The crystallised image of Black Sabbath in the minds of fans will always be associated with leather jackets, doom-laden riffs and the godfathers of heavy metal snarling into the abyss. Michael Bolton’s name, on the other hand, brings up memories of soft-rock ballads and love songs like ‘When a Man Loves a Woman’. But once upon a very strange moment in rock history, these two musical worlds almost collided.
According to Tony Iommi, Bolton was briefly in contention to become Sabbath’s lead singer after Ronnie James Dio departed. As bizarre as it sounds, Iommi insists, “He did a good job”. In the early 1980s, Black Sabbath were lost in the dark forests of the post-Ozzy Osbourne wilderness. Ronnie James Dio had assumed the vocal responsibilities and steered the group into a thunderous new era with Heaven and Hell and Mob Rules.
However, it didn’t last too long as tensions kept rising before Dio ultimately jumped ship in 1982. Once again, the band was frontman-less and sifting through audition tapes in search of the right voice. Sabbath needed a singer who would not only keep them relevant but also fill the gaping void left behind by their former leading man.
During these auditions, one demo came in from an unlikely source: a young Michael Bolton. Known today for his Grammy-winning soft rock anthems and flowing hair, his early career was more aligned with hard rock and heavy metal.
According to Iommi, his tape made an impression. “Yes,” he confirmed when asked if Bolton auditioned, “we had a lot of audition tapes, and Michael Bolton was one of them. Actually, he did a good job. But we had so many during those days and were looking for a particular person.”
It turns out that Bolton wasn’t always serenading the adult contemporary charts. In the late 1970s and early ‘80s, he fronted a hard rock band called Blackjack. After working on two studio albums, embarking on a small US tour and opening for Ozzy, the project was short-lived. Bolton’s voice, powerful and gritty, felt like it belonged in the contemporary metal landscape. While the public image of Bolton later softened with hits like ‘How Am I Supposed to Live Without You’, the singer’s roots were metal and hard rock through and through.
While it would have been fantastic to see what Bolton could have achieved in that context, unfortunately, he wasn’t selected. Black Sabbath were spoiled for choice, and Bolton’s smooth, melodic vocals weren’t quite the right fit for Sabbath’s patented sound. They ended up picking Ian Gillan from Deep Purple, whose raw vocals brought a very different energy. This fateful decision gave birth to the 1983 album Born Again, which split the opinions of fans at the time of its release but is regarded as a cult classic now.
As for Bolton, he’d soon find his voice and massive success in the world of soft rock. Still, for a brief moment, he was almost fronting one of metal’s most legendary bands. And if you ever catch yourself imagining him belting out ‘Children of the Grave’, well, you’re not alone.
