Tony Martin recently spoke about fronting Black Sabbath in his interview with The Metal Voice. He recalled the first time he interacted with the band and felt nervous because he wasn’t as good as Glenn Hughes.
Black Sabbath went through several lineup changes since its formation in 1968. Despite that, the band became one of the pioneers of heavy metal and harbored many iconic musicians like Ozzy Osbourne and Tony Iommi. Iommi remained the only constant member in the band’s history while many quit and were replaced.
Glenn Hughes was in the band in the mid-1980s, and in 1986 they started to work on their 12th studio album ‘Seventh Star.’ However, Hughes had some ongoing health issues, and the band managers constantly kept a backup singer to complete the record, just in case. Tony Martin was one of these backup singers, and he talked about it recently and admitted how nervous he was to replace Hughes.
The singer admired Hughes and thought he couldn’t sing like him as ‘nobody can sing like Glenn Hughes.’ After waiting on standby for a while, Martin joined Black Sabbath in 1987 and was the frontman until 1991, and again from 1993 to 1997. ‘Seventh Star’ was released in 1986, and it became the only Sabbath record Hughes had contributed. After the release, he was first replaced by Ray Gillen and then by Martin in 1987.
Here is what Martin stated in his latest interview:
“I’ve been associated with Sabbath for 11 years or something. Since 1996. It was the first contact I had with their then-manager Patrick Meehan at the time. They were having problems with Glenn Hughes doing the ‘Seventh Star.’ I think they had some problems with Glenn, and they put me on standby.
It scared me to death because I can’t sing like Glenn Hughes. Nobody can sing like Glenn Hughes. And then, they found Glenn, and it went to Ray Gillen, then he left, then they put me on standby again, and then they got me down to the studio in London, and that’s how it all began.”
Martin released seven albums with the band, to which he was highly dedicated, which made him the longest-serving vocalist after Ozzy Osbourne. In the rest of the interview, he stated that several incidents haven’t been understood from his point of view and tried to address them.
