“Black Sabbath” is a 2002 revision of the 1996 book “Wheels of Confusion” by Steven Rosen. The main difference is the second-to-last chapter, which details the latest solo projects of original four members, plus the latest of the reunion.

This book does the band little justice.

First of all, Rosen is shamelessly pro-Ozzy and the original lineup, so he automatically discredits all other incarnations of the band, culminating with a phony interview with Ronnie James Dio that makes the singer come across as an insensitive jerk. He also tosses out dumb lines like “Black Sabbath with Dio sounds like Rainbow, which sounds like Elf” – I doubt Rosen has ever made the effort to even find the old Elf albums to back up such a statement!

Secondly, a great deal of the book comes from a lengthy interview with percussionist Bill Ward. At least half the quotes must have come from him. While I cannot comment on Bill’s character, he was in and out of the band a zillion times and even admits he can hardly remember large portions of the late 1970’s and early 80’s. Not particularly the best person to talk to to get the real scoop of the many lives of Black Sabbath.

My third gripe is the number of times the phrase “like Led Zeppelin” is tossed around. Who cares? This leads right into my final annoyance with the book, which is the poor editing and fact-checking. First off, Led Zeppelin is NOT from Birmingham. Also, Rosen experiences grave confusion between the 1980’s and the 1990’s in his new chapter detailing the events that lead to the “Reunion” album. Finally, Glenn Hughes was never in the band Zephyr. Clearly Rosen meant “Trapeze” even though he wrongly lists “Medusa” as their first album. For the record, Zephyr was the original band of another Deep Purple alum, Mr. Tommy Bolin.

The bottom line is that there has to be a better book on Black Sabbath out there…

I was not impressed with this book at all. The book jumps around WAY too much and going on just the original band members interviews for his information, rather than doing other research and interviewing other people that were in the band and close to the band, the book comes off as more of a homage to Ozzy Osbourne and the original Black Sabbath lineup. The book spends WAY too long talking about the orginial lineup (which is about 3/4 of the book) and downplaying (and trashing) the history of the band after Osbourne had left. The is none more evident in the chapter entitled “Changing Horses in the Middle Of a Dream” where Rosen tries to explain the split with Ozzy (which he doesn’t explain really at all) and the hiring of Ronnie James Dio, which he rips apart and blasts at every given chance. The constant Dio bashing too, which starts from sentence one after the mention of his name, got old very quickly and Rosen’s constant references to how Black Sabbath sounded like with him (like Dio’s previous bands Elf and Rainbow) is just plain insulting to those who are also fans of the post-Ozzy Black Sabbath eras. I had to go back to the cover of the book a few times while reading that chapter to see if the book had, in fact, been written by Sharon Osbourne, since the venom in his words sounds a lot like something that she would say.

Rosen offers WAY too many opinions and not enough facts. His ommitting almost the entire post-Geezer Butler/Bill Ward eras almost misleads the reader to thinking that there was no Black Sabbath past the Ozzy and Dio eras, which I have found actually more interesting to read about than the days with Ozzy. The time that Ian Gillan was in the band was barely skirted over and some other important people involved with the band (post-Ozzy) were hardly mentioned at all. Also, almost relying completely on Bill Ward for information during the the period when Ozzy left the band and when Dio joined was not the best thing to do, since Ward spent most of that time in a substance-abused fog and his memory is not the best about that period (he even admits not remembering recording 99% of “Heaven And Hell”).

With the foreward also written by Ozzy Osbourne, it also leads me to believe that the Osbourne camp had some say in the content of the book, or that Rosen is simply just a over-sensitive Ozzy Osbourne fan and needs to defend him at every given chance. This book comes off like a fans’ guide to the band and not an actual biography. Rosen comes off as being the biggest Ozzy-led Black Sabbath fan on the face of the planet and just too biased to them. Not worth the money, if you are planning on buying it, but worth a look, if you by, some chance, find it in a local libary somewhere. Skip it, if you plan on buying it, though.

BTW… there are MANY better books on Black Sabbath than this!!!! This narrow-minded homage is almost insulting.

This book about Black Sabbath is extremely interesting. It tells about how the band evolved and became who they are now. It shows the ups and the downs of the musical scene in the seventy’s and eighty’s. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in Ozzy Osbourne. If you like rock and roll and everything that comes with it, you will love this book.