Tony Iommi

Tony Iommi biography

Anthony Frank "Tony" Iommi (born 19 February 1948, Heathfield Road Hospital, Handsworth, Birmingham, England) is an English guitarist and songwriter, best known as the founding member of pioneering heavy metal band Black Sabbath, its main composer and sole continual member through multiple personnel changes. Iommi is widely recognised as one of the most important and influential guitarists in heavy metal music. According to Allmusic, "Iommi is one of only two guitarists (the other being Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page) that can take full credit for pioneering the mammoth riffs of heavy metal."

In 2004, Iommi was ranked number one on Guitar World's "100 Greatest Metal Guitarists of All Time", and in 2011, ranked 25th in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". On 13 October (Europe) and 1 November (United States) 2011 Iommi's autobiography was published, entitled Iron Man: My Journey Through Heaven and Hell with Black Sabbath. On 9 January 2012, it was announced that Iommi had been diagnosed with early stage lymphoma.

Career

Early history

The son of first generation British Italians, Tony Iommi originally wanted to play the drums, but due to the noise they produce he picked up the guitar as a teenager, after being inspired by the likes of Hank Marvin and The Shadows. He plays guitar left-handed. In an industrial accident at the age of 17 on his last day of work in a sheet metal factory, he lost the tips of the middle and ring finger of his right hand.

After the injury Iommi contemplated abandoning the guitar. However, his manager encouraged Iommi to pursue music by playing a recording of famed jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt. As Iommi would later write: My friend said, "Listen to this guy play," and I went, "No way! Listening to someone play the guitar is the very last thing I want to do right now!" But he kept insisting and he ended up playing the record for me. I told him I thought it was really good and then he said, "You know, the guy's only playing with two fingers on his fretboard hand because of an injury he sustained in a terrible fire." I was totally knocked back by this revelation and was so impressed by what I had just heard that I suddenly became inspired to start trying to play again.

To compensate for his injury Iommi attempted to learn to play right-handed, but eventually returned to left-handed playing and strung his guitars with lighter strings and made thimbles to extend his fingers.

Pre-Black Sabbath

Iommi had played in several blues/rock bands, the earliest of which was The Rockin' Chevrolets from 1964 to 1965. The band had regular bookings and when they were offered work in Germany, Iommi decided to leave his factory job to take up the opportunity. From 1966 to 1967 Iommi played in a band named The Rest. This was the first time Iommi played with future Black Sabbath drummer Bill Ward.

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