Like a good chunk of us, George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher remembers hearing Black Sabbath as a kid and being blown away. The legendary Cannibal Corpse vocalist recently spoke to Chaoszine where he talked about hearing Black Sabbath for the first time and growing up with parents who had some pretty eclectic taste.
"Probably when I was a kid, probably before I was even 10 years old. Black Sabbath was the first thing that I really heard that made me be like 'Wow!' 'Cause that's the first metal band. My parents listen to music, my father loves Hank Williams Senior, old country music, he likes Rolling Stones and AC/DC, a lot of rock and hard rock.
"I'm sure it was through him or one of my uncles that I heard Black Sabbath for the first time when I was seven or eight. Might have been even before then, I was probably scared of that. You listen to the song 'Black Sabbath'… When I first heard that, I was like, 'Shit, this is evil.' But yeah, probably around then it would be Black Sabbath. And it pretty much changed my whole outlook on things.
"My mother listened to Elvis, Frankie Valli and Waylon Jennings, and old country music like Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson stuff. So my parents listened to music. They weren't avid, like all day long listening to music, but they listened to it so I was familiar with all types of music.
"But when I heard Black Sabbath, that was the changing of everything. That was the beginning of me wanting to be like… Eventually my mentality being that I want to do this for my life."
Corpsegrinder later compared the costumes and stage presence of Kiss to the sound of Black Sabbath, saying Kiss had the look of what Black Sabbath sounded like. Or in his words, Black Sabbath "looked more just like some kind of hippie dudes" back in the day. Which does make sense considering Black Sabbath was originally a blues band that ended up y'know, helping invent the entire genre of heavy metal.