Black Sabbath star Tony Iommi says no more Heaven & Hell gigs after death of Ronnie James Dio

Jul 13 2010 by Paul Cole, Sunday Mercury

"This will be the very last gig we play as Heaven & Hell," reveals Tony. "We chose the name because the band comprised the Black Sabbath line-up of the era in which we made the Heaven & Hell album.

"It was all about the line-up. We couldn’t carry on under that name without Ronnie. It just wouldn’t be right, and none of us has the desire to do that. I think, for similar reasons, that we wouldn’t call ourselves Black Sabbath either."

For the tribute the surviving band members will be joined by Cannock singer Glenn Hughes and Norwegian frontman Jorn Lande.

"Glenn sang at Ronnie’s funeral, doing a great version of Catch The Rainbow, and I’m delighted he’s doing the tribute with us," says Tony. "A lot of high-profile people came forward after Ronnie’s death, saying that they’d like to sing with us for the show.

"But we decided we’d just have two singers: Glenn, who sang with Deep Purple and a host of others, and Jorn Lande, who is probably best known in the UK as the singer for metal band Masterplan.

"He sounds spookily like Ronnie. We had thought about bringing him in on the summer tour as a back-up. If Ronnie felt too weak or too tired, we’d get Jorn to deputise. But, of course, the tour was never to be."

Famously agnostic, Tony’s distrust of the church was confirmed when the local Baptist Church held a rally outside Ronnie’s funeral, denouncing him as a devil worshipper because he was in a rock band.

"This was Ronnie, the man who loved his real ale and his fans," says Tony, shaking his head sadly. "I believe in a God, but I’m not into the ‘going to church’ thing. Just look at all the trouble the church has caused over the years.

"If you want to have a relationship with your God, then you can have it anywhere, anytime. You shouldn’t have to go to a church for that."

So what next for Tony Iommi? Perhaps it’s too early to collect his thoughts. Perhaps he’s being coy.

"We’d like to do something, and carry on playing," he insists. "But in what form – and with what singer – I don’t know. There are so many things flying about that we could do, but we haven’t started to talk about them yet.

Geezer is back in Britain this week so we can rehearse for the tribute. Maybe then we’ll have time to see what the future might hold."

Last year Tony was sued by Ozzy Osbourne over the ownership of the Black Sabbath brand. Legal wrangles went on for months until a few weeks ago when the court battle was resolved, although terms of the settlement have not been revealed.

So is a full-blown Black Sabbath reunion on the cards, or have too many harsh words been spoken? Tony is not ruling anything out.

"I spoke to Ozzy while I was in Los Angeles after Ronnie’s funeral, and he said he’d give me a call when he got to England on his own tour," he reveals. "But I’ve not had that telephone call yet.

"Who knows what might happen down the road? Ozzy and I have a complicated relationship that tends to be on and off. But we’ve always kept in touch, no matter what else might have been going on.

"Would I play with Ozzy again? Who knows? It’s weird with me and Ozzy. There can be all sorts of s**t going on but when we talk, it’s like nothing bad has ever happened. Once the tribute is done, we can all sit down and decide what it is exactly that we’d like to do.

"I could get Tom Jones in. I’ve heard that he’s going to be playing at the High Voltage festival, and he once said he’d like to join Black Sabbath. We were sitting backstage at a gig, and I joked that he’d be great in Sabbath. But he agreed and said that he’d love to do it!"

* For information about the Ronnie James Dio Stand Up And Shout Cancer Fund, visit website www.ronniejamesdio.com. For details of the High Voltage festival head for www.highvoltagefestival.com