Tony Iommi
Tony Iommi is synonymous with heavy rock, his innovative, de-tuned, dark riffs are considered to be the blueprint for hundreds of bands that followed.
Born on February 19, 1948, in Birmingham, England, left-handed Tony picked up the guitar after being inspired by the likes of Hank Marvin & the Shadows as a teenager. By 1967, he had played with several blues-based rock bands, and formed a group (Earth) with three old acquaintances from his school days — bassist Terry "Geezer" Butler, drummer Bill Ward, and singer John "Ozzy" Osbourne.
Iommi's musical career was nearly derailed prematurely after he suffered a horrible accident at a sheet metal factory, when a machine sliced off the tips of the fingers on his right hand. After hearing about Django Reinhardt overcoming the disability of two burnt fingers he was determined to continue and made himself plastic thimbles to cover the missing ends.
A very brief spell with Jethro Tull made him realise his future lay with his pals from home. A change of name from Earth to Black Sabbath and a musical shift to their trademark and highly influential dark, self-written material saw the band’s career take off.
Black Sabbath toured relentlessly from 1971 to 1978, moving from clubs to arenas and stadiums and still managed to record eight studio albums all of which were huge commercial successes despite initial scepticism from the music media.
This punishing schedule took its toll on the members and the inevitable split came in 1979 with Ronnie James Dio replacing Ozzy on vocals. If the late 1970’s had seen the band showing signs of fatigue it was completely rejuvenated with the release of the album’s Heaven & Hell and Mob Rules. When Ronnie wanted to return to his solo career, Tony continued with a number of other singers, concentrating on touring in Europe, Russia and the East rather than their previous base in the US.
By the late 90’s the original Black Sabbath line-up were performing live again headlining arenas and festivals, and this era was captured in the Reunion DVD. In 2000 Tony released his first solo album with a who’s who of rock talent on vocals, at the same time continuing to tour with Sabbath. This was followed in 2005 by his second solo record Fused, with former Sabbath singer Glenn Hughes.
Late 2005 and early 2006 saw Sabbath inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame, presented by Queen’s Brian May and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in New York by Metallica.
When label Warner Bros suggested adding new material to a compilation called The Dio Years it went so well that he and Geezer hooked up with Ronnie and Vinny Appice to record and tour as Heaven & Hell. From 2007 to 2009 they toured the world, releasing the studio album The Devil You Know and two DVD’s, the second of which Live at Wacken sadly ended up being a glorious epitaph to Ronnie as he was struck down with stomach cancer and passed away in 2010.
It was whilst working on the Heaven & Hell album back in November 2008, that Birmingham City Council honoured him with a star at their ‘Walk of Stars’ pavement.
Tony continued to spend a lot of time in the studio writing and working on his autobiography Iron Man which was released in October 2011, making the New York Times bestseller list. In addition, with Ian Gillan he released first a single and then a full album to raise funds for the rebuilding of a music school in Armenia devastated by an earthquake some 25 years earlier. For his work on the original charity track, ‘Rock Aid Armenia’, Tony received the Medal of Honour, Armenia’s highest.
At the beginning of 2011 he re-united again with the original Black Sabbath line-up, working on new material and major plans were set up for an album and world tour in 2012. However in November whilst undertaking a promotional tour for his book in the USA he started to feel unwell. On return to the UK he was greeted with the news that a growth was lymphoma. Being his ever-determined self, and despite undergoing both chemo and radiotherapy, writing for the new Sabbath album continued between treatments at his home studio with Ozzy and Geezer who re-located to the UK to make it easier.
Whilst unable to undertake the planned European tour, Tony was well enough to play with Sabbath at a hometown gig in Birmingham, along with headline appearances at Download Festival and Lollapalooza.
The resulting album, ‘13’, broke all records selling well over a million copies and getting to number one in more than 50 national charts worldwide. It marked a 40 year gap between numbers one’s in the UK and garnered their first ever US number one.
In 2013 the band were awarded a second Grammy for the track, ‘God Is Dead?’. They began a worldwide tour in Auckland, New Zealand, in total playing 84 shows through to the summer of 2014, picking up many local awards. Tony was awarded an honorary Doctorate from the Coventry University and is currently their visiting Professor of Music.
At the Ivor Novello awards in London, May 2015 Tony, along with Geezer and Bill received the prestigious Lifetime Achievement award for their songwriting. In October another award was bestowed, Q Magazine’s Les Paul Award.
In January 2016 he hit the road again for the final Sabbath tour, ‘The End’. This global tour played to over 1.8million fans, culminating in two nights at Birmingham’s NEC Arena in February 2017.
May 2019 brought a third Grammy Award, this time a Lifetime’s Achievement, and in June 2019, a bridge and bench were created to honour Sabbath and provide a meeting point for fans, at Broad Street, Birmingham. Tony undertook the opening honours when they were unveiled.
Tony received a Grammy nomination for his work with Candlemass, in February 2020, and later that spring Gibson launched the replica of his SG Monkey guitar.
November 2021 saw a completely different side to Tony with the launch of a perfume in collaboration with Italian brand Xerjoff. As well as the scent, Tony created a track and video, his first instrumental single – ‘Scent of Dark’.
2022 brought appearances at both the opening and closing of the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. Tony duetted at the opening with Indigo Marshall and was joined by Ozzy for the closing song. He also played on two tracks for Ozzy’s solo album, Patient No. 9, released in September 2022, winning a Grammy for the track ‘Degradation Rules’.
Much of 2023 was taken up working with Birmingham’s Royal Ballet on ‘Black Sabbath – The Ballet’ which has proved to be a resounding success. His music from the first few Sabbath albums formed the bedrock that the complete piece was based on. And at the end of 2023 Sky Arts aired a major documentary series entitled ‘Greatest Guitar Riffs’, with Tony as the subject of Episode 1, where he was also joined by Queen’s Brian May to discuss his work.
Black Sabbath reconvened for the final time in 2025 for the monumental ‘Back To The Beginning’ concert which was held on July 5th at Villa Park, in Birmingham. A celebration of both Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne, it paid tribute to the enormous and enduring influence and legacy of their music, featuring a host of rock and metal acts from around the world – including Metallica, Alice In Chains, Tool, Pantera, Guns N Roses, Slayer and many more. The event culminated with Tony and Black Sabbath performing together for the very last time, in a poignant farewell to fans. Just a fortnight later Ozzy Osbourne sadly passed away.
2026 will see Tony return as a solo artist with his first album of new music in over a decade via BMG internationally.
