Black Sabbath - Vol. 4 [11]

Title: Black Sabbath - Vol. 4
Year/Genre/Sub-Genre/City: 1972, Heavy Metal, Hard Rock, Birmingham, England 10/26
Matrix #: BS 2602 (Warner Bros. green label)
Condition: VG+ (LM) | Members: Black Sabbath (N/A) | Producer: Black Sabbath & Patrick Meehan
Cultural Facts: [11]

1. Ozzy Pressed the Panic Button: Sabbath wrote Vol. 4 while living in John du Pont's rented mansion on Stradella Road in Bel Air. One night Ozzy kept pressing a button by the window, thinking it was the air conditioning, while a bowl of cocaine sat on the table. It was the silent alarm, police cars filled the driveway, and the band flushed their stash before the maid told the officers it was a false alarm. Ozzy turned the night into "It's a Raid" on his 2020 album Ordinary Man.
2. Tony Iommi Had Never Played Piano: The mansion's ballroom had a grand piano, and Iommi taught himself on it right there. The first thing he came up with was "Changes," with Geezer Butler writing the lyrics about Bill Ward's breakup with his wife and a Mellotron standing in for strings. In 2003 Ozzy re-recorded it with his daughter Kelly, and it went to No. 1 in the UK, only the second father-daughter duet to top that chart after Frank and Nancy Sinatra.
3. They Painted the Drummer Gold: During the same stay, Iommi and the band found spray paint and lacquer in the garage and coated a very drunk Bill Ward in gold. Ward became violently ill, and Iommi had to call 911 and explain that his drummer was sick because they had painted him gold. The paramedics told them they could have killed him, and the clean-up with paint stripper left Ward red as a beet.