Vocalist TONY MARTIN Says He Was Never Really A Member Of BLACK SABBATH

Spanish BLACK SABBATH fan site www.blacksabbath-es.com recently conducted an interview with former SABBATH frontman Tony Martin. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

Q: Why has [your new solo album, "Scream"] taken so long to come out?

Tony Martin: "In the first few years after SABBATH, I wanted nothing to do with the industry. I raised a family and built a house, and... got divorced!!! Then I wanted to do a different direction but most people thought it would be better to stay with the SABBATH thing, which I didn’t want to do. Then I hooked up with Geoff Nicholls and he had some really good riffs that inspired me and I began to return to that style. Then I had to actually record it, but now having a family and everyday stuff restricted that, so it was a slow process but I’m happy with the songs. I wanted to spend even more time recording it."

Q: What has being able to record in your own studio given you?

Tony Martin: "A pain in the ass!!!! We place so much faith in technology and mostly it's great fun and interesting, but MAN!!! When it goes wrong!!!!! I had a computer crash two days before I was supposed to deliver the album masters and lost everything!!! Then I had to rebuild the backups and spent days and nights trying to recover!! Apart from that, I’ve been able to be around the kids, they are great little people and we get along really well. Apart from THAT… it’s cheap!"

Q: You have used some of the drum tracks from Cozy Powell which you recorded years ago. Cozy recorded one drum track for "Raising Hell"? Or has the song been written based on one of these tracks.

Tony Martin: "OK, this is really interesting but I don't have enough time to type the whole thing. The drum track was part of an idea we had worked on way back in the mid-SABBATH days, when I joined COZY POWELL'S HAMMER and played him what I had written around the idea. When we first worked on it, it was just a few chords and a drum part. The difference is that, even if Cozy was just rehearsing, he was in performing mode. So lots of the things he played in private or rehearsal were good enough to write songs around. Even if he was on his own at his house, he played with verse-and-chorus structures in mind. So it was reasonably easy to make the track into 'Raising Hell', but technically it was extremely hard to make the SOUND of the kit work, I had to sit with the computer for MONTHS to get the sound clean enough and so that I could match up to the rest of the album. In fact, I ended up making the album match 'Raising Hell'. That song became the benchmark for all the other songs to be equal to."

Q: In BLACK SABBATH... Were you considered a member of the band?

Tony Martin: "You are NEVER really a member of BLACK SABBATH. You appear part of the band but in reality you have no control or say in how it's run."

Q: Which of BLACK SABBATH's albums that you sang are you most pleased with?

Tony Martin: "'Headless Cross'… because of the songs. The production sound is very thin. 'Tyr', same reasons. 'Cross Purposes', loved the sound, and the songs are more considered."

Q: Which album did you like the least?

Tony Martin: "I think you know the answer to that!!!"

Q: "Forbidden"?

Tony Martin: "Yeah!!!! Didn’t like the idea of the rap venture, and I didn't know if I was going to be on the album until I was in the studio so it was a very uncertain and uninspirational album for me."

Q: In our last interview you stated that you had no relationship with BLACK SABBATH, except with Geoff Nicholls.

Tony Martin: "Yes, the phone stopped ringing and then they moved location and contact was lost."

Q: Is that still the situation?

Tony Martin: "Yep!"

Read the entire interview at this location.