This was a fantastic period, and I felt great. For the first time since the heyday of Purple, I was back in the vanguard of rock music, with strong and confident material. Although I’d never seen myself as a singles artist, I could see that Virgin’s policy for lifting a track from an album made sense, and my cover version of Gary U.S. Bonds’s 1960 hit ‘New Orleans’ was released and reached No. 17 in the UK charts.
We were enjoying going to work, playing flat out, and the fans could see it. Unfortunately, as with a lot of major acts, we couldn’t crack America, and our tour over there was not a success. We lost money, but our situation wasn’t helped by the fact Virgin seemed to also be having their problems breaking their label into that huge market. It’s a complicated business, that side of things, so we decided to concentrate on the UK, Europe and the Far East, where Phil was getting involved in negotiations to establish a strong platform for us to grow into, while we went back to Kingsway to follow up Future Shock. We were brimming with ideas, and Double Trouble was the outcome. However, it wasn’t to feature Bernie.
Beneath the façade of our success, there were still niggles within the band, and John was being quite difficult. Looking back, I suppose that’s where the parting of ways began concerning Bernie, and we were in Germany when the problem came to a head. Basically a call came through telling me that we’d been booked to go on Top of the Pops, for which we needed to fly back most immediately. Well, John was dead against our doing that gig, and it seems Bernie shared his opinion, because he failed to arrive at the airport, where we were all clockwatching and going, ‘Where the fuck’s Bernie?’ Then time ran out, and it was decided that he too was ‘out’. In the end, we had to board the flight, and, on the journey back, we discussed who might take his place, so we could at least finish the tour. Janick Gers of White Spirit (and later Iron Maiden) popularly came to mind, and so I called him to explain the situation. It was also a good and lucky call, because he immediately started to learn the songs, and agreed to help out while we still did TOTP, but as a four-piece!
In the meantime, there was a call from Bernie, asking what had been going down, to which I replied ‘We’re in bloody England, and we’ve just done Top of the Pops as a four-piece! That’s what’s been going down!’ I then told him he was out, to which news he vehemently denied that he’d deliberately let us down, and John also denied any complicity.
Bernie put out stories saying he was furious with the way he’d been treated, adding claims that Gillan were basically a backing band for their singer, that they weren’t as democratic as they should have been, but saying that, although he was disappointed, he didn’t hold me entirely responsible. It is true that he offered to complete the German tour with us, but I’d now settled the new situation with Janick, and therefore wished Bernie well with the solo album, on which he immediately started work.
Double Trouble was also a double album, released by Virgin in October 1981, and, with a couple of exceptions, the work was either based on live recordings taken at the Reading Festival on 29 August that year or done in the studio at Kingsway. We’d rehearsed the material in Lyme Regis, Dorset, using a place called Drake Hall (named after Sir Francis, the sailor), and Steve Smith produced and mixed it. What followed was a bit strange, because I remember taking a copy of it with me in the car, on a visit to London, and, after listening to it, I simply ditched it somewhere. I hated it, and left it to rot in some field or a roadside verge. But it went to No. 12 in the UK charts!
A few weeks later, I listened to the tapes again, and realised how stupid I’d been, how I’d completely missed the point, because Double Trouble was a fine piece of progressive rock, and I don’t think I’d ever felt that way since the early Purple days. Songs such as ‘Restless’, ‘I’ll Rip Your Spine Out’, ‘Hadley Bop Bop’, ‘No Easy Way’ and the single ‘Nightmare’ all jumped out at me. And who was it who said you couldn’t make a good album while on the road? Well, Gillan were doing it with consistency, while playing two hundred shows a year. ‘Nightmare’ was released at about the same time as the album, and went to No. 36 as we approached the year end, having toured Greece, Japan, Hong Kong and Australia, plus a forty-two-date programme in the UK.
Janick turned out to be a brilliant find, and, yet again, we were pleased with our record company. Songs on the album continued to show my commitment to hard-edged rock, and kept us in the front line, while constant touring, for which I live and breathe, was guaranteed for months ahead.
As Phil was rapidly discovering, setting up tours in new territories is always a major challenge for management and their artists, and over the years I’ve learned not to be too surprised by demands and expectations. The first time Gillan went to Kuala Lumpur, we did three nights there, and another three in Manila, where we played to big audiences – between 12, 000 and 18, 000 a time. As always Phil’s people were diligent in checking for every point of protocol that we needed to respect, one such example being our lyrics, which the authorities dissected and analysed for possible messages of insurrection or revolt, until finally everything was set to go – or so we thought! In the hours before our departure, we received an extra rider, which went something along the lines of: ‘The boys in the band shall not allow their hair to fall upon their shoulders’!
So Phil said, ‘How do we deal with this?’ and I told him we’d deal with it when we got there, one way or another!
Another first for the band was the fact that the tour was being sponsored by Pepsi-Cola, who I gather were making big efforts to catch up with Coca-Cola in that part of the world, and so part of the deal was that we’d do a promo conference in a hotel. When everything was in place and ready to start, the guy in charge, Jack, kept telling me he’d feed the lines to the questions being asked, but I quickly got into my stride, as can be my way, and, when reminded that he had all the answers for me, I told him I’d say what I thought, which miffed him a bit!
Still, it was an incredible gathering of people from radio, television, cultural departments, the papers and so forth, and the questions were very wide-ranging, and sometimes quite difficult. For example, they wanted to know my political views on various matters, as well as my thoughts on religion; and, while this wouldn’t have been a problem in Europe, America and so forth, I felt the need to be extremely careful all the time. Responding to matters musical was of course easier, and I was happy to talk about the Beatles and our other well-known bands back home, and to explain my own approach to rock ’n’ roll, which was of course our purpose in being there! Still, the event was quite stressful, and it also lasted about two hours!
As for my long hair, well I had that tied back, and wrapped in a shawl of neutral colours, having been told that, when we took to the stage, the first five rows would be occupied by ministers, trade bigwigs and privileged guests, all of whom would be dressed in suits, ties and evening gowns. Of course, such formalities didn’t extend to the rows behind, where the kids went wonderfully crazy over the show, and so our first appearance in Kuala Lumpur was a great success, which continued backstage afterwards.
It was in the closing moments of the evening that a high-level spokesman came over to have a few quiet words, concluding with, ‘If your headdress should fall off tomorrow night after the third song, forget about it – you can just be natural. We understand a lot more now, and it’s been excellent!’
The occasion was a superb moment for us, and we had a brilliant time over there. As it happens, the headdress did fall off the following night, and the whole place went ‘Wow!’ They had never seen hair like it before; and remember that Cliff Richard had been refused entry to Singapore because of the length of his. So my situation was something else!
I believe the audience had travelled from far and wide to see us, and in all means of transport, which was quite humbling, and so we spent the next few days making everybody comfortable with our work, and received unbelievable hospitality in return.
In fact one night did go a bit off the rails when we were taken to a club where a great blues band were playing. We had a few drinks, and then, around midnight, a party of off-duty strippers and hookers turned up, to relax a little. About an hour later they closed the bar, and the girls all said, ‘Let’s go party, let’s go party,’ which sounded fine by me!
I thought they were going to another club, or to someone’s house as off we went, walking through the streets in the tourist area, and passing the hotels, shops, cafés and restaurants, where everywhere was lit up by neon lights. Then we moved into another part of town, which was obviously the banking area. It wasn’t like New York or Tokyo, but just a collection of average-height modern buildings, with lots of glass, and as high as around six or seven storeys. The streets struck me as spotless, as we all turned into an alleyway alongside one of the buildings, and followed the girls up a fire escape, thinking maybe they lived on the top floor. Which they did!
So we finally arrived on the roof, where there was a mini-condominium of little shacks among the lift houses and air-conditioning enclosures; and it was also around now that I could see that Mick was unhappy with what we’d got ourselves into. Well, it was certainly an astonishing sight to behold on the roof, as we took in the sight of about fifteen girls sitting around a fire, or asleep in the nooks and crannies. There was a delicious smell of food wafting around, and so, under a beautiful moonlit night, we started to party, although Mick decided he’d leave us to it, and returned to the fire escape whence we’d arrived. The girls started to strip off, and I began to get intimate with one of them, as I gradually removed my clothes – or had them removed.
Eventually, I was invited to eat with them, and there I lay, propped on one elbow, being fed food and wine by this beautiful Eurasian girl, who’d moved alongside me. It was like being on a magic carpet, flying somewhere, and after a little while I became drowsy.
I must have fallen asleep in the middle of eating my rice, because the next thing I remember was being woken by the early-morning sun beating into my eyes. I couldn’t breathe or suck in air, until I realised to my horror that my mouth was full of clogged and congealed rice, within which (and over) three or four cockroaches were commuting between my open orifice and the rice bowl, which was now on its side next to me. Moments later, I rightly got the sense that one of the cockroaches was looking to crawl out of my mouth, and so I spat the whole lot out with as much force as possible, before grabbing a bottle of wine, which of course tasted like warm vinegar! And then my gaze wandered across the fire to see this ugly, fat, bloated, toothless horror who just a few hours ago had been a beautiful girl with whom I’d shared time and pleasure!
I’d like to think that the setting of my predicament wasn’t beneath an airport flight approach, because if it was, the crew and passengers would have had a memorable journey in, as I stood rooted to the roof of this bank, surrounded by a load of naked old whores, and naked myself from the waist down! I eventually found the rest of my clothes, dressed and climbed down the fire escape, beginning now to chuckle. It was seven, maybe eight in the morning, and the business community was on its way to work. So there was I, the singer of Gillan, walking through the streets with rice-smeared, wine-stained and crumpled clothes, looking like something that had just crawled out of a trashcan. I certainly got some very strange looks from the local workforce, and even stranger ones when I walked into the hotel lobby!
I don’t know if the sheer pressure of touring gave added weight and stress to the problems bubbling around in the band, and I thought (for example) that it may even have been one of the reasons Bernie had got fed up with us earlier on. It’s my way of life, and I seem to have the constitution to keep going – except (and here I contradict myself for a moment) that I was beginning to suffer more than usual from throat problems, a complaint a medical specialist put down to enlarged nodules.
A single in January 1982, ‘Restless’, kept us in the public eye, and made No. 25 in the UK charts, while ‘Living for the City’ reached No. 55 in the September following. We were a good band, with a great image and appeal, such that fans – men and women – were even turning up at shows looking like John, with their heads shaved, and with stick-on beards! We’d climbed from the bottom to the top of our profession, and stayed with our label for more than ten releases, most of which were successful. Colin had become a transformed person from that tearful day at Kingsway, when we said goodbye to ‘rock fusion’ – and we all thought his flashing tie on stage was great!
Janick had become an instant favourite with the fans from Day One, although Bernie’s departure would still crop up from time to time, and seemed to rankle a bit. Of course Mick and I had known each other for so long, it was just magic to be having such a good time with him. As for John, well on stage he was his usual, bumbling, cruising self, but problems festered on, not helped by suspicions and media gossip that I’d been talking to Ritchie about a reunion.
Well, the only way to deal with situations like that is to get back on the road, and Phil planned a huge schedule for us, including thirty-seven shows in the autumn. We were booked to support Status Quo at Donington Park on 21 August, with the likes of Hawkwind, Saxon and Uriah Heep on the bill. Tommy Vance – who else to ask? – managed the proceedings in a year when, at the grand old age of thirty-seven, I was voted top male singer, while Colin was voted second-best keyboard player after Jon Lord (then with Whitesnake). Oh, and Gillan came in sixth, one above Rainbow in terms of top bands, according to Sounds!
Otherwise we’d been overseas, including to the Far East, and had started preparing for the last album we’d make for Virgin. Magic would make No. 17 in the UK charts during October 1982, while ‘Living for the City’ was still there, and ‘Long Gone’ was also doing pretty well. Recorded at Kingsway, and mixed by Mike Glossop at the Townhouse, Magic is another album I’m very proud of, with ‘Bluesy Blue Sea’, ‘Long Gone’, ‘Driving Me Wild’ and ‘Demon Driver’ a credit to the often bickering musicians we were!
Back with the shows, we were perhaps getting a bit stale, and maybe that’s down (in part) to the sheer amount of touring we’d been doing. So, while in Bangkok and in the search of a little innocent distraction, a few of us went to a place I’d heard about, where you could see shows that were apparently pretty down to the knuckle. And so we arrived to find a strip routine in progress, but, after everybody had left, we were shown into a room behind the kitchen, where there was an altogether different cabaret going on. It was highly skilled and very, very rude, yet somehow without being smutty. What these girls were doing with their bodies: double-edged razor blades tied with cotton, signing autographs without using hands, opening bottles of Coke … Well, the whole thing was astonishing to say the very least!
The highlight of the evening was one particular lady’s performance, during which she got close and entertained a table of about five Italian businesspeople as they sat in amazement at the spectacle before them, each with a glass of wine on the table. Approaching the close of her routine, the lady bent over backwards in a crab-like position, and from between her legs she fired five ping-pong balls in rapid succession, with each one landing in a wineglass! Well, apparently, that particular stunt is considered a high form of art over there, and before table tennis was invented they used eggs! Still, it’s not the sort of anecdote one offers to conversations at polite dinner parties in the shires, so I’ll just conclude by telling you that, once we’d returned home for the final Gillan tour, we played to full houses!
After a schedule like this, one of my main reasons for disbanding Gillan was to give my voice a much-needed break, even though I was also thinking the band had about run its course, and that I (at least) should be looking for new challenges. Of course, when the ‘inner circle’ of the band, and those close to it were told, there was huge upset, and, once the formal announcement was ‘posted’, it gave the press a lot to write about as well! I have already mentioned my affection for the Magic album, and it’s success, so it was sad that circumstances conspired to make the closing period the acrimonious business it became. However, as if that situation were not difficult enough, it certainly wasn’t improved when rumours of a Purple reunion resurfaced almost immediately after the break-up was made public, and into which ‘frame’ my name was included, despite the concerns I had with my voice.
In fact it was Ritchie, or more probably his ‘people’ (Bruce Payne), who made the initial overtures to bring Deep Purple Mk. 2 together again, it being obvious that his own position needn’t be a problem as such, because he, and indeed Roger, were with his band Rainbow; while Paicey was thought to be at a loose end, having left Whitesnake. As for Jon, well he was still with Whitesnake, but, being very close to David Coverdale, he finally decided to stay alongside him. So, irrespective of what I might or might not wish to do, the idea of a return DP Mk. 2 fizzled out before I could decide either way. However, a very different, totally unexpected and extremely unlikely opportunity presented itself with an approach from Black Sabbath, who’d also just disbanded, following the departure of the diminutive, but all powerful, vocalist Ronnie Dio, and drummer, Vinnie Appice.
With the loss of their singer and drummer, Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler had been left to decide what to do next, so they first approached their original and co-founding drummer, Bill Ward, to see if he’d return after a long absence brought on by rock-’n’-roll excess, including alcohol and drugs. So Bill agreed to come back, and then, a little after that, I agreed to be their singer for the Born Again album and the tour that would follow.
In fact, the initial request to join Sabbath first came from their managers, Don and David Arden, who’d initially had the making of a supergroup in mind, with Tony, Geezer, Bill and me. And that was the sort of starting point, when Toni, Geezer and I met in a pub near Oxford. However, a few pints later, and for various reasons, the ‘supergroup’ idea had fallen by the wayside, as talks progressed towards our working under a new band name. Then, a bit later still, and the weight of pragmatic business (that word again!) pointed to keeping the new line-up as Black Sabbath. Of course, there was a lot of discussion as to how my standing and reputation with Deep Purple could be respected, but, by the end of our ‘session’ – perhaps I should have said, ‘meeting’ – the numbers were on their side, and, on balance, I settled to work under their name.
Sometime during the following morning I had a call from my manager, Phil Banfield saying, ‘I gather you’ve joined Black Sabbath.’ (Very awkward pause, then…) ‘It’s just that, if you’re planning on making an important career change like that, I wish you’d call me first, so we can talk about it!’
It really was a meeting
The bottle took a beating
The ladies of the manor
Watched me climb into my car…
Of course, we’d all met before on the festival and rock circuit, but our music backgrounds and the fans we appealed to were very different, so there were bound to be a few puzzled looks as both sides to the merger wrestled with the wisdom of our decision. Still, an official announcement was made at a press conference at Le Beat Route Club in London’s Soho on 6 April 1983, after which we went into the Manor Studio at Shipton-on-Cherwell in Oxfordshire, and, with producer Robin Black and Geoff Nicholls helping on keyboards, we recorded Born Again for the Vertigo label. There are nine songs on the work, including ‘Disturbing the Priest’, ‘Trashed’, ‘The Dark’, ‘Stonehenge’ and the title track, ‘Born Again’, while let’s just say that the sleeve was hard to miss, with its distinctive image of a baby!
In keeping with the way records were still marketed – and still are – plans were made for us to tour the album and we headlined at the Reading Festival in August, before travelling to America, where the band – or, as I’d prefer to say quietly, all the musicians – had their formidable reputations! In fact, Bill Ward stepped aside from touring, having decided not to put himself in front of the old temptations, and Bev Bevan of the Electric Light Orchestra, or ELO, stepped in for the live and lively journey!
However, once on the road, I soon began to find things difficult, as the lads started directing me through the performances, and, when it came to the songs, well they wanted to do old stuff, their old stuff! Of course I could understand they had to keep the Sabbath fans happy – after all, tickets were sold – but what about the singer from Deep Purple? So I quickly found that side of the ‘partnership’ a struggle, with the only concession made that we’d close with ‘Smoke on the Water’. Well, that still bothered a lot of people, and it was also before I heard that Rainbow were closing their shows with the same song. (As an aside, and for those with mischievous minds, it was a coincidence that I’m told annoyed Ritchie a great deal!)
With Black Sabbath, I had to learn their lyrics from classic songs such as ‘Paranoid’ and ‘War Pigs’, plus the new material from Born Again, and this discipline presented yet another set of problems, because I’d never paid close attention to the detail of singing ‘to the letter’, even with my own songs, as many of you will know only too well! Indeed have I not already accepted that no two Deep Purple performances are the same, with a direct link and rationale to the reason we were/are liked by the bootleggers?
Then the question of clothes was raised, and it was impressed on me (by Geezer) that I’d be expected to dress in black, typical of the Sabbath culture. However, on this one I refused point-blank, which left me with the greatest difficulty of all: facing up to the Sabbath fans themselves, knowing that each and every one was a devoted follower of Ozzy Osbourne! Of course, my predecessor had been Ronnie Dio, but it was beyond any doubt that neither he nor I nor anyone else was ever going to overcome the fact that Ozzy was Black Sabbath – just as I suppose I’m seen that way in relation to, and by so many followers of, Deep Purple. So this realisation was a whole new experience for me, and I was often uncomfortable on stage.
What then did I try to do to at least ease the situation for us all? Well, before we started on the European and American tour, I realised I had to do something about the lyrics, and so my wife, Bron (B, as she was known, and sometimes as Bumble) sat up with me for half the night writing crib notes with large felt pens. Key lines were highlighted, and the whole set list was then put into a folder, which I rested on the floor and learned how to turn the pages over, with my foot. I spent hours in the kitchen practising the technique, so that, when it came to the first gig, I told the crew to set up a couple of wedge monitors, which I prefer not to use for the purpose they were designed for, but now so I could hide the crib pages from the audience!
Well, no sooner had we started with the opening song than, to my horror, I saw clouds of knee-high dry ice billowing across the stage towards me, and this in turn led to my precious crib sheet beginning to disappear from sight, until I was reduced to falling on hands and knees to clear the smoke with huge wafting motions! It must have looked incredible to the audience, because all they will have seen would be this three-foot-tall demented singer, peering every now and again over the wedges to bellow whatever lines seemed appropriate at the time. Finally, my misery was completed to ‘the pits’, when some bright spark in the front shouted, ‘It’s Ronnie Dio!’ Well I didn’t dare catch the eyes of Tony or Geezer, because I knew they’d be mad, but I did occasionally catch sight of Bev Bevan’s silly grin from behind the drum stack!
Otherwise the tour, under management supremo Don Arden, was incredible! Apart from just the occasional interference with our music, he basically left us to get on with it, while he concentrated on his own input to the ‘production’, about which he was irrepressible, and way over the top! For example, we did our world tour to a backdrop of Stonehenge, with the stage structure coming out almost as big as the real thing! So Don had booked us into the Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto for three or four days prior to the first show, so we could take delivery of his masterpiece and get used to it. The monoliths, which were made of fibreglass, arrived in three or four articulated lorries, and, after they were laid out on the floor, the prop looked simply massive! Unfortunately, what Don and his design enthusiasts had forgotten was that, on stage, the structures took on a massive and disproportionate dimension, so that, from floor level, you looked up to the stage, and then began Stonehenge! In fact, we couldn’t get half of it in for most of the shows, and I’m not talking here about ‘large halls’, because we were playing mostly ice hockey arenas and football stadiums! Still, Don was totally unfazed by the situation, and gave us a lecture in which he explained how little we knew about entertainment, showbiz and so forth, before he upped the stakes by adding thunder flashes, and pumping out awful taped music to presumably represent his perception of hell! I suppose everything came to a head when Bev came up to me with news on his latest idea. He said he’d seen this dwarf hanging around the set all day, and so we went to see. Well, sure enough, there was this little fella roaming around, and we started saying unkind things, such as ‘Maybe he’s Ronnie Dio’s hairdresser’ or ‘Someone’s forgotten to say that Ronnie had left the band.’ Miserable things like that!
However, when we arrived for the soundcheck, our new pal of unknown purpose climbed into a red costume, and then attached horns and long fingernails. Of course, we realised immediately that it was the baby from the album cover, and so there was a rush to stop Don from allowing the madness to go any further. Well, of course, no such luck, and as the tape started to roll, and the moaning and screaming of a distorted baby’s voice was mixed in, so our stage extra started crawling along the top of one of the structures. It was absolutely appalling – those putrid noises rolling out and Don’s horrible creation crawling over Stonehenge, screaming his head off, until, all of a sudden, he stood up, screamed, screamed and screamed one final time, before he fell off backwards to the safety of a mattress below.
After a few moments of theatrical silence (maybe it was shock), our roadies came on dressed as druids, with cowls and all, to the sound of deep tolling bells, at which point we were supposed to rush on and start playing. However, we went and found Don instead, and said, ‘Look we can’t have this – it’s in shocking bad taste.’ But we were interrupted in our protest and received a vintage Arden reply: ‘You lads play, and leave me to provide the show business. Give them what they love!’
Well, I looked at Bev, he looked at me, we both then looked at Tony and Geezer, and it was very clear that nobody was happy. So we went back to remonstrate with Don about the dwarf, but Don’s not really the sort of guy you mess with, and, in the end, we just shrugged our shoulders, and went away to prepare for the evening performance.
Come show time, we opened with the smoke, the cannon, the explosion of red light, and, in the eerie atmosphere, the Devil’s baby duly started to crawl along the top of Stonehenge, screaming its head off. It then stood up and fell off backwards as, bang on cue, we rushed on, and started playing. However, the screaming kept going on and on – right through to the end of the first number. It seemed that someone had taken the mattress away – and our friend wasn’t there the following night!
Born Again went to No. 4 in the UK during October, and made No. 39 in America, but a few words about the cover design are perhaps deserving of a mention, since I’d initially been tasked with bringing some ideas forward to the band and management. Unfortunately, and despite going to various design people I respected; all submissions I put forward were rejected out of hand as being not nearly dangerous enough; after which Don took things over and arranged for the final product, which we all thought was a bit unfortunate. Still, I’d learned very early on that Don tended to get what he wanted, so it seemed best to let sleeping dogs lie, and, over a pint or three in a pub, we’d look to the plus side of having him on our side, because it was reassuring to have a guy of his calibre and persuasion looking after you as an artist!
Talking of artistry, I know Tony Iommi learned a few things from me, as I introduced my own way of coping with life on the road to the band. In fact, I gave him advanced warning at an early get-together in his local pub, where I got very drunk, dropped my trousers and encouraged a lady I’d never met to let me wear her tights, before she let me have all her clothes. Well, that’s what I’ve done from time to time – it’s a way of avoiding the risk of getting stuck on a treadmill, if you will, and it’s something Deep Purple understood, and was sometimes even appreciated!
However, I think what really irritated the Sabbath people was that, after a good late-night session, I’d still be up first thing, fresh as a daisy, and doing the crossword, while they came down looking like shit!
And then, of course, there would be the occasional party where various substances were passed around, and on one such occasion a roadie came up and pushed something under my nose – but it didn’t do anything for me. So, I (apparently) asked him to run this something by me again, which he did with the same result, at which point he wandered off looking back over his shoulder a couple of times! Still, it really is not a good idea to get into that kind of stuff, as I’ll try to explain later.
On the road, if I didn’t much like the shows, I definitely enjoyed the social side with the band, as we went from one crisis to another. We were arrested in Barcelona, after I’d allegedly set fire to a waiter’s jacket, and about that Don had to send some people out from Germany to take care of us, and then stay with the band very closely; but, then, he also deducted the cost of our behaviour from our earnings!
The American tour was bigger than anything I’d ever experienced, even from the time we toured with the Faces, and it was a masterpiece of organisation, handled by Cal Star Travel, who were based in California, and who knew their business – indeed, our business! So we’d be given individual day sheets of information, which would summarise how we’d travel, how the crew would travel, where we’d be staying and where the crew would be staying. We’d know who the drivers would be, and have their addresses and phone numbers, as well as exact details on each venue, the time for travel to each show, how many were expected and who was promoting, handling backstage and so forth. Our load-in time would be mentioned, as were the times we’d be on stage and after the show on our way out.
I was used to good organisation before, but Sabs had it well sorted. I also thought I’d toured Canada well, but with this band I did it as if we were gigging around the UK, with Gillan. City to city in Canada means travelling huge distances, but we did it effortlessly!
| January | |
| 29th | Salt Palace, Salt Lake City |
| 30th/31st | Ice Arena, Denver County |
| February | |
| 1st | Civic Center, Amarillo, Texas |
| 3rd | Memorial Coliseum, Corpus Christi, Texas |
| 4th | Convention Center, San Antonio, Texas |
| 5th | Convention Center, Houston, Texas |
And so our time together continued, through to Beaumont, Little Rock, Lakeland, Hollywood, Savannah, Atlanta, St Louis, Toledo, Dayton and more besides; while October and November saw us in Quebec City, Montreal, Ottawa, Sudbury, Toronto, Buffalo and New York, before we travelled on to yet more major cities!
However, sometimes there comes a moment in life when the past returns to the present, and it happened on a flight between Los Angeles and Salt Lake City, when I was travelling ahead of the band, and occupying the only seat you will get me to travel in, 3A, which is normally by the window. When I turned up to settle in, there was a lady sitting in my place, and the stewardess said she would ask her to move if I wished. I said not to bother, and took the aisle seat next to her.
Well, we fell into conversation, and she said she was on her way to one of the mining towns to do a show. She explained that she was an entertainer, and, for the full story, it’s frankly best you listen to ‘Mitzi Dupree’ on Gillan’s The House of Blue Light album. Anyway, it turned out that the highlight of her act was the ping-pong stunt I’d seen in Bangkok during the Gillan period, and when I told her I’d seen the routine behind the kitchen at a club, she became very agitated, and made it very clear that whoever I’d seen doing it had stolen her act! Well, it wasn’t for me to discuss how many generations of artists had beaten her to it, but she was a great character!
Flying to Salt Lake City
Seats 3A and 3B
I was down and I needed a window
But in 3A sat Mitzi Dupree
Hi, I am Mitzi
Queen of the ping pong
Where are you going boy
I said, nowhere – I’m moving on!
Born Again did well for us, but I’d decided that Black Sabbath could not be a long-term situation for me, and gave Don my notice before the second American trip. It just wasn’t me, and I suppose the most memorable legacy we left from our collaboration was the inspiration to the makers of the film Spinal Tap, since when I’ve always avoided driving past Stonehenge if at all possible!