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By Grouch Rating 4 Scowls Heaven and Hell
By Grouch Rating 4 Scowls Heaven and Hell
Heaven and Hell
Wednesday, 08 April 2009 14:47 | 
Author: The Grouch | 
A long time ago I was 17 years old. A buddy of mine and I went to see Black Sabbath at the Pine Knob Music Theater in Clarkston Michigan.
This lineup was not the original four members of Sabbath. OZZY OSBOURNE was off riding that Crazy Train with Randy Rhodes and Bill Ward was replaced by Vinny Appice brother of Carmine Appice of Vanilla Fudge, Rod Stewart,Beck Bogart and Appice and later Ted Nugent fame, but I digress.
We were huge Sabbath fans even if Ozzy wasn't there, Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler could still rock the house down.
Besides we knew Dio from his stint with
Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow; the man can sing.
So to make a long story longer we went to Pine Knob that night in 83 primed so to speak. One of the songs Sabbath played that night was the title track from the album Heaven and Hell. The interesting thing is that at the beginning of the song Dio recited a little poem about big black shapes and small white shapes and going to hell. ( I did mention that we were feeling festive in a highly suggestible state that evening didn't I?)
Well I of course thought that out of the thousands of people there Dio was talking and pointing at me. So I did the thing that made the most sense at the time: I ran across three hills (the cheap seats behind the pavilion) in an attempt to get away...no such luck Dio seemed to be following me with his finger...
Eventually I made it back to my friend and waited for the show to end. On the way home, I heard a strange "waaaa waaaaaa" sound and thought it was simply something in the music to amuse people in the right state of mind...we flew over some train tracks and to my horror I realized that sound wasn't an interesting effect it was a freight train trying to warn us that it was coming through. We had missed the train by seconds. I pulled over and sat there for a while pretty freaked out, then we got hungry and went to White Castle.
So why am I bringing this up now, all these years later? On Friday I turned on the radio in my car as I was driving home. What do you know, Ronnie James Dio was the guest in the studio on the News/Talk station in Chicago. The version of Black Sabbath he was in all those years ago had a show Saturday in Chicago.
I couldn't believe it. I could ask the man himself if he saw me. Of course he did, it was so clear in my mind, he must have been messing with me that night at the show at Pine Knob.
I called the station and blabbered to the call screener that I had to talk to Dio - it was really important and I'd been waiting 24 years for this. The screener said OK you're next. I couldn't believe it. I was on the air with a rock legend. I went through the entire story to which Dio simply said " Man, I have no memory of that. I barely even remember Detroit. Hey man, I'm glad you didn't hit the train though - rock on"
I was bummed, he didn't remember me.
4 out of 5 scowls on the Grouch scale.
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Last Updated (Wednesday, 08 April 2009 14:53)