BLACK SABBATH Book Details 18-Year Period Before Reunion With OZZY

April 13, 2006

Zonda Books has just published Garry Sharpe-Young's "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath: The Battle for Black Sabbath", a 442-page "definitive account" of BLACK SABBATH's 1979-1997 period before the band's reunion with singer Ozzy Osbourne.

"Sabbath Bloody Sabbath: The Battle for Black Sabbath" reforges the author's two previous landmark tomes "Ozzy Osbourne: The Story of the Ozzy Osbourne Band" and "Black Sabbath: Never Say Die!" along with additional material into this one definitive metal milestone. Complete with over 100 photographs, many never seen before, and unique interviews, including with the late Ray Gillen and Cozy Powell as well as the highly controversial figure of Jeff Fenholt and mysterious Dave Donato, "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" includes a 10-page discography appendix detailing 264 career albums and singles from BLACK SABBATH, Ozzy Osbourne, Ronnie James Dio, Bill Ward, Geezer Butler and Tony Iommi; plus and eight-page index with 694 entries.

Commented Sharpe-Young: "This was the biggest piece of detective work I've ever embarked upon. I actually started out on this project because at the time there was just so much misinformation ot there and a lot of periods in the SABBS/OZZY history that were just blank. The challenge was to fill in those missing chapters of history. My starting point was a collection of interviews I had going back to the mid-'80s. Fortunately I had interviewed Cozy Powell a number of times, and I also spoke at length to Ray Gillen just before his very last BLACK SABBATH gig. I made it a mission too to get first-hand accounts from all the as many musicians as I could, that included Dave Donato, Jeff Fenholt. When you speak to the people involved you soon realise how much completely false info there is floating around. This book tells the real story.

"My favourite chapters in the book are the incredibly emotive description of Bernie Torme's gigs replacing Randy Rhoads. Bernie spilled his heart out on that one. Great also to get in Cozy's opinions on what was going on, Tony Martin's huge contribution to SABBATH, Rob Halford giving the lowdown on the Costa Mesa affair, Glenn Hughes complete and open honesty and a totally exclusive twenty-year history from keyboard player Geoff Nicholls. If you want to find out which singers auditioned for SABBATH or which guitarists tried out for Ozzy — it's all here. There is also a ton of exclusive photographs throughout the text. Feedback from SABBATH and Ozzy fans has been incredible but the best response was from Tony Iommi himself who gave me a call to tell me he thought I'd done a good job! Now that's the only endorsement I need!"

For more information, including ordering details, click here.

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