I was not into heavy metal much as a kid, at least, not the darker stuff like Black Sabbath.  They were so different from the more mainstream metal I liked (Def Leppard, Van Halen, Twisted Sister), a lot scarier, and nobody at my school ever mentioned them.  They were not played on the radio station I listened to, WGCL, but WMMS, which was at that time famous all over the country, played them.  WMMS played a bunch of shit I did not know much about.  I was never interested in devil worship or a bunch of bullshit props and gimmicks onstage or anything like that, and that’s what I knew about bands like Black Sabbath.

I’m not sure what made me buy the first couple Black Sabbath albums when I was in my twenties.  I was expanding my music interests in large part thanks to the PBS rock &…