FAQ: Why Ronnie Left Black Sabbath In 1982?

In 1982 Dio left Black Sabbath with the drummer Vinny Appice. After the split there was a huge amount of press releases and interviews from Black Sabbath where both Geezer and Tony Iommi accused Ronnie and Vinny for sneaking into the studios during nights to mix bass and especially guitar volume lower and to mix up vocals and drums on the Live Evil album. Later, rather quietly, Tony Iommi said that he was wrong with his accusations. Live Evil was produced by Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler.

Ronnie and Vinny didn't like those accusations and decided to leave together and form Dio (the band). This happened in October 1982. There were other reasons behind the split too, like the way how Tony and Geezer left the concert venues right after the show without meeting the fans backstage etc. Tony and Geezer mixed the rest of the Live Evil album themselves.

The reason for Iommi's beliefs was the fact that he and Geezer couldn't ever appear at the studios at the same time with Ronnie and Vinny. So either of those parties didn't know too well what the others were doing.