By Enti Bracamonte
Posted: May 7, 2022

 Black Sabbath and the Ford Granada

If you have been reading this blog (and I really don’t know why you would, but thank you, anyway, if you are), you may be aware that I drove a Ford Granada for some time. Although, in truth, my Ford Granada was actually more trouble than it was worth, to me that old clunker was a tool for freedom and independence and a reliable partner in many adventures I have yet to write about.

Naturally, then, any story involving a Ford Granada is of interest to me, and this one, in particular, although short and possibly uninteresting to most, also happens to involve Black Sabbath, so it really piqued my interest, and I thought I’d share it with you…

So the story goes that while Black Sabbath were trying to record their Born Again album with their new frontman, Ian Gillan (former singer of Deep Purple), they stayed for a few days or weeks—or maybe months, I really don’t know—at a manor owned by Richard Branson—yes, that guy.

Anyway, as described by Tony Iommi and Ian Gillan themselves in various interviews over the years, their management had bought 4 brand new cars—Ford Granadas, as it turned out—for the band members to use.

On a drunken evening, Gillan decided he wanted to take one of the Ford Granadas for a spin on the go kart track of the manor. The track was only wide enough for—you guessed it!—go karts.

The very first song of the Born Again album, Trashed, tells the story of what happened that evening:

“It really was a meeting
The bottle took a beating
The ladies of the manor
Watched me climb into my car

And I was going down the track
About a hundred and five
They had the stopwatch rolling
I had the headlights blazing I was really alive
And yet my mind was blowing
I drank a bottle of Tequila and I felt real good
But on the twenty-fifth lap at the canal turn
I went off exploring

I knew I wouldn't make it
The car just wouldn't make it
I was turning, the tires burning
The ground was in my sky
I was laughing the bitch was trashed
And death was in my eye

I had started pretty good and I was feeling my way
I had the wheels in motion
There was Peter and the Greenfly laughing like drains
Inebriation
The crowd was roaring, I was at Brands Hatch
In my imagination
At the canal turn, I hit an oily patch
Inebriation

I knew I wouldn't make it
The car just wouldn't make it
I was turning, the tires burning
The ground was in my sky
I was laughing the bitch was trashed
And death was in my eye

Ooh, Mr Miracle, you saved me from some pain
I thank you, Mr Miracle, I won't get trashed again
Ooh, can you hear my lies?
Don't you bother with this fool just laugh into my eyes?

I was turning, the tires burning
The ground was in my sky
I was laughing the bitch was trashed
And death was in my eye

Ooh, Mr Miracle, you saved me from some pain
I thank you, Mr Miracle, I won't get trashed again
Ooh, can you hear my lies?
Don't you bother with this fool just laugh into my eyes?

We went to the bar and hit the bottle again
But there was no tequila
Then we started on the whiskey just to steady our brains
'Cause there was no tequila
As we drank a little faster at the top of our hill
We began to roll
And as we got trashed, we were laughing still
Oh bless my soul”

Gillan was fortunate to walk out of that one scot-free and simply left a message on a chalk board at the manor saying: “the car is on the track, the keys are in the ignition.” The message did not say the car was parked downside up and burnt to a crisp.