WI: Black Sabbath split up in 1979?

What if, after the departure of Ozzy, Sabbath decide to call it a day? What would be the implications for it's members (and OTL future members)?

We'd be spared some of the lackluster post-Dio albums for a start :D

But what would happen to:


  • Dio
  • Iommi, Geezer & Ward
  • Anyone else who ended up joining the band?
  • How about Ozzy? (Obviously, he goes solo)
 

Caspian

Banned
We'd be spared some of the lackluster post-Dio albums for a start :D

Post-Dio Black Sabbath had ups and downs, but The Eternal Idol, Headless Cross, Tyr, and Cross Purposes were perfectly good albums that just happened to be played in a different style and under the perception that Black Sabbath was falling apart.

Of course, losing the three Dio albums would be a killer blow to heavy metal fans - all three are superb.
 
Given his relationship with Deep Purple, I see Iommi joining Ian Paice in Whitesnake in 1979; Coverdale is happy for a pretext to give Micky Moody the boot anyway. In a band with David Coverdale and David Coverdale's ego, I imagine that Paice and Iommi only last for one album -- TTL's equivalent of Ready an' Willing -- but that album would be really good. :D

OTL, Whitesnake opened for Jethro Tull in 1980; if so, Iommi might patch things up with Ian Anderson, who probably seems sane, reserved, and modest compared to Coverdale (!). Coincidentally, Tull needs a drummer in 1981 after long-time drummer Barrie Barlow leaves the band; IOTL, that started a revolving door that included a short-lived gig with Phil Collins (!!).

A hard-edged Jethro Tull album in 1982 -- replacing OTL's The Broadsword and the Beast, which is no loss as far as I'm concerned -- might even revitalize Tull and spare us two decades of mostly-unlistenable Ian Anderson vanity pieces.

Okay, so now Whitesnake finds themselves in need of a lead guitarist and picks up Vivian Campbell 2 1/2 years earlier than OTL, poaching him away from Dio. Of course, Campbell probably lasts no longer than anyone else does in Whitesnake, so in a weird convergence we still get John Sykes for the 1987 Whitesnake album that turned them into mega-stars.

Ronnie James Dio -- having lost out on Jake E. Lee to Ozzy and Vivian Campbell to Whitesnake -- decides to beat the bushes in the minor leagues before coming away with Dio's new lead guitarist: Yngwie Malmsteen (again, a few years earlier than their collaboration OTL).
 
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Ronnie James Dio -- having lost out on Jake E. Lee to Ozzy and Vivian Campbell to Whitesnake -- decides to beat the bushes in the minor leagues before coming away with Dio's new lead guitarist: Yngwie Malmsteen (again, a few years earlier than their collaboration OTL).

Now, wouldn't it be funny if Dio somehow unearths a young Zakk Wylde at the tail end of the decade? ;)
 
Does he have to? How about John Petrucci or Michael Romeo instead, a more natural fit after Malmsteen.

He doesn't have to... but the irony ;)

But.. what if Sabbath end up reforming with the original members? They did for Live Aid (albeit for the one show). Maybe they record something caught somewhere between Born Again and No Rest For The Wicked?
 
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