Black Purple

Black Sabbath's Tony Iommi and Deep Purple's Glenn Hughes – hard rock veterans and brief bandmates – are back together again. They talk to Greg Prato about their new projects

T he names Tony Iommi and Glenn Hughes have long been familiar to classic rock fans the world over – Iommi of course because of his work with Black Sabbath, and Hughes as part of the David Coverdale era-Deep Purple. But for a fleeting moment in the 80s, both were members of Sabbath. And of all the post-Ozzy incarnations of the band, one of the more intriguing remains the Hughes-fronted Seventh Star era of 1986.

In the span of four years (1979-1983), the oncemighty Sabbath had gone through three singers – Ozzy Osbourne, Ronnie James Dio and Ian Gillan. Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi had just about had it with this revolving door, and when his longtime musical partner, bassist Geezer Butler, also jumped ship, Iommi eyed a solo career.

“I was actually going to use different vocalists on that album,” remembers Iommi, nearly 20 years later. “Glenn came and sang one track, and I said ‘That’s it, Glenn’s singing it!’ But of course, in them days, Glenn was going through a serious drug problem.” A serious enough problem that Hughes would only last for a handful of shows on the album’s supporting tour that year (before being replaced by Ray Gillen).

With both fans and critics voicing dissatisfaction with Iommi …

by Greg Prato
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