Tweet
It's apples and oranges and I like each equally. Dio is of course a far superior singer, but Ozzy led Sabbath to its original greatness and I think he is not given enough credit for that. His voice was unique and fit perfectly with Iommi's riffs to be one of the founding metal bands.
Dio is one of the singers who brought the operatic approach with a super-powerful voice into the genre. Ian Gillan was another but I greatly prefer him in Deep Purple to Sabbath.
Dio worked at somewhat of a disadvantage. He has never had songwriting partners in his solo career of the caliber he had in Rainbow and Sabbath. Vivian was never really a cowriter, just a lead guitarist. I don't think any of the others really were either, maybe Doug Aldrich but the writing mostly seems like Dio did it all. That may have been his idea though.
Ozzy, on the other hand, had LOTS of help songwriting - some say he really wasn't much involved in the writing at all. He did start his solo career as the ORIGINAL former singer of Sabbath, though, and his wife had been part of the Sabbath management machine, AND he lucked upon Randy Rhoads who wrote two really classic albums for his solo band. Ozzy was always way more commercially successful than Dio, and the relative lack of money definitely inhibited what Dio could do to promote himself. It limited the quality of musicians he could get for what he could afford to pay and still maintain his own lifestyle.
They both did quite well for themselves, but Ozzy really had an advantage from the gate and his wife used it very well. Wendy did well for Dio also but she had less to work with.
Dio is one of the singers who brought the operatic approach with a super-powerful voice into the genre. Ian Gillan was another but I greatly prefer him in Deep Purple to Sabbath.
Dio worked at somewhat of a disadvantage. He has never had songwriting partners in his solo career of the caliber he had in Rainbow and Sabbath. Vivian was never really a cowriter, just a lead guitarist. I don't think any of the others really were either, maybe Doug Aldrich but the writing mostly seems like Dio did it all. That may have been his idea though.
Ozzy, on the other hand, had LOTS of help songwriting - some say he really wasn't much involved in the writing at all. He did start his solo career as the ORIGINAL former singer of Sabbath, though, and his wife had been part of the Sabbath management machine, AND he lucked upon Randy Rhoads who wrote two really classic albums for his solo band. Ozzy was always way more commercially successful than Dio, and the relative lack of money definitely inhibited what Dio could do to promote himself. It limited the quality of musicians he could get for what he could afford to pay and still maintain his own lifestyle.
They both did quite well for themselves, but Ozzy really had an advantage from the gate and his wife used it very well. Wendy did well for Dio also but she had less to work with.
Comment