Vocalist Tony Martin recalled his time in Black Sabbath and what it was like to write new music with Tony Iommi.
While the band was in a weird place between the mid-1980s and the mid-1990s, albums recorded during this time are getting more love in later years. The Tony Martin era got its proper attention with the release of thn is honored to have gotten the chance to be part of Black Sabbath’s history. Speaking to Rock Svergie in a recent interview, the singer looked back to the creative process and working with Iommi. Asked whether he remembers the first piece of music he wrote with Tony, he first recalled “The Eternal Idol” record and how it was already set in place before he joined.
“They said ‘Just sing what’s there and don’t change anything,'” Martin remembered. “And I said ‘Fine by me!’ And I was happy to do that because it gives me a chance to learn what the whole Sabbath thing was about, so I was ‘Yeah, fine I’ll just go in and sing.’ And I did the best I could.”
Going into the matter, Martin said that things changed with the next album, 1989’s “Headless Cross.” To this day, this remains a landmark record of the Tony Martin era, with some fans even calling it a Black Sabbath classic. The singer played an important role in its creation. Recalling the album’s process, he said:
“I was already aware now, after doing ‘Eternal Idol,’ what Tony was doing with the guitar. I was still learning as I went along, but he was playing riffs all over the place. I used to record all the rehearsal sessions, which I’ve still got, and then I would cut up the riffs and bits and pieces and put them where I wanted and sing on it or something like that.”
“Sometimes, we would jam together along the way,” Martin continued. “But honestly, he makes so many riffs it’s hard to keep up. He would put these riffs on cassettes, and he would put them on a cassette like ‘Riff in A.’ Well, that doesn’t tell me much! I mean, ‘What riff in A? Which one was it?'”
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