10 Hard Rock Musicians Who Were Almost In 2 Legendary Bands

Most rock fans don't bring up Ian Gillan nearly as much as they should as one of the founders of metal vocalists. Though his style was still rooted in the bluesy tradition made popular by acts like Cream, the way he could scream across albums like Machine Head definitely rubbed off on the Rob Halfords of the world. However, Gillan very nearly traded his shades of Deep Purple in for a much darker color.

After Ronnie James Dio was brought in to replace Ozzy Osbourne in Black Sabbath, creative tensions led Tony Iommi to recruit Gillan for their next album Born Again. Though this sounds like it should be an absolute rager on paper, there's some definite problems here, with the doomy riffs really clashing with Gillan's low register. Also, much like the cover art, the mixing on this album is hot garbage, with most of it sounding like first drafts.

While both parties have gone out of their way to defend this album, it wasn't enough to keep Gillan in the band, departing shortly after a mini-tour to support the album. No matter how many times people may want to call this a progenitor to stuff like grunge, it just feels like a product of wasted potential. Some bands may have that magic chemistry from the beginning, but throwing two amazing musicians into the same room doesn't always have the chocolate and peanut butter kind of combination.