we've got to. We played a whole year of those songs; we can't go out and play the same set.
That's certainly good to hear, there's so much good stuff to choose from. Can you give any clues as to what songs might get played?
Maybe we'll play "Turn up the Night", "TV Crimes", "Time Machine"... we've got a lot of songs we haven't played, so we'll be probably switching them that way, but we're not going to play PARANOID and all that stuff.
Thank goodness for that! At the beginning of the last tour you were playing for about two hours, but as the tour progressed you dropped a couple of songs cutting the set down somewhat. What was the reason for that?
Yeah, we started with a long set and then we just cut it because at a couple of shows we had to play less time and then we pulled the songs out and everybody went "Let's just play that.". But then that got longer because we started jamming, so what went from... we played for two hours, down to an hour and forty-five minutes, then it went back up to almost two hours, because on "Heaven and Hell" we started jamming shit, which was good because we were enjoying it so much. We just started jamming and improvising, so that's a good thing.
Alright, it's now 2008 and there's a new studio album in the works by the lineup of BLACK SABBATH that recorded MOB RULES and DEHUMANIZER. Let wind up a little, to early 2007. How did it all get started?
The HEAVEN & HELL thing, it was supposed to be just the tour, but after we played together it got better and better and better musically. Everybody was having fun, so it was like "How about doing an album?"
So no promises were given at that point, but don't you think everybody was secretly hoping that if all goes well, it would lead to this, a new studio record?
Yeah, it was supposed to be just the tour and then it just turned into "Let's do a record.” And the thing is you can't do the record next year, we just did the whole thing [tour], the momentum's here, "Let's do it now!”
When the idea of HEAVEN & HELL was first conceived, it was in fact Bill Ward that was supposed to be manning the drum stool. What were your thoughts upon first hearing this news?
I heard they got back together, Tony, Ronnie, Geezer and Bill, and I thought "Well, that's fucked up! I played on more stuff with Ronnie than Bill has.", but, you know, "OK.". But I had a feeling that that's not going to happen, [and] I'm going to wind up playing with them. Sure enough, it didn't work out with that lineup and then I got the phone call "Hey, you wanna play in the band?” I said "Yeah. I should have played with it in the beginning.” you know. So I went over and played and it just worked out. And Bill, even Bill, I sat down with Bill, I love Bill, Bill's a fucking great guy, one of my idols and he even said, you know, if that happened he was suggesting he play his songs, [and] I play my songs because Bill's not one that had to play other people's songs. I always played Bill's parts, Bill's not gonna play my parts, he's not... he was always Bill. [laughs] So he was saying have two drummers, you know, but that would have been nuts.
Geezer Butler, Ronnie James Dio, Tony Iommi, Vinny Appice during Dehumanizer
Were there any other obstacles to overcome in reuniting the band, like in regards to rebuilding relationships, with Ronnie for example?
After me leaving to play with OZZY? [laughs] Ahh... it was cool, but then yeah, we finally got the chance to sit down in the same car together, and we're riding forever, to talk about everything. So, it's just water under the bridge now. I just look ahead, things happen, that's the way it is. But right now with everybody, it's really sweet, really smooth.
That is good to hear. Can you tell us what stage the new HEAVEN & HELL studio album is at right now?
Right now we have six songs... about six songs written. They're just demos and they sound fucking awesome! Heavy, great... sounds like really cool SABBATH!
These six new songs that you've got at this point, how would you compare them to the three new tracks ("The Devil Cried", "Shadow of the Wind" and "Ear in the Wall") that were recorded for the BLACK SABBATH ("THE DIO YEARS") compilation that brought about this whole reunion in the first place?
Well, the [new stuff on the] compilation was just written by Tony [Iommi] and Ronnie [James Dio]... and it was done quickly, the first time they got together. We now have a whole tour of playing together behind us, so now we got together and Tony and Ronnie wrote a lot of stuff and then there's a lot of stuff with Geezer. Then we got together... we haven't played together, they write it on the computer and then I put drums on it. So, it's a lot more relaxed since we've played together so long, it's a lot tighter and a lot more focused.
That sounds very promising. So, this time around all of the members are participating in the writing process?
Yeah... it seems to work best if Tony and Ronnie sit there and start the things and then... sometimes [together] with Geezer too or sometimes Geezer will come in and put his thing in there [later], you know. But mainly the two or three of them [write the material]. And then we'll get together in a room when we've got a couple more songs and play them and then we'll go in the studio and record them.
Read The Full Interview HERE
