{"id":17132,"date":"2017-06-19T01:00:26","date_gmt":"2017-06-19T05:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southeastofheaven.com\/?p=17132"},"modified":"2017-06-09T11:08:46","modified_gmt":"2017-06-09T15:08:46","slug":"an-open-letter-to-tony-iommi-and-geezer-butler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/?p=17132","title":{"rendered":"An Open Letter to Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Dear Tony and Geezer,<\/p>\n<p>I hope this finds you both doing well.\u00a0 First off, Tony, I am so happy that you beat your battle with cancer.\u00a0 It just wasn\u2019t your time yet and there is obviously much more for you to give to us before your time is done.\u00a0 Hopefully you will continue to riff for many more years to come but please, I beg of you, do it without Ozzy.<\/p>\n<p>Back in 2006, you guys decided to reunite with Ronnie James Dio and Vinny Appice and you know what?\u00a0 You guys did it right.\u00a0 Instead of cashing in on the Black Sabbath moniker, you chose to name the band Heaven and Hell and played only Dio era material.\u00a0 My friends, this was brilliant.\u00a0 It was ballsy, it was bold, and it was risky but the risk paid off and you blew fans away and even picked up new ones along the way.\u00a0 Heaven and Hell was proof of just how strong this era of the band was and that you didn\u2019t have to fall back on the Ozzy era stuff to move tickets.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately I never got the opportunity to see Heaven and Hell live.\u00a0 The closest you guys came to the Southeast was NYC I believe when you filmed the live DVD at Radio City Music Hall.\u00a0 Had I known that this would be my last chance to see you guys live, I would\u2019ve made an effort to get there but sadly, I learned the hard way that you don\u2019t live forever.\u00a0 When our beloved Ronnie James Dio was diagnosed with cancer, like the true metal warrior he was, he fought on and continued to do shows until he just couldn\u2019t do them anymore and then left us forever in 2010.<\/p>\n<p>In July of that same year, Heaven and Hell was booked to perform at the High Voltage Festival in London.\u00a0 Instead of backing out of the festival, the band chose to seize the opportunity to pay homage to their fallen brother.\u00a0 They did so by recruiting the vocals of former Sabbath\/Iommi collaborator Glenn Hughes and a Norwegian vocalist by the name of Jorn Lande.\u00a0 This was the first time I had even heard of this Jorn guy but when I saw the shitty yet amazing YouTube footage of his performance, my thought was, \u201cThis is the guy.\u00a0 They need this dude to move forward and to continue the legacy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe width=\"750\" height=\"422\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9GvGoYN-oCE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Well, you didn\u2019t move forward and instead you took 10 steps back by running back to Ozzy, kicking your brother\/drummer Bill Ward to the curb all for a mighty paycheck.\u00a0 I really expected more from you guys.\u00a0 Why would you do this?\u00a0 The footage speaks for itself.\u00a0 You guys sounded like you were going through the motions while Ozzy stood up on that stage barely able to even sing the songs after down tuning what sounded like 10 steps.\u00a0 It was sad for me to see and it clearly came across as uninspired and forced.\u00a0 Even your \u201ccomeback\u201d album 13 completely missed the mark.<\/p>\n<p>Tony, you had such an opportunity to maintain the integrity that you had earned when putting together Heaven and Hell.\u00a0 Jorn Lande would have been the perfect guy to move forward with.\u00a0 Hell, if anything, you could have put together a whole new project with Jorn and done something truly spectacular.\u00a0 Maybe you could have given Tony Martin a call and finally done that album that has been long speculated?\u00a0 There are so many things that you could have done to make some truly great music as opposed to just standing behind Ozzy and Sharron as the legacy of Black Sabbath was raked over the coals.<\/p>\n<p>And to you, Geezer Butler, how could you just stand there so stoically and allow this to happen?\u00a0 I guess at the end of the day, it\u2019s a reality that money talks and does so louder than integrity.\u00a0 It really bums me out to think of the great things you guys could have done together in taking your talents forward and bringing some new life into heavy metal music.\u00a0 I will forever be a fan but to support this faux Black Sabbath is just something I will never do.\u00a0 Tony, Geezer, you guys still have time.\u00a0 Do the right thing and do something remarkable.\u00a0 Do something spectacular.\u00a0 Do something without Ozzy and Sharron.\u00a0 Do it before it\u2019s too late.<\/p>\n<p>Best to you both,<\/p>\n<p>Don<br \/>\nThe Great Southern Brainfart<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dear Tony and Geezer, I hope this finds you both doing well.\u00a0 First off, Tony, I am so happy that you beat your battle with cancer.\u00a0 It just wasn\u2019t your time yet and there is obviously much more for you to give to us before your time is done.\u00a0 Hopefully you will continue to riff for many more years to come but please, I beg of you, do it without Ozzy. Back in 2006, you guys decided to reunite with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[276],"tags":[51,566,179,862,304,359,667],"class_list":["post-17132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-editorial","tag-black-sabbath","tag-geezer-butler","tag-heaven-and-hell","tag-jorn-lande","tag-ozzy-osbourne","tag-ronnie-james-dio","tag-tony-iommi"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t<!-- All in One SEO 5.0.0.1 - aioseo.com -->\n\t<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Dear Tony and Geezer, I hope this finds you both doing well. First off, Tony, I am so happy that you beat your battle with cancer. It just wasn\u2019t your time yet and there is obviously much more for you to give to us before your time is done. Hopefully you will continue to riff\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"max-image-preview:large\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Don\"\/>\n\t<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/?p=17132\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"generator\" content=\"All in One SEO (AIOSEO) 5.0.0.1\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Southeast of Heaven -\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"An Open Letter to Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler - Southeast of Heaven\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Dear Tony and Geezer, I hope this finds you both doing well. First off, Tony, I am so happy that you beat your battle with cancer. 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Hopefully you will continue to riff\" \/>\n\t\t<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"aioseo-schema\">\n\t\t\t{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"BlogPosting\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.southeastofheaven.com\\\/?p=17132#blogposting\",\"name\":\"An Open Letter to Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler - Southeast of Heaven\",\"headline\":\"An Open Letter to Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.southeastofheaven.com\\\/?author=14#author\"},\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.southeastofheaven.com\\\/#organization\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-06-19T01:00:26-04:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-06-09T11:08:46-04:00\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.southeastofheaven.com\\\/?p=17132#webpage\"},\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.southeastofheaven.com\\\/?p=17132#webpage\"},\"articleSection\":\"Music Editorial, Black Sabbath, Geezer Butler, Heaven and Hell, Jorn Lande, Ozzy Osbourne, Ronnie James Dio, Tony Iommi\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.southeastofheaven.com\\\/?p=17132#breadcrumblist\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.southeastofheaven.com#listItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.southeastofheaven.com\",\"nextItem\":{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.southeastofheaven.com\\\/?cat=276#listItem\",\"name\":\"Music Editorial\"}},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.southeastofheaven.com\\\/?cat=276#listItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Music Editorial\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.southeastofheaven.com\\\/?cat=276\",\"nextItem\":{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.southeastofheaven.com\\\/?p=17132#listItem\",\"name\":\"An Open Letter to Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler\"},\"previousItem\":{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.southeastofheaven.com#listItem\",\"name\":\"Home\"}},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.southeastofheaven.com\\\/?p=17132#listItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"An Open Letter to Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler\",\"previousItem\":{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.southeastofheaven.com\\\/?cat=276#listItem\",\"name\":\"Music Editorial\"}}]},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.southeastofheaven.com\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Southeast of Heaven\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.southeastofheaven.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.southeastofheaven.com\\\/?author=14#author\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.southeastofheaven.com\\\/?author=14\",\"name\":\"Don\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.southeastofheaven.com\\\/?p=17132#authorImage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/b5fe590518e20715f094ada95d5faf01bb8031f8d5bbe635e81158eb6d187e78?s=96&d=wavatar&r=r\",\"width\":96,\"height\":96,\"caption\":\"Don\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.southeastofheaven.com\\\/?p=17132#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.southeastofheaven.com\\\/?p=17132\",\"name\":\"An Open Letter to Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler - Southeast of Heaven\",\"description\":\"Dear Tony and Geezer, I hope this finds you both doing well. 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Hopefully you will continue to riff"},"aioseo_meta_data":{"post_id":"17132","title":null,"description":null,"keywords":null,"keyphrases":null,"primary_term":null,"canonical_url":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"og_object_type":"default","og_image_type":"default","og_image_url":null,"og_image_width":null,"og_image_height":null,"og_image_custom_url":null,"og_image_custom_fields":null,"og_video":null,"og_custom_url":null,"og_article_section":null,"og_article_tags":null,"twitter_use_og":false,"twitter_card":"default","twitter_image_type":"default","twitter_image_url":null,"twitter_image_custom_url":null,"twitter_image_custom_fields":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"schema":{"blockGraphs":[],"customGraphs":[],"default":{"data":{"Article":[],"Course":[],"Dataset":[],"FAQPage":[],"Movie":[],"Person":[],"Product":[],"ProductReview":[],"Car":[],"Recipe":[],"Service":[],"SoftwareApplication":[],"WebPage":[]},"graphName":"","isEnabled":true},"graphs":[]},"schema_type":"default","schema_type_options":null,"pillar_content":false,"robots_default":true,"robots_noindex":false,"robots_noarchive":false,"robots_nosnippet":false,"robots_nofollow":false,"robots_noimageindex":false,"robots_noodp":false,"robots_notranslate":false,"robots_max_snippet":null,"robots_max_videopreview":null,"robots_max_imagepreview":"large","priority":null,"frequency":null,"local_seo":null,"breadcrumb_settings":null,"limit_modified_date":false,"ai":null,"created":"2024-04-23 16:27:25","updated":"2025-09-23 20:01:44","seo_analyzer_scan_date":null,"focus_keyword":null,"additional_keywords":null,"truseo_locale":null},"aioseo_breadcrumb":"<div class=\"aioseo-breadcrumbs\"><span class=\"aioseo-breadcrumb\">\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\" title=\"Home\">Home<\/a>\n\t\t<\/span><span class=\"aioseo-breadcrumb-separator\">&raquo;<\/span><span class=\"aioseo-breadcrumb\">\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/?cat=276\" title=\"Music Editorial\">Music Editorial<\/a>\n\t\t<\/span><span class=\"aioseo-breadcrumb-separator\">&raquo;<\/span><span class=\"aioseo-breadcrumb\">\n\t\t\tAn Open Letter to Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler\n\t\t<\/span><\/div>","aioseo_breadcrumb_json":[{"label":"Home","link":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com"},{"label":"Music Editorial","link":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/?cat=276"},{"label":"An Open Letter to Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler","link":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/?p=17132"}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17132\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}