Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne’s “Back To The Beginning” concert is set for Saturday in England, and the star-studded lineup features several rock and metal heavyweights as part of the celebration. A few musicians with previous history playing with Ozzy or Sabbath will also take part in the show including ex-Ozzy guitarist Jake E. Lee.
A former Sabbath drummer, however, says he wasn’t invited to the finale. Vinny Appice, who is most known for his time with the Dio-fronted version of the band, told Detroit’s WRIF station: “They didn’t contact me because times have changed and I’m associated with Dio Black Sabbath. Even though I did play — at one point I did the European tour with Ozzy and Black Sabbath, which I thought was cool. I’m sitting there on the drum set facing the audience, and then I see Ozzy in front of me, and then Tony and Geezer, I go, ‘This is pretty damn cool. I’m with the original band now.’ It was cool with Ronnie, of course, but now this was, like, ‘Wow.’ I’m the only other drummer that played with them at that point. So that was very cool for me. So I’m associated more with Dio, so I’m not involved in this whole thing there. So that’s okay.”
Appice also talked about what it was like touring with Ozzy. “He’s pretty crazy,” Appice said. “But you know what? He’s fun — he’s a lot of fun. And we sat and talked many times and all this stuff, and he was great. He was a cool guy. And what you see on TV, that’s him. He’ll tell you the story a couple of times. He forgot he told you. You just sit and listen. ‘Ozzy, you told me that already.’ I can’t tell him that. Ozzy was great.”
Appice continued: “When we started playing, Ozzy thought it was really funny to come, during the set, with a bucket of water and throw it on me. So I’m, like, ‘Oh, crap, man.’ Now I’m all kind of wet and the drums are all wet and not working very well. So he did that twice. The road crew had to come up and wipe everything. But he’s laughing. So then the next morning, Sharon Osbourne says, ‘Vinny, how’s it going?’ I said, ‘It’s great. This is fantastic. But he keeps throwing water on me.’ And she said, ‘He did?’ And that was the end of the water. It shows you who wears the pants in the family.”
“I think it was, like, ’99. I went and played the European tour with them, and then after that there was a break for Christmas, and then they toured in America. But Bill Ward came back. ‘Because he had a medical issue at that point. So, Bill came back and Sharon wanted me to be on the tour in case Bill keeled over, let’s put it that way. So, I did a whole tour and didn’t play. It was the weirdest thing. And in case Bill had a problem, I would jump up and play, continue the show. And I was the backup plan B. So that was quite funny.”
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