During an interview with Loudwire, Deep Purple vocalist Ian Gillan remembered the time when he was a member of Black Sabbath, and how difficult for him was to memorize the band’s lyrics. He offered:
“I’m sorry, but ‘Iron Man’ just wouldn’t sink in. I couldn’t grasp it. My head was not tuned to this… It wasn’t about notes or the style, the actual words… It was like… *mumbles like a madman into his own hands, clearly stressed*
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“It was a bit unprofessional of me, but I had myself covered by this book, and I was able to turn plastic sheets with the lyrics in. Or the prompts, they were prompts basically.”
“I remember the day in Birmingham when the Light Sound Productions guys said ‘Anyone got an idea for a stage set?’ And Geezer Butler said *imitates Geezer’s voice* ‘The Stonehenge.’ And they said ‘Great idea, how do you visualize it?’ And he said *imitates Geezer again* ‘Well life-size, of course.’ [laughs] So they made it but it was 2/3rds scale, but it was still big enough. Made out of carbon fiber or fiberglass.
“So we had this dwarf dressed up as the Devil’s baby, crawling across the top to the sound of flanged screaming. There had been a rehearsal prior to that, and at that point what was supposed to happen was the dwarf falls off behind the drums on to the mattress. And the roadies come dressed as druids, which is very effective apart from the Reeboks you could see under their robes…
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“And the dry ice, which they also didn’t do at the rehearsal, came flooding the stage. And this is my downfall. Because, first of all, dwarf fell off the stage, the druids came out, but the screaming hadn’t stopped and had taken on a lifelike texture. Because somebody had removed the mattress… Somebody in the band…
“And I went to the front of the stage, trying to keep a straight face, and I was overwhelmed by this six-foot cloud of dry ice. And I couldn’t remember the first line of whatever the hell it was. I’m on my knees and then the floor lights came on and blinded me and I couldn’t even see the book. So I’m popping up and down with a couple of words here and there. It was just one of those magic moments.”