Tony Iommi was interviewed recently by Eddie Trunk. The interview appeared in his Sirius XM show and later was posted as a podcast. Amid promoting Iommi’s latest venture (which is a fragrance of all things), the conversation turned onto Born Again.

‘Born Again,’ we talked about in the past, you always said you wanted to remix that record. That’s the Sabbath record with Ian Gillan. I remember in the past you told me that you couldn’t find the tapes. Have you had any luck finding the masters on that?

Well, apparently, Ralph [Baker, Tony’s manager] found a connection there, where they were. I haven’t heard anymore, they discovered where they were in some library in some record company somewhere.

So, obviously, I’d love to do that, I’d love to get that one sounding right because I think that was a really good album, and when we first had done it in the studio, it sounded great.

But when it came out on the record, it was really muffled and not good, so I wanted to do something with that.

I had dinner with Ian Gillan, he told me that he was so drunk that he didn’t realize that he told you he would join Black Sabbath the night you recruited him

Oh man, I’ll tell you what, he’d just come in from Kuala Lumpur, believe it or not, he traveled in from Kuala Lumpur, and we met him in Woodstock in Oxfordshire at a pub, which probably wasn’t a good move.

He turned up about 11 o’clock in the morning, Geezer and I were there, and he said ‘I’ve just come from Kuala Lumpur.’ We must’ve had a drink, and another drink, and another drink.

Anyway, the pub was closing, and they just locked us in and left us there, and god, the state of us at the end of the day, and he don’t even remember, and of course, his manager said, ‘Ian, if you’re going to make any important decisions, can you let me know?’

Ian went ‘Why?’ He said, ‘Agreeing to join Black Sabbath…’ It was really funny, actually. We got endless stories with him, we’ve had some bloody fun on that tour.

The album with Glenn [Hughes] too, [1986’s] ‘Seventh Star,’ that’s a fantastic record too. I just saw Glenn last week, we were on the funeral service for Frankie of Quiet Riot. Glenn was there, I thought of the time I sat with you and Glenn and Geezer at Ronnie’s. It’s remarkable how great Glenn still looks and sounds, so you could easily do a reunion show with that particular record

He’s one of the few people that can, I mean, the way he can sing, it’s just unbelievable. Funny enough, don’t know if you know Jimmy, his manager, long hair, big beard, anyway, he’s playing bass on this song.

Listen to the whole thing (Iommi’s interview starts at around 3’30” into the podcast and Born Again related bits start at around 28’40”):

The track mentioned above is an instrumental called Scent of Dark recorded apparently to promote the fragrance. And that’s Glenn’s manager Jimmy Crutchley on the bass:

Thanks to Ultimate Guitar for the heads up and the quotes.

Another bit of history appearing in the venerable Music History for Those Who Are Able to Read blog. It is an article from Sounds magazine, originally published on April 17, 1976. The article is an overview of several hard rock bands that were “new” at the day, with Rainbow among them.

Ritchie Blackmore`s Rainbow

Ritchie Blackmore (guitar), Ronnie James Dio (vocals), Tony Carey (keyboards), Jimmy Bain (bass), Cozy Powell (drums).

Ritchie Blackmore is guv’nor among modern day rock guitarists and his band Rainbow is a potential supergroup. No kid — for, bearing in mind Deep Purple’s recent poor displays in Britain, the path seems clear for Rainbow to take over as one of this country’s foremost rock bands.

Having become, over the years, increasingly disillusioned with life in Purple, in 1975 Blackmore went about laying down one or two solo tracks in Munich’s Musicland studios, adided and abetted by members of Elf (notably Ronnie James Dio), a young band who had played second on the bill to Purple on a number of occasions. However, what was originally one track, ‘Black Sheep Of The Family’, blossomed into a complete album and then, ultimately, heralded a break away from Purple altogether.

Dio had acted as a catalyst and Blackmore had regained his enthusiasm, his will to play. After the release of the amorphous first album ‘Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow’, Dio and Blackmore went about moulding a new band. Finally, they managed to quash rumours that Blackmore had left Purple to join Elf once and for all by recruiting an almost entirely new line-up from that which appeared on the first album.

With a second album due out in a month or so, Rainbow have yet to gig in Britain. They hope to visit later this year however, bringing with them their vast rainbow-shaped lightshow, which is so complex it has to be run by digital computer.

A potential super-group…

Recommended album: Second LP (as yet untitled, unreleased) (Oyster).

Thanks to Geir Myklebust for keeping the history alive.

British tabloid Daily Mail has published a curious document — it is a price list, dated January 1969, from a London-based booking agent to hire various bands to play a function at The Queen’s College in Oxford. The most expensive band on the list is Fleetwood Mac at £500 a night, which the paper claims to be an equivalent of £8,640 in 2021 money. Deep Purple Mark 1 could have been hired for mere £125, or £2,160 (€2,538 or $2,872) in today’s money by the same arithmetic. A steal!

Thanks to metaljim for the heads up.

Don Airey spoke to the Hawai’i Public Radio for their Off The Road series of interviews.

In today’s feature, Don takes us back to the beginning of the pandemic for a scary episode from the earliest days of the crisis. He also details how the band decided to do an all-covers album, and shares a little about the recording and song selection, which includes music from Led Zeppelin, Spencer Davis Group, Booker T. and the M.G.’s, Jeff Beck, The Allman Brothers Band, Little Feat and many others.

Ian Gillan has appeared on the Hawksbee and Jacobs Daily podcast on December 14, 2021, to talk about his career as a pole vaulter. Continue Reading »

The Dead Daisies have announced that the ill fated European tour, already postponed several times, have now been postponed again due to the new round of pandemic restrictions.

With the latest state of play concerning Covid 19 and how it is escalating travel, border and venue restrictions, we have had to look again at the bands “Holy Ground” February/March Tour which we will sadly have to delay. As disappointing as this news will be to receive, safety as always has to be the priority. However, we will be back stronger and louder than ever when we come back to do these dates in October/November of 2022. Please stay tuned for all the latest details and the many things we plan to do in 2022.

Thanks to Yvonne for the info.

Glenn Hughes comments on 9 of his favourite songs for a feature in Louder Sound:

Trapeze – Medusa

I distinctly remember writing this song in my mother and father’s kitchen. Little did I know what an amazing impact it would have on my life as well as the lives of many others around the globe.

It was a very important song for myself and Trapeze back in 1971. Medusa really opened the doors to America for us. The song has stood the test of time and has nearly always made an appearance in my solo live shows. It was a great honour for me to re-record the song with Joe Bonamassa and Black Country Communion in 2010.

Read more in Louder Sound.

What if Deep Purple were a Delta Blues band… Continue Reading »

Blackmore’s admiration for ABBA is well documented. Now it turns out that the feeling was sort of mutual. Total Guitar has a curious interview with Swedish session man Janne Schaffer, who recorded on 50 of the 98 tracks released by the band in their heyday.

What were the most guitar-heavy tracks you recorded with ABBA?

There are three that come to mind. Rock’n Roll Band, Watch Out and King Kong Song, which are from the first and second albums. If you listen to them, you can hear a lot of heavy rock guitars in there. We’d been listening to Deep Purple and similar things.

Deep Purple are featured on the cover of Rolling Stone Hebdo in France, issue #62 dated November 26, 2021, with an interview inside. Naturally, it’s all in French.

Across the channel, there is also a Purple feature in the February 2022 issue of the MOJO magazine, the one with Neil Young on the cover:

DEEP PURPLE Gillan, Paice and Glover regroup for one more blag, 50 years since Machine Head. But what are their current feelings about Ritchie Blackmore? “He’s a quirky guy…”

The issue can be ordered from the Newsstand starting December 14.

Thanks to Yvonne for the heads up.