Born Again  by Black Sabbath

In September 1983, Black Sabbath released their eleventh album titled Born Again. The big surprise of the album was the participation of Ian Gillan on vocals. Gillan humorously stated that "he didn't even know he had become a member of Sabbath" until the next day, as the agreement was made after a night of heavy drinking with Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler. In an earlier interview (1992), he had jokingly admitted that he was "the worst singer Black Sabbath ever had," explaining that his style was completely incompatible with the image and musical tradition of the band.

The album was recorded at The Manor Studio in Oxfordshire, owned by Richard Branson. The most well-known tracks are Trashed (inspired by an accident Gillan had with a kart) and Zero The Hero, which influenced bands such as Guns N' Roses. The cover, known as the "devilish baby," was created by Steve "Krusher" Joule - who also worked for Ozzy Osbourne - and he admitted that he deliberately made a "bad" cover due to the conflict between Sabbath's manager (Don Arden) and Sharon Osbourne (!)

Despite the bad reviews Born Again received, it was a commercial success, reaching No. 4 in the UK (the highest position since 1973) and the Top 40 in the USA. The tour that followed went down in history for the Stonehenge set that was mistakenly ordered at three times its normal size, an event that inspired the famous scene in the movie This Is Spinal Tap (!)