TOMORROW NIGHT ON THE BIOGRAPHY CHANNEL: BLACK SABBATH!

Tomorrow night The Biography Channel will be airing a documentary on the almighty Black Sabbath! I was interviewed for the show (I have no idea how much they'll use from my interview), but I'd be interested in seeing it no matter what. It's just an hour long show, though, and I don't know how you would cover the original Ozzy Osbourne era in one hour - not to mention the later incarnations of the band.

Pretty strange that such a legendary band's story hasn't really been told on camera, and now, within the space of a month we get Biography Channel doc and also the DVD release of the Paranoid episode of the Classic Albums series. I've read that Ozzy Osbourne and Tony Iommi's lawsuits against each other have been resolved. Hopefully in the wake of Ronnie James Dio's death, they can be "mates" again. I don't care if Black Sabbath never record again (Ozzy himself has said that if they can't do something as good as the music they made in the '70s, they shouldn't bother, and that would be hard to do). I am even OK with them not touring again. They did some killer performances after reuniting, I felt lucky to have my chance to have seen the band. I just hate the idea of them not being on speaking terms. I know a lot of other fans feel the same way.

MORE THOUGHTS ON DIO

I'm kind of surprised by how sad I feel about the death of Ronnie James Dio. I can't act like I'm the biggest fan, and I hadn't listened to him at all for about two decades, up until he rejoined Black Sabbath (aka Heaven & Hell). 

I was moved by the tributes by his Sabbath/Heaven & Hell bandmates Tony Iommi, Vinny Appice and especially Geezer Butler. I say "especially" because Geezer, a lyricist, is a sensitive soul who expresses himself really well with the written word. Also, because I think he and Dio had problems at first: when Ozzy Osbourne was Sabbath's frontman, Geezer was the lyricist.  When Dio came, he wrote his own lyrics, and I think that may have led to tensions.

I was also moved by a tribute written by, of all people, Rolling Stone writer Rob Sheffield. Sheffield is a kitch-loving hipster (as far as I can tell) but also a very good writer.  Still, I was like, "Not now!" when I saw his name next to the headline "Farewell, Dio: You Got To Bleed For The Dancer."  It was actually a moving tribute that pointed out that Dio's song "Invisible" in which he empathized with gay teenagers, which was unusual, not to mention risky, for a straight heavy metal icon in the '80s. There's tons of great Dio tributes out there, but that one really stuck with me.

Even Ozzy Osbourne issued a brief statement.  Who knows, maybe this will hammer home the point that life is so finite, and inspire Ozzy and Tony to end their dumb lawsuit.  I'm not saying they need to reunite, they should just go back to being pals. But I'm glad that in Dio's final years, he got to play to huge crowds with Tony, Geezer and Vinny. We should all be able to go out doing what we love.

DIO - R.I.P.

I am really sorry to hear that heavy metal legend, Ronnie James Dio, passed away this weekend.

Dio in 1985 was my second big rock concert (Rush was the first a few weeks earlier). At the time, Dio only had released two albums, but of course Ronnie James Dio had his catalog of Rainbow and Black Sabbath songs to pull from as well. I remember hanging out with my friend Joe at the White Castle afterwards with a blown mind, talking about all the great songs we just saw him performed, including Rainbow's "Man On The Silver Mountain" and Black Sabbath's "Children Of The Sea." There were lasers, huge lights, it was loud, it was awesome.

Not everyone knows that before he was a metal icon, he was Ronnie Dio, doo-wop singer. You can buy "Gonna Make It Alone" and "Swingin' Street" by Ronnie Dio and The Prophets on iTunes. He was good at it, and I bet he looked back on his doo-wop era fondly.  Years later, he started his band Elf, which was kind of blues based "hey baby" Stones rock and roll. "Sit Down Honey" is also available on iTunes. It's cool, but like when he was singing doo-wop, he didn't really stand out, it doesn't quite "click." 

It turns out that that Stoney, bluesy kind of rock that Elf was playing was also not satisfying to guitar god  Ritchie Blackmore either -- so he quit Deep Purple, hired the members of Elf (minus the guitarist, of course) and formed Rainbow. That's where you first hear Dio becoming that frontman that influenced generations of metal singers. After three albums RJD left to replace Ozzy Osbourne in Black Sabbath. Singing with Blackmore meant he would be compared to Purple's singers (Ian Gillan and David Coverdale). That couldn't have been easy.  But replacing Ozzy in Sabbath! What a ballsy move, even though he is technically a better singer. Dio has never lacked confidence, and that has served him well. The two albums he did with Sabbath were righteous and rocking. But soon he took drummer Vinnie Appice and formed Dio.

Dio kind of encompasssed a lot of what people made fun of in "dungeons and dragons" type metal.  I admit, I made fun of it, and so did lots of other people, especially in the '90s.  But really, the guys from Soundgarden and Alice In Chains were fans.  The other night, Pearl Jam played a mix tape of Dio, Rainbow and Sabbath after the opening act before they hit the stage. And Mike McCready threw a bit of "Heaven and Hell" into "Alive." It doesn't matter what artists were influenced by him though.  Few metal artists were ever so singular in their vision, so confident in their identity.  Slayer and Motorhead come to mind, very few others.

When Dio reunited with Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Appice a few years ago as Heaven & Hell, I revisted his career, and realized that it is pretty awesome.  And although it took a few years for his musical identity to really coalesce, once it did, he never veered from who and what he was, and for that he deserves respect. Not many people held it down for metal the way he did.  He also had a great sense of humor about it, appearing in videos with Tenacious D (they wrote a tribute/parody called "Dio," but he had a sense of humor and enjoyed it).  He even cameoed in their film.

Dude, you don't have to hand your cape and scepter to anyone. Rock on, Ronnie James Dio.

TODAY'S NEWS: TRENT, RHCP, DIO, WATERS, MASSIVE ATTACK AND MORE

So, as I've mentioned, No Expiration is now on Twitter! I'll be posting all sorts of news and using the blog as more of a place to recommend stuff.

Here's what I tweeted about today, in case you missed it. Trent Reznor's new group is called How To Destroy Angels, and an update to my tweet: you can download their song "A Drowning," at Amazon.

I also link to stories about Massive Attack's upcoming tour, Roger Waters' upcoming tour, Heaven & Hell cancelling their tour due to Ronnie James Dio's health, a comic book about Henry Rollins and Glenn Danzig and more.

Follow me on twitter!

TONY IOMMI TO RELEASE HIS MEMOIRS

Ozzy Osbourne's book, I Am Ozzy, comes out in a few days on January 25. Now news comes that Black Sabbath guitarist/founder/boss Tony Iommi will be releasing his memoirs, Iron Man, soon, according to Publisher's Weekly.  Tony with Geezer Butler, Ronnie James Dio and Vinny Appice, aka Black Sabbath MK 2, aka Heaven & Hell, have some dates booked for this summer, provided that Dio recovers well from his chemo (which, supposedly, he has been).

Ozzy did an interview in Rolling Stone where he expressed ambivalence about working with Sabbath again (not surprising, given that he and Tony are involved in an ugly lawsuit). I wish that they could get it together.  Actually, I don't care if they never perform again: I have been lucky enough to have seen the classic version of the band a few times. But as a huge fan (and writer of the liner notes on the definitely Sabbath box set, The Black Box), I'd just love to see them end this dumb lawsuit.

RONNIE JAMES DIO - GET WELL SOON

I was sorry to hear that legendary heavy metal singer Ronnie James Dio has been diagnosed with cancer. His wife and manager Wendy Dio recently posted to his website that he "aced" his first chemo treatments.

No Expiration readers know that my favorite version of Black Sabbath was the original with Ozzy Osbourne. But the second version with Dio (which now goes by the name Heaven & Hell) was great in their own right. Ronnie also sang in Ritchie Blackmore's post-Deep Purple band, Rainbow, and did some great songs there, espcially "The Man On The Silver Mountain," but also "Long Live Rock and Roll" and "Black Sheep Of The Family."

And, I can't front, the second concert I ever saw was Dio (the first was Rush), and I loved it.  I saw them a total of three times. I also give Ronnie tons of respect for having the good sense of humor to appear in Tenacious D's movie. Anyway, I hope he "slays this dragon," gets well soon and starts rocking again with Dio and Heaven & Hell.

DIO TO PEN AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Ronnie James Dio is going to write an autobiography, according to Classic Rock magazine. He must have some cool stories to tell - from playing with former Deep Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore in Rainbow, to replacing Ozzy Osbourne in Black Sabbath to leading his own band Dio. Did you know that before he was in Rainbow, he fronted a band called Elf, and before that, he was a doo-wop singer? It's true. Anyway, while sort of symbolizing some of the more easy to make fun of aspects of metal, he has never been a silly motley crue-esque hair metal cartoon, so this may not be the wild read that The Dirt supposedly was.  But still, it will probably be a cool read. One thing he has done is talk a lot of shit about former bandmates, singers who he has replaced and who has replaced him, etc.  I think he's sort of grown out of that, but I wonder how he will address his heavy metal "beefs" in the book. 

CRAZY LAME

I caught the first few minutes of The Osbournes' variety show. Really bad. I've heard that Ozzy Osbourne has criticized much of it already. I can't hate on him and the family for trying something different, but I don't think that this one had a chance of being cool. And the worst part is, while Ozzy is doing goofy skits, Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler are about to release a new album with Ronnie James Dio as Heaven & Hell.

"WE WISH YOU A METAL XMAS"

Let it be known that a metal Christmas album is coming out soon. It has a lot of hair metal dudes on it, but the cool thing about the album is a cover of Chuck Berry's "Run Run Rudolph" featuring Lemmy, Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top and Dave Grohl. Now that's a frakkin' supergroup.

Also on the album: Alice Cooper singing "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town," Ronnie James Dio (with Tony Iommi) doing "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" and Doug Pinnick of King's X singing "Little Drummer Boy."

AN OPEN LETTER TO TONY IOMMI AND GEEZER BUTLER

Dear Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler:

Hey, how's your summer going? I'm glad to hear that your "other" band, Heaven & Hell (the Black Sabbath mk. 2 lineup - which includes Ronnie James Dio and Vinnie Appice) - is doing so well. I know you guys are going on a righteous tour with Judas Priest and Motorhead. You've got a box set of the Dio era Sabbath stuff coming out, and an album of new material. Great!

But after this Heaven & Hell thing winds down, I was hoping that you guys could convince your original and greatest frontman, Ozzy Osbourne, to get back together with you guys. Did you hear his last album, Black Rain? It was actually quite good. I know a new Sabbath album is probably out of the question: how could a new album compare to your body of work (although I bet if you try hard, you could match the underrated Technical Ecstacy or Never Say Die!). Maybe just record a few new tunes like you did with Dio for the Sabbath compilation The Dio Years. And then go on tour. I used to hope you guys would play some more obscure songs. Now, I'd just like to see Ozzy get back out there.

You've heard about his family's upcoming variety show, right? 'Nuff said. I'm not talking smack about the family: Jack has made a great recovery/comeback from what I hear. And, whatever may have gone down between you guys and Sharon , well, I doubt Oz would still be alive, not to mention as successful as he is, without her. I got a kick out of their reality show. At first. But I gotta admit - at the risk of Sharon reading this and wanting to k&*% my f$%^*&% a## and feed me my b*&^s, I'm not feeling good about this. I guess it's going down no matter what. I'd just like to remind people why Ozzy is so great - it's because of his body of work, not his stunts or hijinks. And most of the great body of work was with you guys.

Think it over? Please? Thanks!

BLACK SABBATH, ER, HEAVEN AND HELL BOX SET

The second version of Black Sabbath - which features singer Ronnie James Dio and drummer Vinnie Appice and which now goes by "Heaven & Hell" - is about to get the box set treatment. Much like the original band's Black Box which came out in 2004 - and which yours truly had the honor of working on - this box will just contain remastered versions of their albums: 1980's Heaven & Hell, 1981's Mob Rules, 1982's live album Live Evil, and thier 1992 reunion album, Dehumanizer.

It's pretty amazing that this version of the band has proven so popular. The reunion was supposed to just be to record two new songs for The Dio Years collection, which led to a tour, which led to a live album, and now they are on the "Metal Masters" tour with Judas Priest, and apparently they are working on a "Heaven & Hell" studio album set for release in early 2009.

On one hand, I'm glad Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler have found something to do outside of Sabbath while Ozzy Osbourne is off doing his own career. On the other, I hope Sabbath does one last thing, I hope they don't get overshadowed by Heaven & Hell. I wonder what Ozzy - and Sharon - think about all this Heaven & Hell stuff.

BLACK SABBATH VS. HEAVEN & HELL?

A few weeks ago, Ozzy Osbourne did a press conference promoting his upcoming tour, and he mentioned that he would - as far as he knew - be headlining Ozzfest in the summer of 2008; this past summer, he played on just a few of the gigs. He also mentioned wanting to (maybe) finally do a reunion album with Black Sabbath.

I know that the Sabs - Ozzy, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward - have toyed with working together again in the studio. The results have been OK: two studio tracks on the live Reunion album, plus a pretty cool -but quiet - song called "Scary Dreams" that they were playing live for a while. A song called "Who's Fooling Who," on Tony's solo debut featured Ozzy and Bill, and Ozzy and Tony did a collaborative track with The Wu-Tang Clan that was, well, OK.

The reality is, it's hard for a band to come together after decades apart, and come up with material that approaches thier earlier stuff. I don't think that The Stooges achieved it with thier reunion album (although The New York Dolls' reunion album was quite good). It's just really hard to imagine them coming close to their early material. But since they seem to be getting along well ever since they reunited 10(!) years ago, they've toured a lot.

I saw their first reunion tour, which was really a 75% reunion. It was Ozzy, Tony and Geezer with Ozzy's drummer, Mike Bordin (formerly of Faith No More) at the first Ozzfest tour in 1997. It was one of those reunions that no one thought would happen: it almost happened in 1992, after the band played at Ozzy's two "final" gigs, but then plans totally fell apart. But, in 1997, they pulled together for Ozzfest - and it was awesome. I was at the Giants Stadium show, I couldn't believe how great it was. Ozzy actually did a solo set followed by the Sabbath set. I met him backstage after the gig, and he looked pretty "knackered" as the Brits say, but, man, the Sabbath set was incredible. And Mike Bordin did an incredible job.

Two years later, Sabbath did Ozzfest again, this time with Bill, and on this tour, Ozzy didn't do solo sets, so it was a pretty powerful performance. Of course, they've done Ozzfest a few times since then.

But earlier this year, Tony and Geezer reunited with Ronnie James Dio (who replaced Ozzy in Sabbath) and Vinny Appice (who replaced Bill), and called themselves Heaven & Hell. I've always thought that it was pretty remarkable that Sabbath, back in the day, were able to evolve and survive the departure of a frontman like Ozzy, and a lot of that should be credited to Dio. Personally, I'm not nearly a huge fan of any of the post-Ozzy Sabbath lineups, but the Dio one was impressive. I always thought that it was kind of a different band, especially as Dio took over as the lyricist as well (Geezer wrote most of the lyrics during the Ozzy era). But I was happy for Tony and Geezer when the Heaven & Hell thing happened: it gives them something to do when Ozzy is out doing his solo thing, and gives them a chance to play some of the music from their past that they don't get to do with Ozzy.

But now, Geezer and Tony are saying that they're going to do a studio album with Heaven & Hell. Good for them, I guess. I kind of wanted to see the original Sabbath one more time: it's hard to imagine it happening again if they do a new Heaven & Hell album, and then promote it with another tour. Ozzy, Tony and Bill will all be 60 next year; Geezer is a year younger. Are they going to do a Black Sabbath tour at age 63?

If the original Black Sabbath never ride again, maybe it's OK. I spoke to Geezer about this a while ago: he said, after doing a few reunion tours, he was happy if that was it (and they've toured a few times since that conversation). He felt that it was important that all four guys were friends again, and they got to tour together again, after all those years apart.

I guess that there's a chance that Sabbath's final appearance may well end up being their (overly late) induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. They decided not to perform, just to show up. Of course, Metallica performed for them, which I thought was fitting. If that's the last page in the Sabbath book, it's a good ending for four guys who traveled, as they put it, "A Hard Road." I'm glad they lived to enjoy the spoils of thier work, and to see how many millions of people they influenced, and how many lives they affected.

THIS WEEK'S NEW RECORDS

I kick it "old school," as you may have figured out by now. I go to the record store (yes, there is still one near me) on Tuesdays (new release day). Then, when I come home, I check out the iTunes store.

So, today I didn't buy any full length CDs, but I tried a bunch of things out on iTunes: I bought two tracks from Patti Scialfa's new album, Play It As It Lays, "Play Around" and "Run, Run, Run." Her voice is polarizing: her obvious influence is the great Ronnie Spector and some people love her voice, and some don't. I think that, at least on these songs, she reigned in her her tendency to sometimes oversing, which is good. That's what I'd do with her if I was her producer. Of course, it's understandable that she would oversing, given her dayjob (which I'll be writing about soon enough).

If you have a taste for something different, and don't mind lyrics that aren't in English, you should check out Manu Chao. I checked out his song "Rainin' in Paradize" which actually is in English. I may pick up the album instead of buying more individual tracks.

I don't think that anyone benefits from the term "neo-soul." It translates to "soul music for Starbucks" or something. But that seems to be what Jill Scott has been lumped in with. I don't care what you call it, she can sing - check out her new single, "Hate On Me."

I'm not a big fan of Ronnie James Dio - his dungeons and dragons thing doesn't really appeal to me. And to me, Black Sabbath is four guys - Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward. That said, I was glad to see Tony and Geezer get back together with Dio this year - and I was glad to see that they called themselves Heaven & Hell. I think it's cool that they can do their own thing while Ozzy doing his solo thing. They released a live album. While Dio's era in Sabbath pales compared to Ozzy's "The Mob Rules" is a great song, so I "grabbed" that.

The Dropkick Murphys combine punk rock with Irish music - they've been around for a few years, and got a big break last year when Martin Scorsese used thier song "I'm Shipping Up To Boston" in The Departed. Their new song, "The State Of Massachusetts" is rockin'.

Right now I'm really looking foward to Robert Plant's upcoming album with Alison Krauss. I'll write more about that later.