Don Arden: the “notorious gangster” who managed Black Sabbath
The history of rock music is littered with colourful personalities that seem excessively larger than life. However, in the case of the storied Don Arden, he was very much real, and so were his exploits. Accordingly, Arden was a memorable force for everyone he converged with, including Black Sabbath and his daughter, Sharon Osbourne.
A deeply controversial figure, Arden was an entertainer in the post-war years but became a showbusiness agent in 1954 after realising its economic potential. His first notable act as a manager was none other than tempestuous rock ‘n’ roll pioneer Gene Vincent in 1960. Their relationship was particularly rocky, though, and reportedly ended when the alcohol-addled American pulled a knife on Arden.
In 1964, Arden would oversee The Nashville Teens on a hit-making run, then, the following year, he would sign The Small Faces after a half-hour meeting at his office in London’s Carnaby Street. It was during this era, as his business and bands started to boom, that Arden would become a notorious figure for his menacing behaviour, which included claims of paying £12,000 to get The Small Faces’ debut single ‘Whatcha Gonna Do About It’ on the chart, and intimidating his contemporaries and signees. In the years since his peak, some of his bands, including The Small Faces, have also claimed they’re not convinced they received the total remuneration due from Arden.
The most infamous moment from this period happened in 1966. It was alleged that Arden and a group of “minders” turned up at fellow impresario Robert Stigwood’s office to teach him a lesson for tentatively discussing with The Small Faces about switching to his management. According to the age-old tale, Arden threatened to throw Stigwood out of the window if he ever dared to mess with his operations again. This wasn’t the first time this threat was registered in Arden’s life. One of the members of The Nashville Teens, John Hawken, would also claim Arden intimidated him with defenestration after confronting him about earnings.
The most famous band Arden presided over was heavy metal pioneers Black Sabbath, who first signed with him in 1976. Both parties would have an on-and-off relationship, but he was there through the end of frontman Ozzy Osbourne’s tenure, Ronnie James Dio’s stint and the ephemeral chapter starring Deep Purple vocalist Ian Gillan.
When appearing on The Rock Podcast with Denny Somach in 2023, Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler looked back on working with Don Arden and his unscrupulous nature. “He was a notorious gangster,” he said. “He was called the Godfather of Rock. He had really gangster-like methods in the way he got bands.”
“He famously hung Robert Stigwood, the Bee Gees manager, out of the window because Robert Stigwood tried to steal one of Don’s bands,” Butler continued.
The bassist even claimed that Arden tried to dupe Sabbath on their first deal. “When we first went to see him, he wanted to sign us, and he showed us this contract and there was a space where the management percentage was supposed to be – and it was blank,” he recalled. “I said, ‘Well, how much are we supposed to be paying you?’ He went, ‘Oh, don’t worry about that. I’ll fill that part in later.’ I said, ‘Well, can you fill out how much you’ll be getting, your percentage now?’ And he wouldn’t do it.”
“We were off-and-on with Don,” Butler added. “When Ozzy left, when Ian Gillan joined the band, Don Arden was our manager at that time – and he got us quite a good deal back then. It was hit-and-miss with Don.”
Notably, Arden’s relationship with his daughter Sharon was a complex one, and his personality would be so tragic for her life that she didn’t speak to him for over 20 years. Famously, in 1979, Ozzy Osbourne was sacked by Black Sabbath, and during this period, he started to date Sharon, who also became his manager. The pair married in Hawaii in 1982.
Around the time that Sharon became Ozzy’s manager, Don Arden was allegedly enraged at this perceived slight, and the next time she visited her parent’s house, his vicious pet dogs savaged her. Tragically, she was pregnant at the time and lost the child due to the attack. “It was horrific,” she told The Guardian in 2001.
Following this, in the mid-1980s, Arden faced trial for false imprisonment and blackmail but was eventually acquitted. However, his son David – Sharon’s brother – was found guilty of identical charges and jailed, spending a number of months in open prison. It wouldn’t be until after that interview with The Guardian that Sharon and Don would reconcile, which coincidentally came that year at the behest of Ozzy on The Osbournes.
Sharon Osbourne hated her father so intensely that she had even told her three children that he was dead before the high-profile TV reconciliation. Before this reunion, the children unwittingly encountered him for the first time in Los Angeles when Sharon was shouting abuse at him on the street. When they confusedly asked who it was, she replied that it was Hollywood icon Tony Curtis.
“The best lesson I ever had was watching him fuck his business up,” Sharon told The Guardian about her father. “He taught me everything not to do. My father’s never even seen any of my three kids, and, as far as I’m concerned, he never will.”
