In an appearance on the Scars and Guitars podcast, Glenn Hughes reflected on the making of Black Sabbath’s ‘Seventh Star’ album. When asked about his experience working with Tony Iommi, Hughes revealed that the project was never intended to be a Black Sabbath record, but it became one due to pressure from the label.
“Tony and I’ve been friends since 1970, and it was gonna happen at some point where we did some playing together,” he explained. “So for me coming in there, it was called the ‘Tony Iommi solo album.’”
“But his manager, Don Arden, Sharon’s father, insisted we call it Black Sabbath, which Tony wasn’t happy about,” the rocker added. “And I’m not really writing that kind of lyric, you know. I enjoyed making the album, regardless of what it was called.”
In a separate interview, the bassist recalled the making of the album and how the collaboration came about. “Tony was going to make a solo album in 1985. Myself, my dear friend Ronnie James Dio and Rob Halford were all gonna sing a couple of songs each. I was the first guy to go down to Cherokee Studios in Hollywood to do a couple of songs with Tony. And I wrote and sang a couple of songs in the first night. And he asked me to come back the next day, and it kept going and going and going, and I ended up being the only singer on that solo album.”
“On the last song, Don Arden — Sharon’s [Osbourne] father — who was managing Tony at the time, suggested, with Warner Brothers, that we should call it ‘Black Sabbath featuring Tony Iommi.’ So it wasn’t a Tony Iommi album anymore; it was a Black Sabbath album called ‘Seventh Star.’ It was a time for me where I was changing lifestyles, if you will. So it was a difficult time for me,” the rocker added.
Hughes confirmed in a 1995 interview that he got into a fight with Black Sabbath’s production manager John Downing just four days before the ‘Seventh Star’ tour began. The injuries he got affected his ability to perform live, so vocalist Ray Gillen was brought in to finish the tour.
Originally released in 1986, ‘Seventh Star’ featured Iommi working with Dave ‘The Beast’ Spitz and drummer Eric Singer. For the first time, a keyboardist was credited as a member, and Geoff Nicholls was finally recognized in that role.