Music

Labels rejected Black Sabbath and drove them to write pop songs

by Richard Howard

It’s a common story: musical originators take their music to record companies; record companies say “what the hell is this garbage?” and kick them out the office; originators eventually make it big; companies have egg on their face.

However, the huge fuck ups by labels are uniquely fascinating. For instance, can you imagine living the rest of your life knowing you turned down Black Sabbath? According to bassist Geezer Butler in a Rolling Stone interview, quite a few record execs found themselves in that position.

The cat-loving Butler then went on to explain these rejections resulted in some of the band’s poppier early output:

Thankfully, the pop song idea didn’t work, the band told their management to get bent, and we have the Black Sabbath that we know and love today. Should any of those execs that turned the band down still be alive today, reading this with a monocle or whatever old British dudes use, remember chaps – it could be worse.

You could have been the guy that told U2 their music “wasn’t suitable at present” or worse yet (deservedly or not) spent the rest of your life with the nickname “The Man Who Turned Down The Beatles.”