It’s never been any secret that heavy metal rockers Black Sabbath were of a debaucherous ilk, but now, we have a much clearer picture as to the extent of their partying. According to a recent report by Dangerous Minds, the Birmingham, England quartet had a budget for cocaine and other drugs in the ballpark of $75,000. Mind you, their budget for recording an album was $60,000. They would have the drugs flown in and at some point had no idea where it was all coming from.
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According to singer Ozzy Osbourne in his 2010 autobiography, I Am Ozzy, “Eventually we started to wonder where the fuck all the coke was coming from…I’m telling you: that coke was the whitest, purest, strongest stuff you could ever imagine. One sniff, and you were king of the universe.” The band went so far as to even consider naming their new album Snowblind but relented after receiving pressure from the label.
Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler tells another story of a bad trip when someone dropped acid into his drink after having already been high on coke. He says he contemplated jumping out of window and killing himself but was restrained by bandmates Tony Iommi and Bill Ward. Needless to say, Geezer gave up the drugs not too long after this incident. Ozzy, not so much. Butler explains:
“You can’t write or play songs if you’re out of your brains,” says Butler. “But because [Osbourne] didn’t have to play an instrument, while we were writing he’d be in the bar getting legless or doing all kinds of things.” The latter included relentless pleasure‑seeking, leading to blackouts.
“I didn’t believe it when they said I had blackouts,” says the singer. “I’d look at my watch and it would say four o’clock. Then I’d look again and it would say 9.30. I’d totally forget where I’d been or what I’d done. But then you don’t think about that before you start drinking. You don’t think: ‘I wonder what jail I’ll wake up in tomorrow?’ Because that’s not your intention.”
[Via Dangerous Minds]