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Sabotage

In September of 1975, the band released their "Sabotage" album. The last song on the album, "The Writ", (included here in it's entirety) would reveal their feelings towards their previous management and all the problems they'd encountered. The anger is evident in Ozzy's voice as well as the lyrics. Some album labels, (Warner Bros. for example) put a hidden tune in following the song. The volume must be turned way up in order to hear it, but one will find the group playing piano and singing an old 'Nitty Gritty Dirt Band' song called "Blow the Jug". A sound engineer caught this during a recording session and it was put on the album.

Black Sabbath soon decided that they needed a new manager, and Don Arden was hired. Arden was from the same company that Sabbath's previous management had parted from. Arden's daughter, Sharon, worked as his receptionist (then 18 years old) and Ozzy met her when he walked into Arden's office with a tap faucet around his neck, and sat on the floor, refusing a chair. Sharon was immediately terrified of Ozzy, and tried to get someone else to deal with him, rather than look after him herself. Later the two would get to know each other, as her father continued to manage the group, but on the first meeting she wanted nothing to do with him.

Black Sabbath's main problems at this point were not money and fame, but how to come up with the next best selling album. The bands musical direction took a very obvious change with their next release in 1974 (Sabbath Bloody Sabbath) with more uplifting and energetic sounds than their previous darkness and gloom that had always dominated their sound. Electronic instruments also changed the way they were able to record sounds. 'Sabbath Bloody Sabbath' has been referred to by many as being the best of the group with Ozzy as vocalist, and reached 4th and 11th respectively in UK and American charts.

Technical Ecstasy

In 1976 Sabbath released "Technical Ecstasy", an album considerably less heavy than their previous releases. It has been said that at this point the group was having personal conflicts, and was getting "fed up with it all". They had made a lot of money, owned a multitude of cars, but were getting burned out from touring. One very gentle song on the album featured Bill Ward on vocals. The album cover did not contain the usual dark images either, instead it pictured two robots having sex. Technical Ecstasy did not do very well.

In 1977 Ozzy's father passed away, taking a drastic toll on the singer. Ozzy quit Black Sabbath. His father had always feared that his son would end up in prison, but died knowing that he had made something of himself. While away from Sabbath, Ozzy approached Glenn Hughes (a vocalist who would later spend time with Sabbath) about forming a band together. Hughes was not interested in Ozzy's idea, and Sabbath continued working on it's upcoming album - "Never Say Die."

Never Say Die 
The Ending of Black Sabbath

With Ozzy gone, Sabbath took on Dave Walker (formerly of Fleetwood Mac) to write material for the new album. When Ozzy rejoined the band shortly after, he refused to sing any of the songs written with Walker, and Walker left the band. The group rewrote all their songs, and Iommi booked a studio in Toronto, Ontario, apparently because The rolling stones had recorded one of their albums there.

It was the middle of winter when the band went to Ontario to record the album, and Ozzy has since said that it was a stupid thing to do and that it was freezing up there. Iommi spent a lot of his energy trying to keep the band together in a time of serious turmoil.

One song (Junior's Eyes) is available on the "Archangel Rides Again" bootleg, featuring Sabbath with Dave Walker on vocals, but on the final album the lyrics were rewritten by Ozzy as a way of saying good-bye to his father, while the original music was kept.

At this point all four members of the band were staying in their rooms all day, drinking and doing drugs. They had cars, success, and seemingly little ambition to release another album together. Ozzy himself said that he only wanted to release another album so that he could make more money and get fat off of beer. He would often not show up to practice for weeks at a time, and the group was disintegrating rapidly.

When they began to work on the next album, "Heaven and Hell", Iommi approached Ward about getting rid of Ozzy. Iommi had met Ronnie James Dio (formerly of Rainbow) and was interested in having him as a vocalist. Ward was not comfortable with the idea of kicking Ozzy out of the band, having become close friends with Ozzy, but admitted to wanted him out nonetheless. Many people ask how Ozzy really came to leave the group, and he and Iommi both agree that he was in fact fired. The friction within the band had become unbearable to Ozzy, and he was ready to go in another musical direction, and so claims to have been relieved when asked to leave the band. 1978 saw the end of the original Black Sabbath. Their last tour would be the "Never Say Die" tour. Appropriately named.