Rudy Sarzo is one of a select few musicians to have played with Black Sabbath’s two most famous singers: Ozzy Osbourne and Ronnie James Dio. The bassist says only one of the two showed a “different level of musical integrity and kindness and originality”.
The Ozzy gig, which he scored in 1981 on the recommendation of his former Quiet Riot bandmate Randy Rhoads, was a life-changing opportunity for the Cuban bass player. Conversely, his time with Dio came over two decades later, in 2004, after he'd added stints with Whitesnake, Queensrÿche and Michael Angelo Batio to his resume.
The differences between those two points in his career were night and day, he says, as were the experiences they delivered.
“By the time that I started playing with Ronnie in 2004, I had been touring with bands for about 23 years,” he tells Matt Pinfield on 955KLOS.
“I thought, ‘I've experienced everything,’ but no,” he adds. Dio raised the bar significantly.
“It was a whole different level of musical integrity, kindness and originality. Ronnie always sounded like Ronnie. I was playing with an American original in the band.”
Sarzo’s Ozzy days lasted around 18 months; he was ultimately replaced by Pete Way. His legacy can be heard on two live albums: 1982's Speak of the Devil and Tribute, which arrived five years later.
He faired better in Dio’s outfit, seeing out the final six years of the singer’s touring career, which came to an end in 2009 amid his battle with stomach cancer.
“The last time I played with him was November 16, 2009, and the next day he had to go to emergency, and then they suggested they should see an oncologist,” he relays. “But we were rehearsing for a couple of weeks because we were about to go to England and Scandinavia to do the yearly Dio tour for the fans. A Christmas tour. And I gotta tell you, he sang so wonderful.
"At that time he was playing with Heaven and Hell, so the band Dio stopped doing Black Sabbath songs. We went deeper into the Rainbow catalog. We were rehearsing songs that he hadn't sung since he left Rainbow.”
Tragically, the tour never materialized as Dio succumbed to cancer in 2010.
Ozzy, meanwhile, is set to come out of retirement for one last Black Sabbath show in their hometown of Birmingham, with Sarzo also set to appear. They’ll be joined by an all-star cast including Metallica, Wolfgang Van Halen, Billy Corgan, and Ozzy’s former guitarist, Jake E. Lee.
Sarzo has previously spoken about what it was like to play with Rhoads, hailing his rhythm playing and tonal quirks as the two main reasons he stood out from his peers.
“He was the whole package; I learned a lot from that.” Eric Johnson on the one thing that took Stevie Ray Vaughan’s playing to the next level
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