Last month Blue Öyster Cult released their first album in nineteen years, The Symbol Remains. In promotion of the album, the band have reflected on stories from their illustrious career.
During a recent conversation with Talk Toomey, the band’s guitarist Buck Dharma detailed the 1980 Black and Blue co-headlining tour with Black Sabbath. Dharma mused that he thought Black Sabbath were unhappy with having to do a co-headliner tour, as they believe they were a bigger band.
“It was a great experience, it was a great bill for the music. The bad part was that I don’t think that Black Sabbath was happy with Sandy Pearlman’s management,” he revealed.
“And also the fact that they had to alternate headlining with Blue Öyster Cult – they thought they were bigger than Blue Öyster Cult.
“And they may have been, but Blue Öyster was pretty big at that time, so I would say all in all it was a great time to work with them.”
Dharma went on to share memories from touring with KISS, who supported the band during the early days of their career.
“I remember when KISS first showed up, they opened shows for us a couple of times before they got huge, and I just remember that we had like a little box truck and they show up in a semi with all these stage props,” recalled Dharma.
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“And when they put on their costumes and those big stacked-heel boots, they were, like, huge, you know? We’re little guys, and they were like twice as big as us, so we’re like Hobbits compared to Gene and Paul.
“It was funny. And then, of course, the spectacle of the band is ridiculous anyway, those KISS shows was something I haven’t seen before.”
Check out The Symbol Remains by Blue Öyster Cult:
