Former Black Sabbath vocalist Tony Martin has been very active on his Facebook page lately regarding his time in Black Sabbath. I have always been a HUGE Martin fan with a lot of questions regarding things that went down in his tenure in the Black Sabbath. Tony was speaking about the 1989 Headless Cross tour and how oddly dates canceled while the tour was rolling and had a few thoughts on the matter. Here’s what Martin had to say via his Facebook page.
“Came across the proposal that was sent to us for the 1989 Black Sabbath summer tour. A few of these never happened.. !!! The reason this is “interesting” … Is because of the shows that were canceled. A few of you have already noted that, and some of you even hit on the reason. …. Ozzy was hitting the same towns as us, either in or nearby. We met some of the band along the way, They were as surprised as us, they were even staying in the same hotel at the time. It had become a conversation of “concern” at the time and Iommi was slightly nerved by it. To the point that the management was starting to consider canceling the tour. Because Ozzy’s tour was splitting the fans and attendances were of concern.
I have NO IDEA how you go about canceling a tour partway through but there must have been some deals and frantic discussions to be able to do it. I was made aware at the time that it was going to be pulled and subsequently when it was going to happen. And the REASON I was given, at the time was, because Ozzy’s tour was interfering with what we were trying to do. Now then … in the big world of big tours, things are planned WAY in advance…. you don’t just turn up with 5 trucks 2 tour busses and hotels in every town.!!!! So either Sabbaths management COMPLETELY missed the advance notice that Ozzy was going to be out at the same time, OR as the speculation of the day would allege, the Ozzy tour was intentionally assembled to disrupt the Sabbath tour.
The chatter in the ranks at the time was clearly in favour of the latter. But it was never proved and I never heard anything more about it. …. But every now and then the question is posed… “What DID happen to those canceled shows?”
BLACK SABBATH 19/5/89
Proposed USA tour – summer 1989
City Venue
May 27 Poughkeepsie, NY Rehearsals Mid Hudson center
28 ” ” ”
29 ” ” ”
30 ” ” ”
31 Poughkeepsie, NY Show Mid Hudson center
June 1 OFF
2 Portland, ME Expo Building
3 Boston MA Orpheum
4 Washington DC Merriweather
5 OFF
6 Norfolk VA
7 OFF
8 Springfield, MA Civic center
9 Philadelphia, PA Tower Theater
10 New York Palladium
11 OFF
12 Toronto, ONT Varsity Arena
13 Detroit, MI Pine Knob
14 Cleveland, OH Nautica stage
15 Cincinnatti, OH River bend music
16 OFF
17 Chicago, IL Aragon Ballroom
18 OFF
19 Milwaukee, WI Riverside Theater
20 Minneapolis, MN State Theater
21 OFF
22 Kansas City, MO Memorial Hall
23 Lampe, MO Swiss Villa Amph
24 St Louis, MO Fox theater
25 Huntsville, AL Von Braun Center
26 OFF
27 Atlanta, GA Fox theater
28 Daytona Beach, FL Ocean Center
29 Fort Lauderdale, FL Sunrise Theater
30 Tampa, FL Performing arts center
July 1 OFF
2 Biloxi, MI Coast Coliseum
3 Houston, TX Sam Houston Col
4 McAllen, TX Villa real
5 OFF
6 Corpus Christie, TX Coliseum
7 San Antonio, TX Sunken Gardens
8 Dallas, TX Bronco Bowl
9 OFF
10 OFF
11 Pheonix, AR
12 OFF
13 San Diego, CA California Theater
14 Los Angeles, CA Hollywood Palladium
15 Oakland, CA Kaiser Auditorium
16 Sacremento, CA Cal Expo Amphith
17 Reno, NV
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