Jim Simpson – first Sabbath manager pays tribute to Tony, Ozzy and Geezer!

According to Birmingham Mail, Jim Simpson, who masterminded the group’s rise to the top of the charts with their iconic second album Paranoid in 1970, said their quality – coupled with a lucky break – had guaranteed their long career.

Black Sabbath's original manager has praised the Brum rock legends’ staying power – after frontman Ozzy Osbourne said their reunion was ‘jinxed’.

Simpson, now director of the annual Birmingham International Jazz and Blues Festival said: “I think it’s a great credit to everyone involved that they’ve kept going for all these years.

“The Rolling Stones have set the pace for all of them, and Sabbath are made up of the same thing. If you get the music right, you’ve always got an audience for it. The week I lost them, Paranoid the single was at number two, Paranoid the album was at number one, and Black Sabbath, the first album, was back in the chart at number 16.

“The fact they’re here now is justification for what we all believed in those days. I took their first album to 14 record companies and they all turned it down.

“We got a lucky break as Olav Wyper, the guy from CBS who had rejected them, was headhunted by Phonogram’s new underground label. He had a rethink and said ‘that record you played me – we’ll do a deal’.

“And the rest is history.”

Read the whole article on Birmingham Mail

Steve Bradley for Birmingham Mail, 8 June 2013 

 Photo Chris Walter, Getty Images