The record “was already written and all the melodies were already there,” Martin subsequently recalled. He did really well, so we replaced Ray’s vocals with Tony’s voice.” “He sang some of the stuff similar to Ray, following some of the melody lines that we had already recorded. “Tony came into the studio without having had any warning or anything to sing on some of the tracks we’d written with Ray in mind,” Iommi reported. Iommi decided to return to London, where the issue of finding a new vocalist was resolved when an old friend suggested Tony Martin. Iommi's new frontman was soon followed by Singer, who went with Daisley to join Gary Moore’s band. He believed this lack of cash then led to Gillen’s departure. Iommi was signing paychecks for the band under Meehan’s direction, but the money wasn’t getting through. They’re all really, really good, valid riffs, and to build songs around those riffs was great for me, and I enjoyed it.” They’re just pouring out of him – and they’re not just throwaway riffs. Everything that he plays is a classic riff. “I love his playing, his writing, his sound. “I had never really worked with Tony before, but Tony’s great,” Daisley said in 2021. Bob Daisley, who’d earlier worked with Osbourne, took over on bass. Former Sabbath engineer Chris Tsangarides came in to finish things, but then Spitz left. Seventh Star producer Jeff Glixman arrived on Montserrat to join the team, but the arrangement didn’t last. Everything returned to normal, but I hated staying in that house on my own, stuck in the middle of nowhere.” “I started thinking somebody might have cut the power so that they could come and stab me and cut my throat! I was praying for the morning. “I didn't have a torch or anything, and I couldn’t go next door because there wasn’t a next door,” he recalled in Iron Man. On arrival at the six-bedroom house Meehan had rented for him, Iommi was left alone in the dark during a power outage. “I survived, but I swore I’d never get on a boat like that again,” Iommi said. Iommi sailed from Antigua to Montserrat on Meehan’s luxury boat, which encountered a storm so serious that some of the crew admitted they’d never seen one like it. Meehan made plans for the band to set up base at George Martin's Air Studios complex on the Caribbean island of Montserrat. They had come along – and just like that they could go out and say: ‘I’m in Black Sabbath.’ … It didn’t feel the same any more.” It was like he and Eric and Dave were novices they hadn't worked for it like everybody else who has been in the game a long time. They were always energetic, and that was good for me as well,” Iommi said. They loved to play and would try stuff all through the night. Iommi was also increasingly aware of an age difference within the band at times, he and Nicholls simply felt “ancient.” Singer and Spitz “were a great little team. “It’s difficult if the singer can’t come up with his own stuff, but I think the biggest problem with Ray was that he got carried away with the stardom. “When we jammed … Ray would always sing just anything, but when it came to doing the actual songs, he didn’t come up with many lyrics,” Iommi said in Iron Man. Work on The Eternal Idol continued against that backdrop. A man involved in the disputed transaction “turned up dead … burned to death!” Then Iommi was handed a steep bill by the hotel owners. Perhaps predictably, everything “went pear-shaped immediately,” as Iommi found himself surrounded by “nice people, but dodgy people.” His six-week stay in a London hotel was supposed to be free, but wasn't because it didn’t actually belong to Meehan, as Iommi had thought. It's all a bit vague now because it was a period when I was back into doing a lot of coke again.” “The people who surrounded me were trying to rip me off anyway, so my thought was, it might as well be someone I know and who might do something for me while he's about it – the devil you know. “I know it was a stupid thing to do,” Iommi wrote in his 2011 memoir Iron Man: My Journey Through Heaven and Hell with Black Sabbath. Manager Don Arden was facing some legal issues, so Iommi re-installed Patrick Meehan – despite his own misgivings.
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