The Tumult Within Black Sabbath that Led to the Song “Changes”

Black Sabbath had already made a big international splash with their first three albums, and when they set about to record Vol. 4, they decided to explore many different styles. And after working with producer Rodger Bain for those early albums, they chose to collaborate with their manager Patrick Meehan on their latest production. The doomy, trippy sound that had been their trademark remained intact, but we also got the neo-classical guitar and mellotron instrumental “Laguna Sunrise,” the upbeat “St. Vitus Dance,” the faster-paced “Under The Sun,” and the unexpected, keyboard-driven ballad “Changes.”

Hard rock and metal bands have never been strangers to expressing their softer side, but there hadn’t been anything like this on the first three Sabbath albums. Yes, there was the pastoral guitar and jew’s harp on the intro to “Sleeping Village,” the meditative psychedelia of “Planet Caravan,” and the hazy introspection of “Solitude.” But this was something that was a bit more vibrant and bright in sound as compared with other Sabbath tunes. Yet it still fit in with their overall oeuvre.

Beyond the copious amounts of coke, dope, and booze that were fueling the recording sessions, guitarist Tony Iommi and drummer Bill Ward were experiencing personal upheaval. These relationship situations inspired bassist Geezer Butler to write the lyrics for “Changes.”

The second verse was emblematic of the simple yet heartfelt feelings that singer Ozzy Osbourne emoted through his performance.

We shared the years, we shared each day
In love together, we found the way
But soon the world had its evil way
My heart was blinded, love went astray
I’m going through changes

“Tony had just broken up with his girlfriend at the time, and Bill was going through a divorce,” Butler told Rolling Stone in 2021. “So there was quite a melancholy air in the house, and I just picked up on that.”

“Yeah, I found out that was about me,” Ward told Rolling Stone, adding that he only learned that the song was partially about him only a few years earlier. “I think at that time, maybe a year or two before, I’d gone through a very sad situation with my first wife and started a new relationship. I guess Geezer or maybe Ozz had seen the effect that it had on me, but I actually couldn’t see the effect it had on me.”

The genesis of the song was simple. The group were writing and recording in the Bel-Air, California mansion they were renting when inspiration struck, as Osbourne wrote in his 2009 memoir I Am Ozzy.

“Tony just sat down at the piano and came up with this beautiful riff,” Osbourne recollected. “I hummed a melody over the top, and Geezer wrote these heartbreaking lyrics about the break-up Bill was going through with his wife. I thought that was brilliant from the moment we recorded it. The song consisted of vocals, piano, and a mellotron played by Butler that substituted for a string section.”

According to a Classic Rock magazine historical feature on Vol. 4, “Changes” was “their most sophisticated ballad yet, and their first fully formed love song,” wrote Mick Wall. “It might have been a US hit single, too, if they had taken the advice of the Warner Bros. radio promotion team, but Iommi wasn’t far gone enough yet for that. Keeping with their policy of not releasing more than one single from an album, they plumped instead for “Tomorrow’s Dream,” a stolid mid-tempo rocker and a great album track—and never a hit single in a million years.”

Osbourne included the ballad for his Live & Loud release in 1993, scoring a Top 10 Mainstream Rock track on the Billboard charts. Ten years later, he would re-record it as a duet with his daughter Kelly and score a No. 1 hit with it in the UK.

In 2016, the late Charles Bradley released his third album Changes, the title track for which was a slower, very soulful rendition of the Sabbath ballad with a horn section. What’s cool about his interpretation is not only did he give it his stamp, but it sounds like a ‘70s tune. In other words, he channeled a song he liked but kept it in the spirit of its original time. Both songs stem from the blues, so it made sense.

Vol. 4 was the album that turned around Black Sabbath’s fortunes with critics. Looking back on the album many, many years later, Iommi pondered that perhaps Black Sabbath had gone too far and progressed an extra album ahead of where they would have been. But let’s be real—great rock and roll bands don’t rest on their laurels. They’re always pushing forward. “Changes” was part of that evolution.

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Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for ABA