Ozzy to release Speak of the Devil DVD

In the early 80’s, Ozzy released a live album titled “Speak of the Devil”.  This was done in the aftermath of the death of Randy Rhoads.  It was supposed to be a live album with him, but as legend goes, Oz didn’t want Randy’s name on an album called “Speak of the Devil” (Talk of the Devil outside of the US).  Anyway, it came out on November 27, 1982, and consisted of nothing but live tracks from Black Sabbath.  At the time it was a big salvo in the Ozzy vs Black Sabbath war, with Sabbath coming out with their own Live Evil shortly after that.

So it’s a bit of some interesting news reported today by Blabbermouth that there will be a North American Live DVD released on July 17th.   The strange thing about this story is that the track listing does not match the old album’s track listing.  It’s a bunch of Ozzy solo tracks, and the reported band is the same as the CD, but not the track listing.

  • Ozzy Osbourne – Vocals
  • Brad Gillis – Guitar
  • Rudy Sarzo – Bass
  • Tommy Aldridge – Drums
  • Don Airey – Keyboards

This combination never got the accolades it deserved.  I rather enjoyed Brad Gillis at the time, and while he may not have been the best guitarist Ozzy had, it’s not like the dude is awful (although some of his takes on Iommi’s riffs are odd).   Anyway, I’ve contacted my friend at the record label this is coming out on for additional information, and when it’s available, I’ll make sure and pass it on.

This looks interesting for sure, I’ll be wanting to check it out – I don’t believe the Gillis fronted band has ever been released on video before, not officially anyway.  I recall seeing something of them back on MTV in the day, but I long ago lost that VHS tape I recorded.   After reading around some more, this release is probably that same MTV show from years gone by.   Still, it’s a bit confusing to call it “Speak of the Devil”, as that implies the same track listing as the CD to me.  Oh well.  It’ll still be cool to see this lineup anyway.

Comments

  1. Ben Gonzales says

    I can just bet that this is the MTV live bit from Irvine Meadows in 1982 that you “speak of”. I remember my buddies and I crashed our friend Henry’s house because his Mom was the only Mom on the block that would allow a bunch of heads over to watch “that awful Ozzy devil guy”. I do believe Ozzy (love ya Oz) even did overdubbing to bring his voice out. Anyway if it is, it’s still pretty cool, It’s the Diary Tour and he hangs little person and there is that wonderful castle stage and all kinds of stuff. Brad Gillis, Sarzo, Tommy and Don are Awesome too!

  2. I’m pretty sure this was officially released on VHS at some point but its long out of print, I remember looking it up years back and being totally disappointed that it wasn’t the Sabbath set. They did a couple of these mid-80s videos but none of them really interest me. The whole Brad Gillis-Jake E Lee period is pretty cheesy. What I would like is a video from his early 90s “retirement” tour. Ozzy was in better shape, he had a better band and they played good sets. Its too bad the only video we have of that is the crappy Live & Loud DVD.

  3. this is actually a show from the diary of a madman tour which aired on mtv on oct 31 1982—– this was back in the days of mtv showing a live concert every saturday night … anyway over the years bootleg copies of this televised show have also been called “speak of the devil” ( i have one) wasnt the best show by any means but it will be cool to see this again and im sure it will be remastered. it included over the mountain,crazy train,i dont know,believer,flying high again,revelation mother earth, steal away the night,iron man, children of the grave, paranoid not in that order and i know im forgetting something but thats the main part of it

    on a scale of 1-10 ill give a 6 and for ozzy fans it will be cool to own just for the nostalgia of it

    also u can pretty much see this whole show on you tube if you want to get a idea of what it is

  4. John Sposato says

    Talk of the Devil was actually name in the UK only as thats how they say it there.
    I would buy this DVD. I wonder if its official though. I won’t get 1986s The Ultimate Ozzy as that doesn’t seem as good and he pretty much distanced himself from that one.

  5. When was the last time the album itself was in print? I know it was available on CD during Sony’s initial run of Ozzy CDs, but I’m pretty sure it’s been out of print since then. Since I was on the Iommi side of the “divide” back then, I always though this album was a bit of a jerk-off move by Ozzy, but it’s probably better than I remember.

  6. Would this be the same concert, featuring that band line up, i’ve just purchased off Amazon?
    It certainly sounds like it.

  7. Graeme Troy says

    Hi Joe, you mention that the album was” Talk of the Devil ” outside the US but here in Oz I got as Speak of the Devil and all the info said it was Talk of the Devil in the US? Great album though and I thought Brad Gillis did an awesome job on the album. Love it maybe a little better than Live Evil.
    Cheers.

    • John Sposato says

      Read what I put above, though I have the 1995 EU CD of the album which uses the Speak title so the shops in the UK would have it too (I bought it in the States).

  8. My dad has the other version where it is a complete different setlist from the same year (different show obviously). He also has Speak Of The Devil original pressing which says “Talk Of The Devil” on the cover instead!

  9. Eric Chiasson says

    I bought that DVD some 10 years ago as an import. It’s a good show, all the “in between songs” stuff is cut so there’s no Ozzy talking to the crowd or anything like that.

  10. Does anyone else think that Brad Gillis cheated on this recording? I hear a lot of notes and not many chords. Seems lazy. Just my opionion, I still love this album.

  11. Hey. I had a dvd of Speak of the Devil a few years ago. It was a Spanish-made dvd and the extras, bio and stuff was in the Spanish language. it wasn’t a bootleg or anything, the quality of the video and the packaging was all good and looked professional. I sold it when I was in need of some cash, stupid thing to do.

  12. Lupio Vasquez says

    Have this on VHS and DVD. It was aired on Halloween back in the early 80’s..I was 7 at the time and I remember I stayed home to watch the concert instead of going to trick or treat. I wonder if this version will have Ozzy talking in between songs as for the versions I have it goes straight into the next song automatically. This is definately a Ozzy classic and any hardcore Ozzy fan would enjoy this!

  13. I always loved the “Speak of the Devil” CD. I know Ozzy and Sharon did it just to collect money off old Sabbath songs and to take a punch at our SABBATH camp. I read the inside scoop in Rudy’s book “Off the Rails”. But it doesn’t change the fact it’s a great CD, Great track list, and the songs sound fresh and up to date. I thought Brad did a great job. It could almost be considered a Black Sabbath Album. All Sabbath Tracks with original Sabbath singer, and Don Airey (ex- Sabbath) and Rudy Sarzo (future DIO). I know the DVD will have a different track listing but I’ll still buy it. This was a great line-up.

  14. andy6640 says

    I don’t know if this is correct or not, but my understanding about the release of the original Speak/Talk of the Devil album was this: Ozzy’s deal with Jet Records required him to release two studio albums and one live album. After the release of ‘Diary’ a live album was recorded, prior to Randy’s death.
    Ozzy didn’t want to release the album because it would appear to be capitalizing on Randy’s death, but was contractually obligated to release a live album, so Gillis was recruited for a live album of Sabbath covers, songs Randy wasn’t a part of. The live album with Randy was subsequently released in ’87 as “Tribute”.

    I can’t remember where I initially heard that, so I have no idea if it’s true or not, but does seem to make sense. I did always wonder how it was even possible, though…considering those songs aren’t Ozzy’s lyrics, and no one in Ozzy’s solo band had any part in writing the music, so how was Ozzy even allowed to release the album?

  15. Kip Brown says

    I have a copy of this. It’s Ok. It’s probably the only full length “Diary” video in existence. What was sucky about it was that it was overdubbed massively on the vocals. Anyone who saw Ozzy during this time knows that he was notorious for having bad nights vocally, and even on good nights, there were plenty of flat notes. He was never able to fully master “Over The Mountain” live and he regularly blew the lyrics, so listening to this it’s obvious a different vocal track was substituted. They did the same thing with the “Tribute” album where the original NBC Source Radio recording was used and a redone vocal track was mixed in to replace the original. Seek out the original radio recording (widely bootlegged) if you want the real deal. I wonder if they’ll some day release the “Bark At The Moon” show from Salt Lake City one of these days as well, which is also widely available on bootleg.

  16. ivegotthefire says

    ‘Speak Of The Devil’ was released in japan only on vhs and laser disc by ‘Vap Inc.’ back in 1990…it was then released in 2009 as a dvd / cd combo again in japan only on ‘Ward Records’ , in this case the cd was the audio track from the dvd , and i believe is the only official cd audio release of the ‘Gillis’ line up playing Ozzy solo material ( this is also now available on a 2 lp 180 gramm vinyl set called ‘Ozzy Live’ relaesed this year for ‘Record Store Day’ in the USA ) ..also , while we are on the subject of video releases ‘ The Ulitimate Ozzy’ vhs from 1986 was released in japan only on dvd in 2006 , leaving 1984’s ‘Bark At The Moon’ vhs release , as the only older Ozzy video not to be available on dvd…at the risk of sounding a bit miserable , i find it a bit strange that an artist the size of Ozzy has a fairly patchy history regarding vhs releases being re issued on dvd..you would have thought that the 3 original vhs releases would have recieved decent world wide remastered releases by now….cheers

  17. Tristan B says

    I have this on DVD, my girlfriend bought it for me onlineabout 2 years ago i believe on ebay. Its called Ozzy osbourne Speak At The Devil Live in Concert at Irvine Meadows1982. It has the setlist on the back ( a mix of Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a madman material and 3 sabbath songs to close the show, Brad Gillis on guitar. a page came with the dvd with a list of 45 other rare dvds from various artists you can purchase, theres an email adress attached, theres also another ozzy concert on the page calledBark at the Moon concert salt lake city 1982.

  18. Bob Gates says

    The Speak of the Devil album has a better setlist than Ozzy has done when he gets back with Sabbath. I hate the teaser of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath going into Paranoid (played a billion times.) And I’d love to see Sabbath do the whole songs as well as more later songs like Never Say Die.

  19. That was a classic show people. The castle in the backdrop awesome that was ozzy not the radio crape that came out in the 90s. Lazy on t.v. with his family what crap

  20. I just wish we had a live quality DVD of Randy Rhoads

Leave a Reply to Chris Cancel reply

*

For security, use of Google's reCAPTCHA service is required which is subject to the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.