Jake E. Lee - "It's better than I thought it would be. It's just really, really cool." - The Rock Guitar Daily Interview

"I hadn't felt that alive - and I didn't realize it, for 15 years. Because like I said, I was content, but when I heard the song with Robin Zander, I was just so excited to be alive - it was a pivotal moment in my life, and that's when I knew. 'Count me in - let's do this thing, let's do something - that's when it happened."

Jake E. Lee is kind of like the Garbo of rock 'n' roll. On top of the world one minute, then gone with little more than a trace for the next fifteen years. But, unlike Garbo, Jake came back - how long will he stay? Well, that remains to be seen, but in the meantime it's damned good to have him back treading the boards and playing as well as ever. His new band is Red Dragon Cartel, and after a rough start, they look like they'll be just fine.

I can only imagine what Lee was feeling like after being dragged across the coals of the fiery and impersonal Internet after the band's lead singer, Darren James Smith, got a bad case of the nerves before the band's first show and a few cocktails became something of a drunken brawl. But, hey, it's rock 'n' roll, and Smith showed his mettle by being humble and putting on a helluva show a few nights later in San Diego. One things for sure, it can only get better from here, and I'm of the opinion that this band has a very cool future.

I caught up with Jake two days after the San Diego show, and in spite of being in promo/press tour hell, he was in good spirits and we had a bunch of laughs about it all.

Jake E. Lee: "I'm great - you're my 47th interview, but other than that! It's cool, it's gotta be done, a necessary evil, I suppose."

I asked if he was having as much fun as it looked like on Sunday evening at the Brick By Brick club in San Diego:

Jake E. Lee: "I did have a much better time on that second show, haha! Because now, everybody knows about that first one. Yeah, yeah - the good part is that we'll never be scrutinized and under the magnifying glass as much as at that first show again, and there's no way we'll ever be that bad again. 

"Darren told me later he was really nervous, which I never even considered. I probably should have given him some words of encouragement beforehand, but he's a singer! Singers are usually cocky!"

I offered that most singers aren't following in the footsteps of Ozzy Osbourne and Ray Gillen - even if it was years ago:

Jake E. Lee: "Yeah, that's true." 

But, he fucking blew the first show, that was pretty clear, but he came back and had a great show in San Diego:

Jake E. Lee: "Yeah, he did, and he helped to redeem himself. 

"Because I caught a lot of shit about the first show, too. All those comments, 'What was Jake thinking?'"

I mentioned that the comments were, par for the course of the Internet, very harsh and nasty. I may have used the word vituperative:

Jake E. Lee: "Well, that's because it's not face to face, and they don't have to worry about getting their ass kicked! 

"But yeah, I got a lot of, 'What was Jake thinking' - obviously, I wasn't thinking that! It's not like he showed up to the audition and he was drunk and didn't know the words, and did that. 

"C'mon, I've been around this for a long time, there's a reason I picked him as our lead singer. It may not have shown through on the first gig, but it'll be obvious, and it was obvious at that second show - that's why I picked him."

I guessed that by summer the band will be out kicking ass on the Festival circuit and it will all be forgotten:

Jake E. Lee: "Yeah - I hope so, because it was brutal! Just brutal comments on that first show. 

"We did our worst show ever. Now, we don't have to worry about that! We took care of that right off the bat!"

I have to give Jake great credit for standing by his guy, and facing things head on - he laughed about what could only really be laughed about, and moved on - grace under fire. I moved forward, asking how Ron Mancuso got the ball rolling for Red Dragon Cartel:

Jake E. Lee: "Well, I was in retirement, basically, and maybe not happy, but content. 

"Because I had a great run - I was with Ozzy, I had Badlands, I made music I was proud of, got to play with a lot of great people, and I figured my time was up, so I was cool with doing anything anymore. But when I moved to Vegas, I didn't really have that many friends, or know that many people - I just wanted to get out of LA, and get a change of scenery. 

"One of the few friends I did have was Pete Reveen from Salty Dog, and he knew Ron. He said, 'Hey, Ron wants to hook up with you again, because I hadn't seen Ron in twenty years. So, I went down, and me and Ron reconnected - he said, 'By the way, I'm doing a video for Beggars & Thieves in a couple of days and I'm having people do some cameos, would you do one?'" 

"So - I checked the TV schedule to make sure there weren't any important shows on that night! There weren't, so I said, 'Sure, why not? I'll come down and do a cameo,' no big deal. 

"They did the video, and they put it out, and then Ron called, and he said, 'Hey, have you checked out the video?'" 

"I said, 'Uh....no. He said, 'Well, it's on YouTube,' so I said, 'Yeah, maybe I'll check it out. 

"And he said, 'No - check it out. And read the comments.' I was like, 'Huh? Yeah, whatever.' 

"So - I went and I checked out the video, and I started reading the comments, and there were so many about my little appearance in that video. 'Oh my God, he's still alive.' 'Oh, he didn't get fat and bald!' 'Look, he can still stand on two feet and hold a guitar!' 

"There was a lot of people saying, 'Oh, does this mean something?' and it didn't, y'know? 

"It was a casual thing, but there was a lot of people, a lot of support, like, 'Jake's coming back, he's doing something again!' - and that was never the intent, but there were so many comments. So, I read all these heartwarming comments."

I asked what happened next:

Jake E. Lee: "A couple of days later, Ron called, and said, 'Can you come down? Me and Kevin Churko want to talk to you. 

"Ron has a studio, and it's right next to Kevin's and obviously having worked with Ozzy, Kevin knew who I was, so I came down and Kevin and Ron sat down, and said, 'Look - apparently, there's a lot of interest, a lot of love for you out there, do you want to do something?' 

"And I was like, 'Eh....not really. I mean, I'm not really doing anything, but no - I don't have any strong desire to like come back out and do something.' 

"They said, 'Well, let's just take it really easy - why don't you just come down to the studio, bring some ideas with you, and you and Ron....' Because Ron actually helped write Rock 'n' Roll Rebel for Bark At The Moon. So we already had that relationship. 'Why don't you come down, you and Ron write some songs together, and see if you get some chemistry going, and take it from there? No commitment, just see if it feels good to you.' 

"So, that's what I did. I went down to the studio and I'd show him some ideas, because I had been writing music the whole time - the 15 year absence was more of a 'done with the business' thing. You know, I didn't need all that shit - but music is still in me. 

"Especially with computers, and all that - it gave me a fresh approach where you could write it all yourself, which was kind of hard to do before that without a home studio. You could do it with a computer, so I continued to write throughout that 15 year period, and I had a lot of ideas. I had complete songs even. 

"I brought them to Ron, and we started working on them - the first song we finished was Feeder, and still the point was like, 'Are we doing anything?' 'We're writing songs let's see what happens - I'm not making any promises, or anything.' 

"And they were cool about that - we did Feeder, Ron sang the vocal melody on it, and Ron's a horrible singer! So we're listening to it, and I said, 'You know what? Robin Zander would be great on this song, I wonder if there's any way we could get Robin Zander to sing on it?' 

"Ron knows (Cheap Trick bassist) Tom Petersson, so he said, 'I'll call Tom and see if Robin would do anything like that.' And Robin got a copy of the song and he said, 'Oh, I'd love to do that.' He recorded it in Florida, and sent the tracks back to us here in Vegas. Ron put Zander's vocals into the song that we had finished, and he said, 'Hey - why don't you come down and listen to this?' 

"So, I came down, and it was a pivotal moment. 

"I hadn't done anything in a long time, hadn't worked with other musician in a long time. And to hear a song we had written, and hear Robin Zander on vocals, and Jeremy from Five Finger Death Punch on drums, Tom Petersson on bass - listening to the song.... 

"I hadn't felt that alive - and I didn't realize it, for 15 years. Because like I said, I was content, but when I heard the song with Robin Zander, I was just so excited to be alive - it was a pivotal moment in my life, and that's when I knew. 'Count me in - let's do this thing, let's do something - that's when it happened."

Now that there was a project, it was time to find a band - Lee and Mancuso turned to the Internet, asking for applicants, which led to the selection of Darren James Smith on vocals and Jonas Fairley on drums. I asked what it was like to have hundreds of applicants for the role of lead singer:

Jake E. Lee: "Yeah, we had a lot! You know how it is with the Internet, people sending in videos of their dogs singing. 

"Ron went through most of them, because there were so many applicants - that, I was surprised about. So, I had Ron go through them, and he narrowed it down to like 20-25, and one of the first one's he showed me was Darren's. And before that, he had asked me, 'What are we looking for?' I told him that I didn't have any pre-conceived notions of what we're looking for, I'll just know it when I see it. 

"As soon as he played me Darren's, I said, 'That - we're looking for something like that.' Ron said, 'Well, we've still got another 20, or so to go,' and I said, 'Oh, I'll watch them all, but right now that's what we're looking for, and that's what we'll compare everybody else to.' 

"We went through all the other videos, and there were some really, really good singers, definitely, that would have had a shot except they had to go up against Darren. We compared them all, and Darren just always won out. So, in the end, one of the first guys I saw ended up being the singer."

Darren James Smith makes his presence known immediately on Red Dragon Cartel's opening cut, Deceived. It's also the cut on the album that most closely resembles Jake's signature riffing on Bark At The Moon. I asked Jake if this was an old chestnut he had kept around:

Jake E. Lee: "No! Actually, it's the opposite - of course, I know what you're saying, but it was the last track we wrote for the record. 

"I was coming to the studio and listening to the radio, and Bark At The Moon came on - I'm listening to it, and it had been a while since I had heard it. I was like, 'Wow! That was a really significant song, it has a very particular guitar pattern. I'm listening and thinking, I never wrote anything else like that, and that the first song most people heard from me was Bark At The Moon! 

"It's weird that I never wrote another song in that vein with Ozzy. Thirty years on, I'm like, 'Eh, it would be really cool to write another song like that, at least using that particular guitar pattern. 

"We went into the studio, and I said, 'Bark At The Moon. I want to do something along those lines, because it's been thirty years now, and I think it would be really cool.' 

"So, we came up with some new chords and a new way to do it, so yeah, it does reference Bark At The Moon, but it was the newest song we wrote."

I asked if Darren had contributed to the writing, or if it was done before he had landed the gig as lead singer:

Jake E. Lee: "Darren was the last guy in - we got Jonas first and by the time we finally got Darren, most of it was written.  

"In fact, Jonas came down from Canada when we auditioned Darren, and we already had most of the songs written. We were actually still working on Deceived and War Machine. But, Darren could only stay a day, or two because of something to do with visas, or whatever. Jonas has more time with us - he stayed a little longer and he contributed to those songs. 

"So he was the only one except for me and Ron that contributed to the writing, at least tom the band - we also had Kane Churko helping with the writing. 

"So, Darren wasn't able to contribute to this record, but if there is another record - and I'm not saying that ominously, obviously the record company expects there to be another record - but it all depends on how I feel at the end of all of this. Maybe there will be, maybe there won't. 

"Yeah, walking away was a lot easier than you'd think. It just involves sitting in front on the couch and watching TV."

Jake E. Lee is a unique guitarist - his style is idiosyncratic, and not at all static - it's easy to understand how it might be tough for a singer to write alongside. In fact, though not many know it, Lee was briefly the guitarist in the formative version of Dio, and Ronnie found the business not to his liking, preferring bigger block chords to sing over:

Jake E. Lee: "Hmmmm.....well, that might be true - and Vivian is a great player, but he did songs I jammed on with Ronnie and Vinnie, with Ronnie playing bass. One in particular was Holy Diver, and my parts, I remember my parts to this day, were more intricate than what Vivian ended up playing, and I think Ronnie was looking for that, just a simple rhythm and that's kind of hard for me to do."

Looking back at LA in the mid-80s with players like Eddie Van Halen, Randy Rhoads, George Lynch, Warren DiMartini, and Lee, I wondered if there was something in the water - there hasn't been a group of players that great to come from one scene since:

Jake E. Lee: "Yeah, that is funny - I mean it's weird. Because there was Van Halen in '78, then Randy in '79/80. LA, as far as California, LA was the only place to be. Warren and I grew up in San Diego, and I moved to LA first, because you were never going to get anywhere in San Diego. 

"I needed to move up to LA, but first I had the same thought, like, 'Shit, Eddie Van Halen came out, shit, Randy Rhoads came out, are they all fucking great up there? What's the deal? 

"So, I asked a friend who lived up in LA to name me the top 5 guitar players in town. I wanted to check out their bands before I moved up there - I remember George was one, Carlo Cavaso, another guy from a band called Seagull, so anyway, I went and saw all these guitar players, and said, 'Yeah, they're good, but I'm not going to say that they're better than me. I'm moving up! 

"Yeah, I don't know what the deal was, it was like Southern California in a short period of time produced a lot of really great guitar players."

We were running out of time, and Jake had to get on to interview #48, so I wrapped things up by asking if he had heard about the Randy Rhoads Remembered show that Brian Tichy was organizing for January 25th at The Observatory in Santa Ana:

(https://www.facebook.com/RandyRhoadsRemembered?fref=ts)

Jake E. Lee: "Yeah! Actually, I just got an e-mail from Tichy about it! 

"I'm not sure about our touring schedule right now, but I did e-mail him back, and said, 'Hey, don't count me out - let me see what's going on,' so I might get to participate in that! 

"I did one before, way back, probably in '88, or something. I played in that one with Glenn Hughes, Dimebag - that was where I met Dimebag, and it was a fun time! So yeah, there is a possibility that I'll do something in that, as long as our touring schedule permits. Tichy - I've never heard him play drums, and I hear he's an amazing drummer - I've only seen him play guitar in S.U.N. with Sass (Jordan), and he's a really good guitar player! He's just one of those multi-talented motherfuckers, hahaha!"

And, so it was, that Jake is having fun, staying humble, and currently cool with being back in the thick of it:

Jake E. Lee: "Yeah, it's actually very cool doing it - it's better than I thought it would be. It's just really, really cool."

Thanks to Jake E. Lee, Red Dragon Cartel, Kevin Chiaramonte at PFA, Dustin Hardman, and Peter Noble at Noble PR.

Pre-order Red Dragon Cartel Here!

Jake E. Lee's Red Dragon Cartel and Ethan Brosh Band - Tearing It Up At Brick By Brick in San Diego

It promised to be one of those shows that makes, or breaks. Jake Lee's band had blown it just a few night before in Hollywood, and new kid on the block Ethan Brosh was opening a show for a guy he readily calls one of his biggest guitar heroes. Another meltdown would sink the Red Dragon Cartel, and anything less than a grand slam would render Brosh just another opener.

San Diego's Brick By Brick is one of the premier rock clubs in the West, and even they were down a notch, having lost their liquor license. This wasn't looking good.

Thankfully, I can report that this was one of the best nights I've had all year. Brick By Brick was packed to the gills with none of the drunken stupidity that can render a metal crowd stupid, and both Brosh and Lee played sets that could easily be called blinders.

The Ethan Brosh Band is led by its namesake, a fiery and fleet fingered guitarist who is as much a serious composer as he is a chops-meister, and he's joined by his sister Nili, who is the hottest female guitarist I've seen since the days when Jennifer Batten was lighting up stages in Los Angeles in the '80s. While she is obviously playing the role of second guitarist in her brother's band, supplying solid metal rhythms, riffs, and magnificent harmonies, she's also providing tremendous support and you'll want to hear her soon to be released solo album.

Ethan Brosh has that thing - that undefinable, but undeniable thing called star power. He held the crowd of anxious Jake fans in the palm of his hand as he dealt ace after ace from his deck. Not many guitarists can command a stage with strictly instrumental work, but Brosh shows why he was picked to open up the last Yngwie tour with his strong compositional skills and his jaw dropping chops. Every tune could be hummed - they have verses, choruses, bridges, and it's easy to figure that his major at Berklee was songwriting. He's weaves endless amounts of melody into his memorable cache of riffs, and it's like a smorgasbord of rock.

He played cuts from both of his solo albums, the latest, Live The Dream, which will be released in May on Carmine Appice's Rocket Records, and the set's highlight was the duet Brosh recorded with George Lynch on his first solo release - Downward Spiral suffered not a bit in George's absence, as Nili picked up the slack and Ethan threw down chorus after chorus of memorable lines.

Brosh's set went down a storm with the sold out crowd, but it was clearly Jake E. Lee's night....

Jake E. Lee took a powder only matched by Garbo's. He had it all, and he walked away, not that you could blame him, after setting the 80s on fire with Ozzy and his own band, Badlands - if ever there was a case of it's time to go, Jake figured it out, and while we missed him, he missed little, and nobody could blame him.

The world went wild when we heard he had decided to 'reappear' in a cameo for his friend Ron Mancuso's band, Beggars & Thieves. The Internet lit up with news of Jake's return, which Lee says was no return at all, just a favor for a buddy. The video stated, "Jake E. Lee is alive well, living in Las Vegas. He would just rather play with Beggars & Thieves than deal with shady promoters and play Bark At The Moon 750 more times."

Well, he's not going to get his wish.

Red Dragon Cartel is the band that came out of this scenario - a scenario that included much song writing and recording, which can be heard on the band's excellent self-titled debut.

Photo by Oscar Jordan

Mancuso is playing bass, drummer Jonas Fairley ended up behind the kit after not getting the frontman slot, which went to Darren James (D.J.) Smith, who almost got ran out of town on the rails for showing up to the band's first show more than a little drunk, and more than a little belligerent. But hey, that's why he got the job - lead singers in rock 'n' roll bands don't come from Idol - they have tattoos, they drink, and they scream. Well.

The Internet was again alive as Smith got a well deserved roasting by those who want to see their old guitar hero Jake do well. The good news is that Smith showed up to the Brick By Brick in San Diego humbled, and convinced to right his egregious wrongs. He did so with much style and panache. Smith is a serious shouter who reminds me of a very feral Ian Gillan. He's being asked to sing songs sung by Ozzy, Ray Gillen, and Robin Zander (the band's first single, The Feeder) and being nervous, or even shit yourself scared could be understood by anyone with the nerve to stand in front of thousands with a microphone in their hand.

The band covered most of their debut record, a few chestnuts from Lee's past, and there wasn't a moment when the crowd was not in love. Smith's performance was far from perfect, but he'll get there with no difficulty - he's a charming rogue, and he is 100% rocker. He came close on everything he attempted, and it will only get better, that was quite clear.

The main point is that Jake E. Lee, as he told me last night, hadn't gotten fat, gone bald, or lost his skills - the solos were still often off-the-cuff and sizzling, his stage presence was warm and confident, and he has a style unlike any on the planet. The guy still has it in spades, and if he can get through a few more hundred Bark At The Moons, and some shady promoters, he's going to be riding this dragon from some time to come.

A totally triumphant return of one of rock 'n' roll's greatest 'lost soldiers.' Welcome home, Jake.

Don't believe me? Here's the whole show:

Red Dragon Cartel (Jake E. Lee) - complete show at Brick By Brick on YouTube

http://www.amazon.com/Red-Dragon-Cartel/dp/B00GC2KIK2 - Pre-order Red Dragon Cartel

Rock Ain't Near Dead Premieres This Evening On LA Talk Radio

Rock Ain't Near Dead, a weekly internet radio show, makes its debut this evening, December 14, 2013 at 8 p.m. PST on LA Talk Radio with your hosts Dan Boul (65amps) and Tony Conley (Rock Guitar Daily) - our guest this evening will be guitar legend Pete Anderson. Pete's going to talk about his long history as a guitarist/producer with Dwight Yoakum, label owner, and solo act. He'll be performing some tunes and featuring his Reverend Guitars signature models. Join us live, or catch the archive! You can call in at 1-323-203-0815 to join us on the air!

http://www.latalkradio.com

Jack White To Produce New Vintage Trouble

A 'Rock Ain't Near Dead™' exclusive! Rock Guitar Daily's Tony Conley has heard through the grapevine that Jack White will be producing Vintage Trouble's highly expected and as-yet-untitled second studio album. Following 2010's The Bomb Shelter Sessions and several years of heavy touring (including opening for The Who), and near constant television exposure, we'll see if the band can deliver on their own almost impossible hype. I've long said that if they can drop some sheen and grow some hair, they may be unstoppable. Evidently, someone has agreed.

This could be the grand slam of 2014, as success on this front would not just project VT into the stratosphere, it could also give White even more credibility with the world of classic rock, which still tends to see the guitar-slinging producer as an indie rock upstart (though one with by-now industry wide credibility as a producer). If this rumor turns out to be just that, someone should step in and make this a reality, though I'm hearing it from a source close to the band. I'm a big believer in rock destiny, and as I've said, "Rock Ain't Near Dead!"

(Edit) Though the announcement won't come for some time, I have received confirmation that as of today, an agreement between the parties has indeed been made.

Black Sabbath - Live...Gathered In Their Masses - Metallic Magic

So - I'm the guy that started the Facebook page, 1,000,000 Black Sabbath fans say yes to Bill Ward. Me and a few friends joked about the outrage of Mr. Ward not being included in the band's plans after he'd been disinvited after their 11-11-11 reunion announcement, and I started the page as a lark, never thinking a million would be on board, and damned shocked when it grew to 25,000 members in a day, and eventually rising to well over 50,000 before it was all over.

I never vilified anyone, though I certainly criticized the poor manner in which the band handled the whole episode, and I stick with that assessment to this minute. I'm a huge Sabbath fan, going back to the early seventies, and for me, Bill Ward's drums were a huge part of the band's sound. That being said, I am grateful for whatever wizardry has rendered Live...Gathered In Their Masses into being such a great document of the band's tour this past summer. Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler have never, ever sounded better, and they look great in this awesome DVD. Tommy Clufetos also steps up and kicks some serious metal ass behind the kit - he doesn't have Ward's sophisticated sense of swing, but few rock drummers ever have had that.

The big question for me is that of John 'Ozzy' Osbourne - early clips from the tour suggested that he was to put it charitably, 'addled.' And honestly, I'm fairly certain that some serious post filming work went into making his vocals sound as good as they do here, but for that I am absolutely grateful. While it may be somewhere between genuine and modern technology, I'm very OK with that - I can sit and watch this and as a serious student of rock, I can show this to, and tell my child just why so many consider Sabbath to be the greatest heavy metal band in history.

For me, it's all about Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler, and they are bone crushingly beautiful - Iommi's playing is crisp, clean, and his tone is picture perfect. Whatever happened to his tone on 13 is beyond me. I tried on five occasions to listen to the whole album, and I never once made it. I wondered how Rubin reduced the might Iommi to what I heard. Well, it sure wasn't Tony - he acquits himself fantastically and solidifies his position as metal's true godfather. When you hear War Pigs, you are going to melt. It looks great, and sounds even better.

Geezer Butler's bass jumps out of the mix and you can almost hear the callouses on his right hand as he cranks out line after line of precise magic, and I'm not sure who recorded, engineered and mixed the album (I only have a stream - no liner notes to work from), but they deserve heaping mounds of love, respect, and admiration. When Iommi slides down the neck for the intro to Into The Void, you can hear frets hitting fingers - it gets no cooler than that. This is one of the best sounding pieces of work I've heard this year, and I don't care how they did it. At the end of the day, it delivers the goods as well as they have ever been delivered by this band.

Clufetos' drumming is huge, and he actually makes the band sound like Dio's Sabbath jamming with Ozzy, and that I dig. He's more metal than Ward, and I gotta say, he's on fire on this set.

Filmed by god only knows how many cameras, nobody in the world can say anything other than this is a job very, very well done. The editing is excellent, and there are tons of great shots for the proper worship by players and fans alike. They even render Ozzy looking good. Magic? Deal with the Devil down at the crossroads? I care not - somewhere between the black country and Hollywood lies the truth, but the rock 'n' roll kid in me is thrilled.

There have been rumblings that the band could be done with heavy duty touring, and if that's true, they could not have a better send off than Live...Gathered At Their Masses. This will go down as one of the great live documents of rock - beside Live At Leeds, Thin Lizzy's Live & Dangerous, UFO's Strangers In The Night, and Frampton Comes Alive, and we all know that to some degree those shows got doctored, so I can't get my panties in a bunch over how much 'fixing' had to occur.

Tony Iommi has always been given his due as the ultimate writer of riffs, but it's his lead work that keeps grabbing me by the throat - Loner, the first song of the set off 13 isn't going to be on the list of his greatest riffs, but his soloing is sizzling. Mind you, the riffs hear are magnificent - his Laney amps are crisp and clear, not at all muddy nor too gained up - just right. This DVD would be the perfect document to show a judge if you were arguing that Iommi stands proudly right beside anyone who ever picked up a guitar.

Snowblind has Iommi and Butler going down the highway to hell side by side, and it's a great road map to see how the band ventured from the sludgier early days into the crisp riffing of Heaven & Hell. Geezer's bass sounds superb as every note and nuance jumps out of the speakers. Iommi slows things down for the solos and milks every note for all its worth.

Riffs - you want riffs? Black Sabbath's flatted fifth may have started the whole thing, and here even Ozzy's on point - I know I give him hell, but he's well earned it, and I don't have to love him to love his band, which I do.

It's a three for one as the band stays with their eponymous debut with Beyond The Wall Of Sleep, and N.I.B. and we're reminded that they started out on top, and while it's been a trip filled with ridiculous highs and lows, it's still been a helluva trip. I could still do with Osbourne yelling, "I can't hear you," again, again, and again, but it's a small price to pay for getting to hear one of metal's miracles in between, I suppose.

Methademic is another track off of 13, and it's here where Ozzy looks a little lost, staring down at the lyrics and searching desperately for a thin melody to begin with. This isn't near the band's usual standard, and comes off sounding like generic metal for the most part. A good point in which to refresh that drink, pop off for whatever you must do, for things are about to head for the big ending.

Back on track with Fairies Wear Boots, and Ozzy looks a bit more at home again, and you can hear the band stepping back up and hitting the gas, as well. It's somewhat subtle, but I can hear where they are more in sync with what's going on out front, and when Iommi solos, Butler is hitting it hard underneath in support - then it goes into the breakdown, and it's bliss. It's maybe on this tune in which I long to hear Ward's snazzy sense of swing, but it's too late to spend much time mourning what ain't to be, I suppose.

Symptom Of The Universe rocks accordingly, and Clufetos takes the obligatory solo, and while it's certainly adequate, that's all it is, too. His chops aren't up with the better drummers of the seventies, and I'm not trying to beat a horse that's long since run off, I just find this to be mediocre. It doesn't ruin the party, but it does give the Ward fans something to bitch about, and I'm thinking it should have ended up on the cutting room floor for all above. The best thing about it is that it leads nicely into the main event, Iron Man.

Ozzy might sing it, but Iommi is the Iron Man, and it's never more obvious in what might be rock's mightiest single riff. Butler pummels his bass, and it's no wonder that he said he hurt in places he didn't know he had after these shows - he's pounding it out, and his jousting with Iommi on the solo section is nirvanic. Clufetos is much more powerful and impressive on the interlude, and I'm convinced that the solo should have been cut. This marvelous stuff, and nobody won't dig this.

End Of The Beginning is the one time that I think 13 made the mark, and it's heavier here than on the studio version, and truly Sabbath worthy. Even studio magic can't get Ozzy in tune on this, but all I can hear is Iommi, and I'm OK with it.

1971's Master of Reality was where it all started for me and Black Sabbath, so Children Of The Grave is always welcome. This is a great version, and once again I'll say that Iommi and Butler have never sounded better, and that's where it's at for me. Black Sabbath looks funny playing white guitars, but sure enough both Iommi and Butler wield white weapons, and they pummel them just the same. Again, this isn't one of their better, or more original riffs, but this pair could play 'Chopsticks,' and make it metal.

God Is Dead? may be the closest 13 gets to classic Sabbath, and it's a good way to end the set. Iommi sounds better here than in the studio, and this could maybe sit on an older Sabbath outing without seeming weak. There's no real hook, but the rock rolls, and it's appropriately heavy. The new stuff sounds better live than it did in Rubin's room, and for that I'm grateful.

Wrapping it up, it could only be Paranoid, right? Iommi's second best riff is still miles better than anyone else's, right? And Ozzy could sing this one in his sleep. They throw in an all-too-brief moment of Sabbath Bloddy Sabbath, and then it's off to the races, and they end the show with a resounding reminder of why we're watching.

There you have it, ladies and germs - I figure I'll still manage to piss off some of the hardcore, but I think this is a fantastic package, all things considered, and I would say that everyone should buy this, watch this, and love this. I never weathered so much abuse in my life as when I was running the Bill Ward page, so a little more grief won't hurt me none. I'm thrilled to recommend this and even to admit that it may just end up in my year end top ten, if for no other reason that I dearly love Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler, and they are magnificent from beginning to end. As they have always been.