It’s crazy when we think that Black Sabbath would’ve never recruited Ronnie James Dio if his paths hadn’t crossed with Tommy Iommi in 1979. Replacing Ozzy Osbourne, Roonie became the new frontman of the group.
Dio made a great run with the band and led the group to become one of the most legendary. This moment would only have been a dream if Dio and Iommi never met. “It must have been fate because we connected so instantly,” said Dio.
It was sure a challenging task for Dio to take the place of Ozzy, but he nailed the performance. Dio already had 2 decades of experience as a frontman for the band, when he replaced Oazzy, it was as if Dio belonged there. He also adored the former frontman of the band and loved his songs. Let’s take a look at Ronnie’s favorite song by Ozzy.
The Black Sabbath song with Ozzy that Ronnie James Dio liked
There isn’t a huge difference between Ozzy and Ronnie as frontmans of the band. They were both exceptionally well and the fans loved them. After Osbourne left the band, Dio helped Back Sabbath to get into the mainstream of music with the help of his wide vocal ranges.
In the beginning, Ronnie struggled to take the place of Ozzy, but after looking at his works on ‘Dehumanizer’ the band finally sounded like ‘Black Sabbath’. “This is very much a classic Black Sabbath record, in fact, I didn’t expect it to come out quite this good.” said Iommi.”
Dio only stayed with the Black Sabbath for 3 albums. Although he had a short career, he was a crucial member of the group. Some of his works are still considered the band’s best work. Well, when Dio was asked about his favorite Black Sabbath song, he named one from Ozzy’s era.
In 2009, during an interview with Rhapsody Blog, he was asked to list some of his favorite songs, and one song he chose was from, the 1940 album ‘Paranoid’, “War Pigs.”
“It was another one of those songs where you didn’t expect it to go where it went. I just thought it was so well written and so well performed. So different, so unusual. It’s one of the standard-bearing songs for the band. I think it will always be remembered within the same confines as ‘Paranoid’, ‘Iron Man’ and ‘War Pigs’. They just seem to go together,” the frontman said.
He adds. “That was Geezer’s lyrics. They stand up because that was a protest about people who were creating war. They’ve never heard that before. That’s a strange title, isn’t it? You just put that together and it’s so clever. Musically, it was just written so well. That’s my 10,”
Truly, “War Pigs” is one of the biggest Black Sabbath songs. It would not be ideal for Dio to ignore the most famous song of the band, so we can see why he chose “War Pigs”. Nevertheless, this decision only showed that he had deep respect for the band and their fans.