Black Sabbath: Tony Iommi, “Quando abbiamo registrato Born Again suonava bene, poi è uscito ovattato”

In una nuova intervista su SiriusXM, Tony Iommi ha detto di essere in attesa del master originale di “Born Again“ (1983), che non si trovava ormai da decenni. E di volerlo usare per dare maggiore dignità al suono di un disco che ritiene davvero molto valido. Queste le parole del mastermind dei Black Sabbath come trascritte da Blabbermouth:

Apparentemente il mio manager è finalmente riuscito a trovare il bandolo della matassa su dove si trovi il master originale. Al momento non ho sentito altro, ma siamo in attesa di riceverlo. Hanno scoperto dove si trovi: in qualche libreria di qualche etichetta chissà dove nel mondo. Ovviamente mi piacerebbe rimetterci mano. Mi piacerebbe fare in modo che quel disco suoni nel modo giusto. Perché penso che sia un album davvero molto buono. Quando abbiamo registrato in studio “Born Again” suonava in maniera grandiosa, ma quando poi è uscito su disco suonava molto ovattato e non bene. Ecco perché vorrei provare a fare qualcosa con quel disco.

In a 2018 interview with SiriusXM, Gillan said that “Born Again” began with a bender at the Bear Inn, one of the oldest pubs in Oxford, England.

“How it started is was just ‘cause we got drunk together one night,” the DEEP PURPLE frontman said. “I went for a drink with Tony and Geezer, and we ended up under the table. And I can’t remember much more that happened. But I got a call from my manager the next day saying, ‘Don’t you think you should call me if you’re gonna make decisions like this?’ I said, ‘What are you talking about?’ He said, ‘Well, apparently you… I just got a call. You agreed to join SABBATH.’ So that’s how it happened. I was at a kind of loose end anyway, having just finished with my own band and PURPLE not really being anything viable at the time. So we set a one-year plan, and it was to do an album and a tour. Nobody knew what was gonna happen, so we pitched up and I pitched my tent, literally, at the old manor in Oxfordshire. And we made an album. I didn’t see much of ‘em. They were night people, so they slept all day and worked all night. I got up in the morning, cooked my breakfast, went to the studio to hear what they had recorded the night before and write a song over it. And that’s how the album was made.”

Gillan went on to describe the making of “Born Again” as “a challenge for me. It was a bit like doing [Andrew Lloyd Webber‘s rock opera] ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ or singing with [opera singer Luciano] Pavarotti; it’s just something completely different,” he explained. “But Tony is such a great writer. You know what to expect with Tony. There’s no multidirectional approach. He is the father of everything that came out of Seattle, I believe. He’s just very direct, and that’s how he evolved from the early days.

“I found it very easy to sing and write songs with [Tony],” Ian continued. “And we had a couple of good ones. There was always a narrative. My favorite song from that album is ‘Trashed’, which was a true story about a racetrack and too much drink and spinning a car and crashing it and going upside down. It was exciting times.”