TONY IOMMI: SABBATH'S AXE MAN

I described in a post here last week that I bought the first Black Sabbath LP when it first came out at Tower Records in Westwood Village, CA. When I first put needle to vinyl, I was immediately transfixed by the sound that blew my head apart, uttering "What is this that plays before me?"

Few records did that for me in the classic rock era -- others I remember were the Allman Brothers' "Beginnings", Van Halen's first, Boston's second, and of course, Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon". I wore the grooves down on these, and for good reason: they are classic recordings.

With Sabbath, though, the sheer power of their sound was equal only to Led Zepplin at the time. Bassist "Geezer" Butler (nicknamed because he called everybody that in school) would come up with the dark, foreboding lyrics for the songs. But it was guitarist, Tony Iommi who was responsible for coming up with the monster riffs that are forever indelible in rock music. From the crushing three-note intro to their title song to the two-note bend that portended the smash hit, "Iron Man", Iommi was a constant source of the sound that brought heavy metal into the forefront of the world.

It took a few years, but I finally saw them live at 1974's CAL JAM at the Ontario Speedway soon after the release of SABBATH, BLOODY SABBATH. It was a great set, albeit with Ozzy's ridiculous (maybe not for then) fringy costume and also odd to see Iommi with a clean-shaven face (leading one person on the YouTube site to comment: "I thought Tony was born with his moustache (!)".

Now, fifty years later, the band has fragmented into parts with Iommi the only original member still on the roster. Here, in this interview from the March 2020 issue of GUITARIST, he opens up about his career and his famed "axe", a Gibson SG (used by many other talented guitarists of the day, including Carlos Santana, John Cippolina of Quicksilver Messenger Service, and Robby Krieger of The Doors).

NOTE: I just checked the page views for this post -- as of Monday morning the number stands at 666! Yow!