In a recent chat with “Another FN Podcast With Izzy Presley”, drummer Vinny Appice mentioned that Ronnie James Dio ”hated” singing Ozzy era Black Sabbath songs.
Asked if he “caught hell” from Sabbath fans for being “the new guy” after replacing original Sabbath drummer Bill Ward in 1980, Vinny said:
“Not really, because you’re the drummer — you’re sitting in the back… Ronnie [James Dio, then-Sabbath singer] had to put up with people in the front, like ‘Where’s Ozzy [Osbourne]?’ signs and all this ‘Where’s Ozzy?’ stuff, and he had to do that.
”And he hated singing those songs — he hated singing ‘Iron Man’ and ‘Sweet Leaf’ and the Ozzy songs. That’s why eventually [Sabbath reformed as] Heaven & Hell years later, so we didn’t play the old [Ozzy-era] stuff anymore.”