Tony Iommi Biography, Videos & Pictures
Tony Iommi Facts
| Name: Tony Iommi | Guitars: Gibson |
| Born: February 19, 1948 | Amplifiers: Mesa Boogie |
| Origin: Birmingham, England | |
| Bands: The Rockin' Chevrolets, The Rest, Mythology, Polka Tulk, Earth, Black Sabbath, Heaven and Hell | |
| Links: Official Website, Official Black Sabbath Website | |
Tony Iommi was born on February 19, 1948, in Birmingham, England to Italian immigrants. Iommi began playing guitar as a teenager. While working in a sheet metal factory at the age of 17, Iommi lost part of the middle and ring fingers of his right hand in an industrial accident. Being a left handed guitar player, this meant the loss of his fretting hand, and Iommi decided to give up the guitar. When his boss at the factory heard of Iommi’s decision he played a Django Reinhardt album for the youth. Django was a highly regarded guitarist despite limited use of his fretting hand, and inspired Iommi to persevere.
Tony Iommi’s first attempts at playing the guitar with his injured hand involved trying to learn to use the instrument right handed. He did not have the success that he would have liked using this method and decided to have a go at finding a way to play southpaw with his missing fingers. Iommi strung his guitar with extra light strings and fashioned crude, thimble like tips for his fingers using plastic melted down from liquid soap bottles. He covered the homemade prosthetics in leather to give him a better grip on the strings.
In the mid-sixties, Iommi played with, and had small success with, several blues rock bands. The first was called The Rockin’ Chevrolets. Tony played with the group from 1964 to 1965 and had enough success that the band was offered a job in Germany. Iommi decided to leave his job at the sheet metal factory and take the opportunity. From 1966 to 1967, Iommi played with a band called The Rest, along with his former school friend, drummer Bill Ward. For the first half of 1968, Iommi and Ward played in a blues band called Mythology. Mythology disbanded on July 13 of that year after being arrested and convicted of possession of Marijuana resin. They were each fined 15 pounds for the charge.
Iommi and Ward then began to work with vocalist John “Ozzy” Osbourne and rhythm guitarist Terry “Geezer” Butler, whose band, Rare Breed, had also just broken up, and two other members, slide guitarist Jimmy Phillips and saxophonist Alan Clarke. Geezer took on the role of bass player for the new band, which called themselves The Polka Tulk Blues Company. The bands name was later shortened to Polka Tulk following the dismissal of Phillips and Clarke.
The band renamed themselves Earth in September of 1968, and played together until briefly breaking up in December of that year so Iommi could play with Jethro Tull. Tony played only one gig with Tull before going back to Earth, but was greatly inspired by vocalist Ian Anderson’s work ethic. Impressed by the regimented practice schedule that Ian had Jethro Tull adhere to, Iommi instilled the same values on his Earth bandmates.
When the band gained some success, they had to change their name due to conflicts with another moderately successful local band which also went by the name Earth. The group decided on the name Black Sabbath. After two albums, troubles stemming from Iommi’s missing fingers led him to detune his guitar to C#. The resulting sound, combined with Iommi’s then revolutionary use of heavy distortion and dark, minor key riffs would become a staple for heavy metal music.
In 1979, Ozzy Osbourne was fired by Iommi after rampant drug use took its toll on the band. Osbourne was replaced by vocalist Ronnie James Dio, who had been playing with the band Rainbow with former Deep Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore. The replacement marked the first of many lineup changes, with drummer Bill Ward being replaced by Vinny Appice after only one album with Dio. The band underwent many lineup changes until Iommi recorded what was intended to be a solo album in 1984. Due to contractual issues, the album was released as being by Black Sabbath with Tony Iommi. Black Sabbath, with continuing lineup changes recorded two more albums until the original band re-united in 1997 for a tour.
Iommi finally got to release a solo album in 2000, titled simply “Iommi”. The album featured many top vocalists of the day, including Ian Astbury, Henry Rollins, Serj Tankian, Dave Grohl, Billy Corgan, Phil Anselmo, Peter Steele and Ozzy Osbourne. In 2004 and 2005, Iommi released two more solo albums. The first one, “The 1996 DEP Sessions”, was actually recorded in 1996 but previously unreleased.
One time Black Sabbath lineup, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, Ronnie James Dio, and Vinny Appice, reunited under a new name, Heaven and Hell in 2006 and started a tour in April of 2007. They toured again in 2008 on the Metal Masters Tour with Judas Priest, Motorhead and Testament. Heaven and Hell released a studio album on April 28, 2009.
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