Born Again!

This book is the culmination of many, MANY interviews directly from the horse's mouth on every issue and from every band member and associates. INCREDIBLE amount of information. A few confirmations when "reading between the lines" throughout the book:1. Ronnie James Dio was in fact an insufferable egomaniac. He would always first start off by saying that he wasn't and that people had misidentified him as such, and then the very next statement out of him proved that he was very much indeed correctly labeled as such. He had nothing good to say about anyone unless it was paired with passive aggression to ensure that people would walk away thinking that he was the best, had all the answers, knew better, or that everyone's success was entirely dependant on his involvement with it. Just remember that it took a Ronnie James Dio to write the lyrics to the song's "I" (Dehumanizer) and "The Shed (Subtle)" (Rainbow's Long Live Rock 'n Roll). Nobody, and I mean nobody writes lyrics as arrogant and self-serving as that if they aren't epic narcissists.2. Nearly every single member of this band, mostly Tony Iommi and Ronnie James Dio, had a really nasty habit of "selective memory" in terms of when they were pissed at each other and for what reasons. Whenever they were working together, they were all happy and praising each other, and all of their memories collectively failed them as to why they had previously trash-talked each other. Then, when the next lineup change happened, they'd be right back to trash-talking each other about the same old crap that they can now suddenly remember. Sickening, really. One thing I came away with - Tony Iommi, my favorite guitarist of all time, cannot be relied on to keep a single story straight. This guy will say whatever needs to be said to avoid conflict and promote the current lineup, though he does so sort of nicely whereas RJD would just vent.3. Ozzy's lack of talent and substance issues had run this band into the ground. This band was washed up BEFORE they fired Ozzy. Dio brought it roaring back to life with one single album. FACT.4. Ozzy vs Dio Conclusively Settled: In this book, even Ozzy himself admitted (in roundabout ways if you're paying attention) that Dio was a far better singer but was somehow "boring" on stage, and that Ozzy tries to defend himself in that he would run and jump around the stage like a coked-up baboon to get the audience pumped - like that was more important than actual talent. Ozzy had to re-record vocals for every live album in the studio (not a secret), something RJD never had to do. So Ozzy actually but hesitantly admits that Dio was the better singer, though as vaguely as he can. RJD had his own way of explaining it, but here you have BOTH of these two singers admitting who the better singer was, and it was RJD according to the both of them. Sorry Ozzy fans, but this is carved in stone from the highest sources - the very singers themselves.5. A fantastic song-by-song analysis of every album during this period, everything from recording details to subject content to impressions. This is absolutely wonderful, something I consider to be absolutely wonderful "bonus content" that really stood out to me.6. Tony Martin: Oh HELL yeah, this guy is the most under-rated singer they ever had. Even RJD was jealous of him, couldn't help criticizing TM for "singing like me". And TM handled the interviews like a boss, being respectful to everyone, even when reflecting on getting ghosted by the band for Dehumanizer (which RJD's ego screwed up yet again).So much more, get and read the book.An EXCELLENT book with all of the dirt, and Martin Popoff does an excellent job of presenting all of the sides and leaving it all in while also attempting to make sense out of all the inconsistent accounts by the main players. If you read this book, then you will walk away from it knowing the history, perspectives, mindset, events, and complexities of Black Sabbath during this timeframe. Worth every penny.

It was good to read Martin’s opinions of Sabbaths second half…I’m a big fan of Born Again and The Mob Rules, so I do enjoy this era and I was listening to the Tony Martin albums as they came out. If you like the Dio/Gillian/Martin era this is the best book available.

Great read have several books from the author always gives a good detail of the band through the records

I really enjoy the post Ozzy era of the Sabbs, Martin takes you on metal journey of the craziness that Tony was doing to keep the machine moving, a lot of interesting interviews of past members. Awesome read!

I can strongly reckoment this book. Well written and great reading. This is fun

Enjoyable read, some great anecdotes. Album by Album from Heaven & Hell onwards... Ronnie Dio's voice and personality are well missed to this day.