Black Sabbath/Trivia

• Executive Meddling: Paranoid was originally supposed to be called War Pigs, but the record company was afraid of protests by supporters of the Vietnam war (which the UK wasn't involved in, by the way) and had the title changed. The original cover, a distorted picture of a man with a sword and shield jumping from behind a tree, was kept however. In his autobiography, Ozzy describes his annoyance at this:

"The only problem was the album cover, which had been done before the name change and now didn't make any sense at all. What did four pink blokes holding shields and waving swords have to do with paranoia? They were pink because that was supposed to be the colour of the war pigs. But without "War Pigs" written on the front, they just looked like gay fencers".
"They're not gay fencers, Ozzy," Bill told me. "They're paranoid gay fencers."

• • Executives changed the title of Snowblind to Vol. 4 at the last minute.
  • Iommi says their manager Patrick Meehan "grew an ego" and slapped on a "Produced by Patrick Meehan" for Vol. 4 and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath despite the fact that they were self-produced.
  • The Seventh Star was supposed to be Tony Iommi's first solo album, but the record company pressed him into putting the Black Sabbath name on it.
  • Likewise, the Born Again album with Ian Gillan was not intended to have been a Black Sabbath album.
  • The We Sold Our Souls for Rock 'n' Roll compilation and the muddy, inaudible Live at Last album were released without the band's consent.
  • Basically everything they ever did, resulting in Black Sabbath's reputation as "the most ripped-off band in the world".
• Hey, It's That Voice!: Ice T appears on "Illusion of Power".
• Hipgnosis did the cover art for Technical Ecstacy and Never Say Die!
• What Could Have Been: "Warning" was originally recorded with an incredibly long Tony Iommi solo rumoured to last over 30 minutes, which producer Rodger Bain cut out most of in order to actually fit the song on the album.