Born Again is the eleventh studio album by Black Sabbath. The album is an interesting anomaly in the band’s catalog as it was the first album after the hugely well received Ronnie James Dio line-up ended and also featured former Deep Purple vocalist Ian Gillan handling vocals. While originally being panned by critics on release, the album is somewhat popular among fans for memorable tracks such as “Trashed,” “Disturbing the Priest” and “Zero the Hero.”
When we first put that line-up together [Ian Gillan, Iommi, Butler, Ward], it was only on paper—done purely by lawyers. Ian is a great singer, but he’s from a completely different background [Deep Purple], and it was difficult for him to come in and sing Sabbath material. To be honest, I didn’t like some of the songs on that album—and the production was awful. We never had time to test the pressings after it was recorded, and something happened to it by the time it got released.