TONY IOMMI: OZZY Doesn't Get Enough Credit As A Singer

BLACK SABBATH guitarist Tony Iommi spoke to CNN.com about the group's eight-disc BLACK SABBATH box set, "Black Box: The Complete Original Black Sabbath (1970-1978)", out today via Warner Bros.' reissue unit, Rhino Records. Here are a couple of excerpts from that interview:

CNN: Did you have any idea how influential the band was going to be when you were making the eight albums collected on "Black Box"?

Tony Iommi: "Not a clue. No. We just ... we knew it was something new when we first started playing the songs -- they sounded different from anything anyone else was doing at that time. But we never had any idea where we were going with it. We sort of played [the songs] the way we did because we liked the way we sounded. We enjoyed it. ...

"When we first got together we were playing sort of bluesy jazzy stuff and it just seemed to evolve into this ... sound.

"It seemed to come together more after I left the band to join JETHRO TULL. I told the other [SABBATH] guys TULL were interested in me ... and they said 'Why don't you have a go?' and I thought, 'Oh, that's great, they're trying to get rid of me.' I went to London and it was an audition. I thought, 'Sod this ... I'm going home.' But they said 'Hang about.' ... and I got the job.

"I told the other guys and I felt really bad about it. After a few days of rehearsals, I didn't feel comfortable, and told [TULL's] Ian Anderson ... but they asked me to stay to do the ROLLING STONES movie 'Rock 'n' Roll Circus' and I did. So that's how that happened.

"After coming back from them, I'd learned the way [TULL] worked. It was like 'Right, we rehearse at 9 in the morning,' and we'd never heard of 9 in the morning."

CNN: Ozzy has become a mainstream celebrity, mainly because of the success of "The Osbournes." Do you think he doesn't get the credit he deserves as a singer because of ... his antics?

Tony Iommi: "Absolutely. He doesn't. And it's worse now because of the show. I don't know how he does it. He's had people living in his house for four years. It's funny though ... finally people are seeing what we have for 35 years. Now they know what we've been moaning about."

Read Tony Iommi's entire interview with CNN.com at this location.