“Happy?” You might ask that due to the dark and forlorn nature of the heavy metal pioneers’ music.
Maybe it was typical teenage angst or the customary rebellion of youth, but we loved that stuff.
My St. Cloud (FL) High School pals and I would hang around the pool table shooting billiards, cracking jokes and listening to Sabbath’s debut album, along with Cheech & Chong and Alice Cooper.
We must have worn the grooves out of those big vinyl discs because we had all the lyrics memorized and even had the timing down for every change, sliding our fingers along the length of the smooth wooden pool cues to mimic the bass runs.
Several years later I got to see the band live at the Lakeland (FL) Civic Center. Peter Frampton opened and a huge Union Jack decorated the back of the stage.
Sabbath played a super long set, performing about every song my buddy and I came to hear. And then Ozzie came out to the foot of the stage, asking the audience for requests. What a great show!