“Great band, great music, nice guys — I could’ve easily been happy, but the management situation just wasn’t good.”

Bob Daisley reflected on working with Black Sabbath on “The Eternal Idol”, saying that he didn’t regret staying with the band even though the experience itself was exceptionally pleasant.Released in 1987, “The Eternal Idol” marked the beginning of Black Sabbath’s Tony Martin era, which remains largely unknown despite the many brilliant songs that came out of it. Hot on the heels of “Seventh Star”, which was originally meant to be a Tony Iommi solo album featuring Glenn Hughes on lead vocals, The Riff Lord made an effort to regroup and breathe life into his band for the third time.

Although Martin ended up singing on the album’s final cut, “The Eternal Idol” was originally recorded with vocalist Ray Gillen, while Bob Daisley jumped in as a hired gun of sorts to help with the songwriting process and record the bass tracks. Speaking to Rock Daydream Nation in a newly published interview, Bob Daisley said (transcribed by Ultimate Guitar):

“I did the Black Sabbath album in ’86, with Eric Singer [drums], Ray Gillen, Tony Iommi, and Geoff Nicholls [keyboards]. That was great, I had a great time doing it. They wanted me to join the band, [but] I was happy playing with Gary Moore. I don’t regard it as doing a session, but I did it as a sort of [one-time gig].”

As Daisley recalls, he had nothing scheduled with Moore at the time, and producer Jeff Glixman, who worked on Moore’s “Victims of the Future” (1983) and “Corridors of Power” (1982) as well as Sabbath’s “Seventh Star”, asked him to jump on “The Eternal Idol” train.

“I could’ve been happy, but the management situation wasn’t good”

Asked if he thinks he made the right decision by sticking with Moore, Daisley noted how the management’s questionable practices, which were also the reason behind Gillen’s departure, made joining Sabbath as a permanent member less appealing:

“I love that album that I did with Sabbath. I thought it was very underrated. It should’ve got more recognition, and there’s a lot of people who say that. I loved the album, loved the band, and I loved working with Tony Iommi, but I wasn’t really happy with the management and what was happening management-wise; that’s why I didn’t [stay]. It had nothing to do with the personality of the band, nothing to do with music. Great band, great music, nice guys — I could’ve easily been happy, but the management situation just wasn’t good.”

He added:

“I said, ‘Look, I’ll do the album, and I’ll help Ray do the lyrics. It was fun to do, but it wasn’t something I regretted not joining.”

In his latest New Year’s greeting video, Tony Iommi revealed that the long-awaited Tony Martin-era box set will finally be arriving sometime this May.