‘Interstellar Overdrive’—but we couldn’t pull it off. Pink Floyd was music for rich college kids, and we were the exact fucking opposite of that. So Rare Breed wasn’t going anywhere, and me and Geezer both knew it. Rehearsals were just one long argument about when the bongo solo should come in. Worst of all, there was this bloke in the band who called himself Brick, and he fancied himself as a bit of a San Francisco hippy type.
‘Brick’s a dick,’ I kept telling Geezer.
‘Aw, he’s all right.’
‘No, Brick’s a dick.’
‘Give it a rest, Ozzy.’
‘He’s a dick, that Brick.’
And so on.
I got on fine with the other members of the band. But with Brick on the scene and me getting increasingly pissed off, Rare Breed was never going to last. Even Geezer started to lose his patience after a while.
The only gig I can remember playing in those very early days—and I think it was with Rare Breed, but it could have been under a different name, with different band members, ’cos line-ups changed so often back then— was the Birmingham Fire Station’s Christmas party.
The audience consisted of two firemen, a bucket and a ladder. We made enough dough for half a shandy (beer mixed with lemonade), split six ways.
But that gig made an impression on me, because it was the first time I ever experienced stage fright.
And fucking hell, man, did I get a bad case of the brown trousers.
To say that I suffer from pre-show nerves is like saying that when you get hit by an atom bomb it hurts a bit. I was absolutely fucking petrified when I got up on that stage. Sweaty.
Mouth drier than a Mormon wedding. Numb legs. Racing heart. Trembling hands. The fucking works, man. I literally almost pissed myself. I’d never felt anything like it in my life. I remember downing a pint beforehand to try to calm myself down, but it didn’t work. I would have had twenty pints if I’d had enough dough. In the end I croaked my way through a couple of numbers until we blew out one of the speakers of the PA. Then we fucked off home. I didn’t tell my old man about the speaker. I just swapped it with the one in his radiogram.
I’d buy him a new one when I got a job, I told myself. And it seemed like I would have to get a job, because, judging by the fire station gig, there was no way I was ever going to make it in the music business.
A couple of days later, I decided to pack in singing for good.
I remember saying to Geezer down the pub, ‘I’ve had enough, man, this ain’t going nowhere.’
Geezer just frowned and twiddled his thumbs. Then, in a dejected voice, he said: ‘They’ve offered me a promotion at work. I’m going to be number three in the accounting department.’
‘Well, that’s it then, isn’t it?’ I said.
‘Suppose.’
We finished our drinks, shook hands, and went our separate ways. ‘See you around, Geezer,’ I said.
‘Take it easy, Ozzy Zig.’
Knock-knock.
I poked my head through the curtains in the living room and saw a dodgy-looking bloke with long hair and a moustache standing outside on the doorstep. What the fuck was this, deja vu? But no, despite the hair and the tash, the bloke didn’t look anything like Geezer. He looked… homeless. And there was another bloke standing next to him. He also had long hair and a king-sized ferret on his upper lip. But he was taller, and he looked a bit like… Nah, it couldn’t be. Not him. Parked behind them on the street was an old blue Commer van with a big rusty hole above the wheel arch and faded lettering on the side that said ‘Mythology’.
‘JOHN! Get the door!’
‘I’m getting it!’
It had been a few months since I’d left Rare Breed. I was twenty now, and had given up all hope of being a singer or ever getting out of Aston. PA system or no PA system, it wasn’t going to happen. I’d convinced myself that there was no point in even trying, because I was just going to fail, like I had at school, at work, and at everything else I’d ever tried. ‘You ain’t no good as a singer,’ I told myself. ‘You can’t even play an instrument, so what hope d’you have?’ It was Self-Pity City at 14 Lodge Road. I’d already talked to my mum about trying to get my old job back at the Lucas plant. She was seeing what she could do. And I’d told the owner of Ringway Music to take down my ‘OZZY ZIG NEEDS GIG’ sign. Stupid fucking name, anyway—Geezer was right about that. All in all, there was no reason whatsoever why two long-haired blokes should be standing on my doorstep at nine o’clock on a Tuesday night.
Could they be mates of Geezer? Did they have something to do with Rare Breed? It didn’t make any sense.
Knock-knock.
Knock-knock.
Knock-knock-knock-knock.
I twisted the latch and pulled. An awkward pause. Then the shorter and scruffier bloke asked, ‘Are you… Ozzy Zig?’
Before I could answer, the bigger guy leaned forwards and squinted at me. Now I knew for certain who he was. And he knew me, too. I froze. He groaned. ‘Aw, fucking hell,’ he said. ‘It’s you.’
I couldn’t believe it. The bloke on my doorstep was Tony Iommi: the good-looking kid from the year above me at Birchfield Road, who’d brought his electric guitar to school one Christmas, driving the teachers crazy with the noise. I hadn’t seen him for about five years, but I’d heard about him. He’d become a bit of an Aston legend since leaving school. All the kids knew who he was. If you wanted to be in a band with anyone, it was Tony. Unfortunately, he didn’t seem to feel the same way about me.
‘C’mon, Bill,’ he said to the homeless-looking bloke. ‘This is a waste of time. Let’s go.’
‘Wait a minute,’ said Bill. ‘Who is this guy?’
‘I’ll tell you one thing: his name ain’t “Ozzy Zig”. And he ain’t no singer, either. He’s Ozzy Osbourne and he’s an idiot. C’mon, let’s get out of here.’
‘Hang on a minute,’ I interrupted. ‘How did you get this address? How d’you know about Ozzy Zig?’
‘“Ozzy Zig Needs Gig,”’ said Bill, with a shrug.
‘I told ’em to take that fucking sign down months ago.’
‘Well, you should go and tell them again, ’cos it was up there today.’
‘At Ringway Music?’
‘In the window.’
I tried not to look too pleased.
‘Tony,’ said Bill, ‘can’t we give this guy a break? He seems all right.’
‘Give him a break?’ Tony had already lost patience. ‘He was the school clown! I’m not being in a band with that fucking moron.’
I couldn’t think of anything to say, so I just stood there staring at my feet.
‘Beggars can’t be choosers, Tony,’ hissed Bill. ‘That’s why we’re here, isn’t it?’
But Tony just huffed and started to walk back towards the van.
Bill shook his head and shrugged at me, as if to say, ‘Sorry, mate. Nothing more I can do.’
That seemed to be that. But then something caught my eye. It was Tony’s right hand.
There was something wrong with it.
‘Fucking hell, Tony,’ I said. ‘What happened to your fingers, man?’
It turned out I wasn’t the only one who’d had a rough time with jobs after being turfed out of school at the age of fifteen. While I was poisoning myself with the degreasing machine and going deaf testing car horns, Tony was working as an apprentice sheet-metal worker. Later, he told me his education mainly involved learning how to use an electric welder.
Now, they’re lethal fucking things, electric welders. The biggest risk is being exposed to ultraviolet radiation, which can literally melt the skin off your body before you even know it, or burn holes in your eyeballs. You can also get killed by electric shocks, or end up poisoned by exposure to the toxic rust-proofing shit they put on the panels. Anyway, Tony was doing this welding job during the day and playing in a band called the Rocking Chevrolets on the club circuit at night, waiting for his big break. He was always talented, but hammering out all those numbers by Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley and Eddie Cochran every night made him shit fucking hot. Eventually an agent spotted him
