Interview: Black Sabbath's Tony Iommi

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Whilst Black Sabbath may have gained mainstream notoriety through the antics of its bat-beheading frontman, the band’s musical legacy has lived on for so many years largely thanks to the labours of a certain Tony Iommi.

Famed for the crunchy, blues-inspired guitar sound that is now a Black Sabbath trademark, he has long been heralded as ‘the creator of the heavy metal riff’. From Metallica to Muse, from Faith No More to the Foo Fighters, evidence of his influence can be found in abundance. His impact upon Black Sabbath’s musical direction, and indeed that of the hard rock and metal genres that followed, has been colossal.

Perhaps Tony’s biggest role in the band’s success, however, was in his attitude. Talking to Gigwise in London, he reveals the lengths he went to in the early days to ensure that Black Sabbath had a future: “I believed in what we were doing and I believed in the music we were playing. When we first started the band, there was really no one else like us. It was such a challenge trying to make that breakthrough and it was tough trying to get people to accept us. I always knew it was going to be hard, and during one period I paid everything out of my own money to keep it all going – the trucks, the buses for the band, the whole thing. I believed in it and I didn’t want it to die off. Black Sabbath had become such a part of me."

As the only member of the band to have stayed with it since its formation, Tony was also forced to make a few tough calls along the way – one of which was sacking Ozzy Osbourne after his constant drug and alcohol abuse had made him increasingly difficult to work with. In a moment that has since polarised the opinions of many Black Sabbath fans, the decision was taken to replace the iconic frontman with Ronnie James Dio, of Rainbow. Whilst it was considered a controversial move at the time, there is no denying that this brought a whole new dynamic to the band – and his influence was instantly appreciated by the rest of its members.

“Ronnie brought a lot really – and that’s not to say that Ozzy didn’t – but he brought a different approach to the writing,” Tony recalls. “It was a more creative input and Ronnie could play an instrument too, so if he wanted to explain something he would play it. I could actually sit down with Ronnie and play something, and we would build a song up that way. We found that difficult to do with Ozzy – if Ozzy tried to explain something, we didn’t always get it. With Ronnie we were able to move quicker and write stuff a lot quicker.”

The band’s first album of the so-called ‘Dio era’, Heaven and Hell, was generally well received. Tony reveals how the experience brought a change in pace to the way the band had previously worked: “We were faced by so much criticism beforehand with people saying it would never be the same without Ozzy, and that really made us get off our arse and work for it. We wanted to prove our doubters wrong, and so it was a much more stressful process. I really enjoyed that stress though and, at the end of it all, I think we created a really good album.”

Despite the band separating just one album later, the Dio era line-up re-united again for a one-off tour in 2007, opting to perform not as Black Sabbath, but instead under the name of their first album together – Heaven and Hell. Such was the success of the tour that the new name stuck, and soon a new album, The Devil You Know, was produced. At present, the band is scheduled to support acts that include Iron Maiden, Megadeth, Slayer and Metallica on the pan-European Sonisphere 2010 tour.

Although he may be in London to promote reissues of the Dio era Black Sabbath albums, Tony is very much focused on Heaven and Hell. He is eagerly anticipating the tour, and seems pleased with the way things are going at the moment with his current band. He explains: “In the past there was a lot of friction, and we were very on-and-off. It’s funny to think that we have broken up on three separate occasions before finally touring again 15 years later. Things have changed now though and I think we have really grown up.

“Doing The Devil You Know together had shown how far we had all come, and it was a joy to work on – there was a real commitment from everyone involved. With that being said, I still remember when we first performed as Heaven and Hell – after 40 years as Black Sabbath, it felt really odd. I didn’t expect I would ever play under a different name and I even kept the first ticket from the first gig. It still feels a little strange now, but really exciting at the same time. At the moment I just can’t wait for that feeling again when we go on tour.”