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“Because everything was recorded live, the band always wanted Ozzy to sing along as they were tracking,” he says. “When it came to laying track, my intake of anything mind-altering would diminish somewhat,” says Bill Ward, drily.īutcher recalls there was only one occasion during the sessions when work was impeded by a band member’s penchant for self-medication. During the actual recording, however, it was work all the way. The band also had a plentiful supply of cocaine and marijuana: “Bags of the stuff,” says Mike Butcher. The drinking continued in Morgan’s studio rooms 3 and 4. “We called the dartboard ‘Bill’s beard’,” Butler says, “because all the stuffing was coming out of it at the number 3 mark.” Many hours were idled away in that bar, where Butler spent one drunken evening playing darts with Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts. So most days, we’d start work at nine and go through till one or two the next morning.”

And because Morgan had a bar, that’s where the guys would wait for the others to arrive. “I’d arrive at two in the afternoon, but the band wouldn’t start showing up until four. Butcher recalls that the sessions ran to a loose schedule. Mike Butcher had been the engineer on Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, and he was charged with producing Sabotage. The band worked at Morgan for a total of four months, split into three-week sessions. The album was recorded at Morgan Studios in Willesden, north-west London, a state-of-the-art facility where Sabbath had made their previous album, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. Geezer Butler sums up the band’s state of mind during this period in four words: “Concerned, tired, drunk, stoned.” Such was the managerial turmoil surrounding Black Sabbath that it took them almost a year to complete the recording of Sabotage. But Meehan was not going to give up one of the biggest rock bands in the world without a fight. Shortly after their return from California Jam, the band notified Meehan of their decision to end their contract with Worldwide Artists. Osbourne complained: “Patrick Meehan never gave you a straight answer when you asked him how much dough you were making.” Butler said, more bluntly: “We felt we were being ripped off.” Moreover, Black Sabbath had grown suspicious of Meehan. We said no, but we were eventually forced into doing it.” We were in England, having just returned from the tour, when our manament called us all and said we had to go back out to do the California Jam. As Butler says: “We wanted to take a break after Tony collapsed with exhaustion on the Sabbath Bloody Sabbath tour. By 1974 the band had all the trappings of success, the country houses and flash cars.īut after four years on a continual cycle of touring and recording, they were running on empty. The three albums that followed Paranoid – Master Of Reality in 1971, Vol.4 in 1972, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath in 1973 – all hit the UK Top 10 and the US Top 20. With Meehan at the helm, Black Sabbath became a genuine international success. “In the early days,” Iommi said, “he really got things going. Once installed as Sabbath’s manager, Meehan delivered on his promises. The band were impressed by his global business plan, symbolised by his company’s name, Worldwide Artists, and by his go-getter attitude. In Osbourne’s opinion: “overwhelmed”.Įnter Meehan, a former assistant to the self-styled ‘Mr Big’ of rock’n’roll managers, Don Arden. But as their popularity rapidly escalated, there was a feeling within the band that Simpson was a little out of his depth. Their first album, Black Sabbath, had reached the UK Top 10 their second, Paranoid, went to No.1. The band had already made significant progress by this point, under the guidance of their first manager, Jim Simpson, a club promoter in Sabbath’s native Birmingham. It was in 1970 that Patrick Meehan was appointed manager of Black Sabbath.