Drum Legend CARMINE APPICE Talks Turning Down BLACK SABBATH Gig, Working With OZZY OSBOURNE - "He's Intelligent, And He Doesn't Get A Lot Of Credit For That"

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11:00 Wednesday, 5 April 2023

Drum Legend CARMINE APPICE Talks Turning Down BLACK SABBATH Gig, Working With OZZY OSBOURNE - "He's Intelligent, And He Doesn't Get A Lot Of Credit For That"

Drum legend Carmine Appice recently sat down with Andrew Daly for an Ultimate Guitar exclusive interview. Among other things, Appice reflected on the time when he was invited to join Black Sabbath, right after the original drummer Bill Ward left the group in 1980. At the time, Carmine didn't feel like joining the band so his brother Vinny took the gig instead. An excerpt from the interview is available below.

UG: You were instrumental in your brother landing the Sabbath gig, but were you ever considered for the role?

Carmine: "They wanted me for the gig, but at the time, I was playing with Rod (Stewart), and we were playing 20,000-seat gigs. So, my publicist who worked for Warner Brothers, which was the label Sabbath was on, said to me, 'Carmine, Sabbath is looking for a drummer. Would you consider it?' But at the time, Sabbath was not doing well, and they couldn't even sell out one night at the same places Rod was selling out six nights at. So, for me, Black Sabbath was a much smaller gig. And with Rod, I had a percentage of the take, so that was good for me, too.

So, at that point, I felt like Sabbath wasn't a good gig for me, and I told my publicist I wasn't interested. Now, from there, they listened to my brother's album he did with Rick Derringer, and they loved his sound. So, connections were made, and when Tony Iommi met with Vinny, he said he was listening to that album constantly. In the end, it was good that Vinny got the gig because that started his career. Even though he had played with Rick Derringer, for Vinny, that was an important gig, and it gave him a huge leg up."

UG: How did you end up with Ozzy later in the '80s?

Carmine: "They had Tommy Aldridge, but it wasn't working. His tempo was off, his fills were all wrong, and the drums sounded awful, at least, that's what I was told. So, they fired him, and I got the call. I was in France; doing some work, and my manager said, 'Carmine, Sharon Osbourne is on the phone; she wants to speak with you,' and I said, 'Uh oh. What did I do?' So, I got on the phone, and she says, 'We want you to join Ozzy's band. Tommy isn't working out, and we need a better drummer. Are you up for it?' I decided to give it a go, and she asked, 'Can you go into the studio and finish the album and maybe help the drum sound out?' I said, 'Well, I don't know… I'll see what I can do.'"

UG: You didn't play on the record, though, right?

Carmine: "No, I didn't. What happened was I went to England from France, and I met Bob Daisley and Jake E. Lee, and Don Airey, who I'd met and hung out with before. We went out to dinner, and Sharon was there, and she said, 'We're so happy to have you in the band. The plan is for you to come to New York, work on Tommy's drums, and help fix some of what he did.' So, I did that but didn't play on it. And I was in New York with Ozzy, who Sharon left in my care, and it was just me and him at the hotel. I'd go to the studio every day with Ozzy, and we'd work on finishing his vocals. It was interesting because Ozzy was really fucked up at the time, and sometimes we'd literally have to do one or two words at a time. And then, I helped with the drum sound by messing with things and giving them more of an ambient sound, which made it sound a lot better than it initially was. I helped mix it after that and ended up with an associate production credit. My deal was supposed to be every time they sold 500,000 albums I would get a bonus. But I never got the bonus for the first 500,000."