Black Sabbath's Tony Martin knows there isn't one SABS song he can't sing! The seven year vocalist of Black Sabbath geared up for a 10 day rehearsal at their home base in Birmingham, England. Black Sabbath is ready to begin their six month plus world tour supporting their new riff bashing IRS Records release, Cross Purposes. The Children of the Grave - Geezer Butler, Tony Iommi, Tony Martin, an former Rainbow skinsman Bobby Rondinelli managed to pull out some of the most unusual tracks from Sabbath's history for the tour, some songs of which have never been heard on stage before, even by Ozzy.

I tried to persuade Tony Martin in telling me just one of the surprise tunes that are planned for their Feb 18th, Tower Theatre concert. He said, "No leading questions, (laughing) I don't want to spoil the surprise. With the show we've managed to come up with, it's quite good." Tony touched on his role as Sabbath frontman.

"I'm not the madman that Ozzy is, my asset is mainly my voice. I tend to stand up at the front of the stage, look people square in the eye, and say this is it, This is the music, this is how we're going to do it. I tend to perform with my voice rather than an act or a show. We're not taking a stage set out with us. Very little backdrops, no laser beams, no spiders. It's just going to be set up the gear, stand on stage, and play for people."

After Ronnie James Dio's redeparted after last year's Dehumanizer tour, the thick atmosphere that had plagued around the group departed also. They once again called upon their seasoned vocalist and (no fantasy) lyricist Tony Martin to bring the band back from the grave with a new really good riffed record Cross Purposes. "Yeah, we know that Ozzy has retired, and we know that the Heaven & Hell / Mob Rules days are gone, but there is a whole new generation of Sabs fans ready to keep the term "Heavy Metal" alive."

"The music always comes first with Black Sabbath. It's always been that way from day one, like when Ozzy was in the band. The lyrics go on top. We got some really crazy time changes and tempos on the new record. They purposely gave me this stuff because they know that I'm able to put an angle on top of these riffs and I really enjoy that challenge. I'm hoping that one or two people will pick up on half the tracks I put together."

Geezer and Rondinelli play some really great rhythmatic parts and crazy timecounts on the tracks Virtual Death and Immaculate Deception. (Warning: listen with the headphones at a low decibel) The opening track I Witness is written about the life of exile that Pennsylvania Amish live, and Psychophobia is really written about David Koresh, and the cult horrors that occurred in Waco, TX added Martin. "Some people think that some is about Ronnie, but I absolutely deny that (laughing)."

"I just don't understand the logic of asking for something, like as important as the aid that they need, then killing people. I just don't understand it. Basically people are just dying for love out there." Martin commenting on the war-torn Yugoslavia lyrics of the ballad Dying for Love where Martin shines is strengths as a natural, when it comes to singing.

"With the music coming first, that gives me a good idea of the sort of song I'm going to write. Once the music is together, I've got a good idea what direction I'm going in. THen it's selecting the subject I'm happy working with and then I purposely decide not to give it a message or a specific name, even though I can write about specific subjects - like the Waco, TX thing."