HAPPY SAMHAIN – Krusher Print Signed and Numbered Limited Edition

This image was inspired by a logo I designed for Black Sabbath, first used as the front cover of their 1981 Heaven & Hell UK tour programme, on that design I actually incorporated the original Henry, the flying devil/angel, Sabbath’s official mascot that had been around since the mid 70s, and which Geezer Butler says he stole from a poster.

I used it again on the back cover of Black Sabbath’s ‘Born Again’ album, which I designed in 1983 and I’ve included the story of its making below, but this time I incorporated my own design of Henry with him flying towards you.

In 2017 I made a few changes to the original design by removing the lettering and runes saying Black Sabbath, and replaced them with runes that read HAPPY SAMHAIN as I intended to use it for a limited edition Halloween card, I also added a bit of colour to Henry, which then led onto the limited edition print for sale here.

In 2018 I incorporated the design in a limited edition t-shirt where the runes read FUCK YOUR RULES, and I also used part of the design in a limited edition of 50 t-shirts commemorating Sabbath’s 50th anniversary.

The story of Black Sabbath’s ‘Born Again’ album sleeve is a long one and it goes back to legendary rock manager Don Arden who had long run the affairs of Sabbath. His daughter, Sharon had followed him into the family business and was given the task of looking after the day to day affairs of original Sabbath singer Ozzy Osbourne, who was also managed by Don, and at the time was in the middle of a fantastically successful solo career. And, of course, she didn’t just look after him but she fell in love with him and eventually married him and as a wedding present from her father she wanted him to not only drop managing Ozzy  so she could take over, but she also wanted him to drop him from his record label Jet Records so she could take him to another label. Anyway, things didn’t initially go to plan as obviously Don wasn’t prepared to give up one of his big money makers and it resulted in Don and Sharon falling out brutally, but eventually with the help of a good lawyer Sharon severed all Ozzy’s links with Don, took over as Ozzy’s manager and got him a deal with Epic records. Nonetheless, Sharon was still contractually obliged to deliver two albums to Don, which she did with Ozzy’s ‘Speak Of The Devil’ double album.

After ‘Speak Of The Devil’, I knew Ozzy’s next release was going to be ‘Bark At The Moon’ and I wanted to stay in Sharon’s good books, especially as I’d designed the sleeve for not only ‘Speak Of The Devil’ but also Ozzy’s second solo album ‘Diary Of A Madman’ and I really had my heart set on ‘Bark At The Moon’, in fact I’d been exchanging ideas for it with photographer Fin Costello who was commissioned to take the pics for it.

Now, while Ozzy is having his great solo career, Sabbath aren’t doing so well – and were a band without a singer – but Don was so upset with Sharon taking away Ozzy that he decided to revive Sabbath just to piss her off and have some bizarre kind of revenge. He got Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler on board along with the return of recovering alcoholic Bill Ward. For a singer, he signed Deep Purple’s Ian Gillan and suddenly it’s a supergroup. The other part of his plan to supremely piss Sharon off was to steal as many of her and Ozzy’s team as possible and get them to work for Sabbath. Obviously as I was designing Ozzy’s sleeves at the time I got the call to go to the office to discuss designing the album cover.

I actually got the call from Don’s son, David, another member of the family business, who had also told me that his dad would actually be there, which was a rarity as he spent most of his time living in the US and I realised this was a really big deal. So I went in with my Jack Russell dog, Bullseye. Once in the office, whilst I’m having a quick chat with Lyndsey the receptionist, I let Bullseye off the lead as he’d been there with me many times before, everybody knew him and he was a sociable little bastard who liked the attention of human beings. As I’m merrily chatting away to Lyndsey Don suddenly storms out of one of the offices, he looked like Marlon Brando in The Godfather, had the same kind of presence, especially as he had a very large gun in his hand and was screaming: “Whose fucking dog is this? If somebody doesn’t get it out of my office NOW, I’ll fucking shoot it.”

To my relief, Bullseye came back when I called him, I put him back on his lead and gave him to Lyndsey to look after. By this time David had come over to tell me his dad was always like that and not to worry as he led me into the gates of Hell, better known as Don’s office, to sort out the album cover, but by then I had decided I didn’t want to do it. Any dog owner will tell you that they’re never going to feel good about somebody who has threatened to shoot their dog and I didn’t want to be around Don the potential dog killer ever again.

The meeting is done with the gun lying on the desk, which was somewhat unnerving. After being told what the album was going to be called, which was ‘Born Again’ I said that I would do some rough designs and send them over as soon as I’d finished them but as I’m walking out of Don’s office I’m thinking: “Fuck this for a game of monkeys!!!”

I got home and thought: “How can I get out of this?” I realised that if I did the worst design I could, they would turn it down, I’d get a nice rejection fee and we could all go our separate ways. I’d be out of Don’s way and my relationship with Sharon would still be intact; in fact, she’d probably be pleased with me.

So, the worst idea I could think of was an image of a baby that I found on the front cover of a 1968 magazine called ‘Mind Alive’ that my parents had bought me as a child in order to further my education, so in reality I blame my parents for the whole sorry mess. I then took some black and white photocopies of the image, that I overexposed, stuck the horns, nails, fangs into the equation, used the most outrageous colour combination that acid could buy, bastardised a bit of the Olde English typeface and sat back, shook my head and chuckled because I was sure they would never go for it, but that pleasure turned to dismay when I got the call saying they absolutely loved it. The story goes that at the meeting Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler were present but no Ian Gillan or Bill Ward. Tony loved it and Geezer, so I’m reliably informed, looked at it and in his best Brummie accent said, “It’s shit… but it’s fucking great!” Don not only loved it but had already decided that a Born Again baby costume was to be made for a dwarf who was going to wear it and be part of the now infamous ‘Born Again Tour’ but that’s a whole other story.

So suddenly I find myself having to do the bloody thing. I was also offered a ridiculous amount of money (about twice as much as I was being paid for an Ozzy sleeve design) if I could deliver finished artwork for front, back and inner sleeve by a certain date. As the dreaded day drew nearer and nearer I kept putting off doing it again and again until finally the day before I sprang into action with the help of a neighbour, (Steve ‘Fingers’ Barrett) a bottle of Jack Daniels and the filthiest speed that money could buy on the streets of South East London and we bashed the whole thing out in a night, including hand lettering all the lyrics, delivered it the next day where upon I received my financial reward, but unbeknownst to me when I signed, I was told it was a receipt for the cheque, I actually signed away my merchandising rights, BIG money down the drain!! But that wasn’t the end of it, oh no!

When Gillan finally got to see a finished sleeve he hated it with a vengeance and hence the now famous quote “I looked at the cover and puked!” Not wanting to sound bitchy but over the years I’ve said the same thing about most of Gillan’s album sleeves. He also allegedly threw a box of 25 copies of the album out of a hotel window. Gillan might have hated it but Max Cavelera (Sepultura, Soulfly) and Glen Benton (Deicide) have both gone on record saying that it is their favourite album sleeve and I believe Kurt Cobain was fond of it too.

And that my friend is the story of Black Sabbath’s ‘Born Again’ cover, now let’s put that baby to rest once and for all.