Given his track record of wild, raucous actions on and off stage, it would be reasonable to assume that there isn’t much that could embarrass former Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne, but there was one thing: a late 1970s album Osbourne would later call “disgusting” and something he was “ashamed” of.
Indeed, not even biting heads off bats or tour antics outlandish enough to make Mötley Crüe blush could make Osbourne shake his head in embarrassment like the divisive 1978 record.
Black Sabbath’s Struggle To Find Their Footing In 1978
Black Sabbath set out to record ‘Never Say Die!’ in a notably different headspace than the one they were in for their eponymous debut eight years earlier. Interpersonal conflict, personal family issues, and ongoing legal and financial battles strained the relationship to the point that Osbourne left the group for three months.
“The day I left Black Sabbath, we were at Rockfield Studios in South Wales, trying to record a new album,” Osbourne wrote in his memoir I Am Ozzy. “We’d just had another soul-destroying meeting about money and lawyers, and I couldn’t take it anymore. So, I just walked out of the studio and f***ed off. When a band splits up, it’s like a marriage ending. For a while, all you want to do is hurt each other.”
The band’s remaining members replaced Osbourne with former Fleetwood Mac vocalist Dave Walker, but the personnel change didn’t last long. “When I came back a few weeks later, everything was back to normal,” Osbourne wrote. “No one really talked about what happened. I just turned up in the studio one day. It was obvious things had changed, especially between me and Tony [Iommi]. I don’t think anyone’s heart was in what we were doing anymore. Still, as soon as I came back, we picked up where we’d left off with the album, which we decided to call ‘Never Say Die.’”
Ozzy Osbourne Was Ashamed Of His Final 70s Sabbath Record
Black Sabbath’s brief writing period with Dave Walker and the shift in dynamic upon Osbourne’s return greatly disaffected the group’s creative cohesion, and critics and the band agreed that ‘Never Say Die!’ suffered for it. “We completely lost the plot, I think,” bassist Geezer Butler told Metal Edge Magazine. “We stopped doing the things that made Sabbath what it was and began going for more melodic stuff, which was a mistake looking back.”
“‘Never Say Die!’ is easily the worst album we did,” he continued. “The reason for that is we tried to manage ourselves and produce the record ourselves. We wanted to do it on our own, but in truth, not one of us had a single clue about what to do. By that point, we were spending more time with lawyers and in court rather than being in the studio writing. It was just too much pressure on us, and the writing suffered.” Butler’s former bandmate certainly agreed.
“The last Sabbath albums were just very depressing for me,” Osbourne later remarked (via Far Out Magazine). “I was doing it for the sake of what we could get out of the record company, just to get fat on beer and put a record out.” The Prince of Darkness called ‘Never Say Die!’ “the worst piece of work that I’ve ever had anything to do with. I’m ashamed of that album. I think it’s disgusting.” ‘Never Say Die!’ was the last Black Sabbath album featuring Osbourne until 2013.
Photo by Kevin Estrada/Shutterstock
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