Sharon Osbourne, Ozzy‘s wife and manager, reflected on the irony of BLACK SABBATH‘s management woes, stating they experienced the same problems with their previous managers that they feared her father would cause.
On Billy Corgan‘s “The Magnificent Others” podcast, Sharon revealed to THE SMASHING PUMPKINS frontman that her father initially attempted, unsuccessfully, to manage BLACK SABBATH.
“There was all the talk in the office [about] this band called BLACK SABBATH… Nobody’s heard music like that,” Sharon, who had been working as a receptionist for her father Don Arden at the time, recalled (as transcribed by Ultimate Guitar).
Sharon then recounted how Arden, known as the “Al Capone of Pop,” insisted on meeting the band immediately.
“My father sent his chauffeur… He went to the hotel, picked them up, and brought them to my father’s office. It was the first time they’d ever been in a Rolls Royce; my father knew how to put it on, impress.”
“So, they came to our offices… they sit in reception, there am I, and they’re all sat on the floor. They wouldn’t sit in seats, they had to sit on the floor. And I’m like, ‘What the f**k is going on?’ I’m just taking my calls, trying not to have eye contact with anyone. And then I showed them into my father’s office.”
Sharon said that this man, with a ‘checkered past,’ along with Patrick Meehan, who would later become their controversial manager, took the band out for drinks to try and convince them not to sign with Don Arden.
“And then, this gentleman, his name was Wilf, who was my father’s bodyguard and chauffeur, was to drive them back to the station where they were going home to Birmingham, and he didn’t. He took them to a pub,” Sharon revealed. “And one of the guys who worked for my father, in fact, he used to be Gene Vincent‘s tour manager for my father when Richard Blackmore was in the backup band, THE BLUE CAPS. He joined the meeting.”
“He was the tour manager for my father, but he was working every day in the office, this guy. And so he met Wilf. They sat down with SABBATH. SABBATH told them they were terrified of my father, and Wilf and this guy, Patrick said, ‘Yes, and he’ll steal all your money! You don’t want to go with him! He will beat you up! He’ll do whatever, whatever, whatever.’ And they were terrified of him anyway, because they’d heard stories. And that Friday, Patrick and Wilf left, and they took BLACK SABBATH. Well, they didn’t take them, because we never had them, but…
Reflecting on the numerous hardships BLACK SABBATH endured under their previous management, Sharon revealed that Tony Iommi ultimately acknowledged their error.
“In early ’79, Tony was in LA, and he said, ‘Everything we thought your dad would do, they did to us. They stole, they took everything.’… They would do a three-month tour of America. They would get 1000 pounds in a check, each, for the tour, she said. “But they would think that was a huge amount of money. They were happy with it. And then they’d say, ‘Do you think we have enough to ever buy a house?’”
“And Patrick would say, ‘Sure, yeah, yeah, yeah, go, go buy a house. We’ll take care of everything for you.’ And they would buy houses. They weren’t big estates. They were regular houses, and they bought them, but they weren’t in their names. They were in Patrick‘s. Even the cars that they drove, Patrick‘s name was on the pink slip.”
BLACK SABBATH‘s final show, scheduled for July 5th at Villa Park in Birmingham, England, is shaping up to be a historic event. Dubbed “Back To The Beginning,” this concert will mark the culmination of the band’s groundbreaking career and a celebration of their enduring legacy.
The event will also feature performances by METALLICA, SLAYER, PANTERA, GUNS N’ ROSES, TOOL, GOJIRA, ALICE IN CHAINS, HALESTORM, LAMB OF GOD, ANTHRAX, and MASTODON.
Source: metaladdicts.com
