Tony Iommi is a legendary guitarist and composer who is the founder of the band Black Sabbath, which has greatly influenced the development of heavy rock as an independent style of music. Iommi is placed on a par with such virtuoso guitarists as Jimi Hendrix, Jimi Page and Ritchie Blackmore. In the list of "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" by the reputable Rolling Stone magazine, Iommi is ranked 25th.
Early creativity
Tony Iommi (full name Frank Anthony Iommi) was born on February 19, 1948 in England (Birmingham). His parents - Anthony Frank Iommi and Silvia Maria were Italians, and Tony was the only child in the family. His parents were very musical. My father played the accordion and my mother played the harmonica. This fact from childhood influenced Tony's future. At the age of ten, Tony enters Birchfield Road High School. Ozzy Osbourne studied at the same school, whom Iommi would later take as a vocalist in his group. By the age of 15, Tony was already able to play the guitar and rehearsed, forming the band The Rockin 'Chevrolets with his friend. After her breakup, Tony auditioned, and he was invited to the professional group "The Birds & The Bees", which goes on tour in Europe.
Iommi's musical career almost ended after an accident at the factory where he worked part-time. Two fingers of his right hand were hit by the press, and he lost both phalanges. Tony fell into a severe depression, all the doctors said that he would never be able to play the guitar. But one day his friend brought him a record of Django Reinhardt, a gypsy jazzman who played beautifully with only three fingers of his left hand. This inspired Tony so much that he did not even want to retrain to play with his right hand, but invented for himself special fingertips to help him clamp the strings. After this injury, Iommi's style of play became inimitable.
Six months after the injury, the musician has already played in various rock and blues bands, such as: Mythology, Polka Talk Blues Band, Earth.
In 1968, a case briefly leads Iommi to the Jethro Tull group, but after disagreements within the group, he returns to his group Earth, which he renames to Black Sabbath.
Career at Black Sabbath
Beginning in 1969, thanks to Iommi and his unique guitar playing style, Black Sabbath released their first successful album of the same name, "Black Sabbath", which was reissued in the United States and sold in millions of copies. The group, at that time, played four friends from Birmingham: vocalist John Michael Osborne, guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Terence Michael Joseph Butler and drummer William Thomas Ward.
Then the following albums of the group were released - Paranoid and Master of Reality (1971), Vol. 4 (1972) and Sabbath Bloody (1973), Sabotage (1975), Technical Ecstasy (1976). Hard rock hits such as "Black Sabbath", "Iron Man", "Paranoid", "Into the Void" and "Children of the Grave" have become role models for many guitarists, and Tony Iommi is a classic and icon of the hard style. -rock. In music, Tony constantly wanted to experiment and look for something new in the band's sound, while Ozzy Osbourne, on the contrary, wanted the band not to change their usual style. On this basis, there were constant disagreements in the group, and in 1979 Iommi decided to fire Osborne. After Ozzy left, he was replaced by Ronnie James Dio, the former vocalist of Rainbow. During the first rehearsal with Dio, the song "Children of the sea" was written, and in April 1980 Black Sabbath released a new album, "Heaven and Hell" with a renewed lineup.
The album sold over a million copies and peaked at number nine in the UK. Ronnie James Dio turned out to be not only an excellent vocalist, but also a songwriter. Thanks to this, the group gained even more fans and fans.
Dio's second and final album, The Mob Rules, was released in November 1981 and went gold. But the relationship between the new vocalist and Tanya was strained. Therefore, in November 1982, Dio left the group and began a solo career. And in his place comes the equally popular soloist of Deep Purple - Ian Gillan. With the participation of Gillan, the group recorded the darkest works, they were included in the album "Born Again", which was released in 1983 and took fourth place in the UK charts. Iommi was disappointed with Gillan's vocals and the new sound of their songs. After that, Ian Gillan returned to Deep Purple again, and the band split up.
Left alone, Tony decides to buy the copyrights for Black Sabbath and again looks for a new lineup. It includes: Jeff Nichols (keyboards), Glenn Hughes (vocals), Dave Spitz (bass) and Eric Singer (drums). In 1986 the album "Seventh Star" was released, in which Tony Iommi is the author of the music and lyrics.
Further, the guitarist continues his solo career, and is also involved in charity work.
In 2012, Tony Iommi was diagnosed with an early stage cancer. Fortunately, after timely treatment, the musician began to recover. After battling his illness, Tony became worried that a tight touring schedule would lead him to relapse again. So he decided to announce the final tour called "The End". The tour started in January 2016 and included visits to America, Australia, New Zealand, Europe and, of course, his native UK.
Personal life and interesting facts
Tony Iommi is married to Maria Sjoholm, who also studied music (she was the vocalist of the Swedish band Drain STH). They have a daughter, Tony-Marie Iommi. She is also a musician, she founded her own group LunarMile.
Tony Iommi is immortalized on the Avenue of Stars in his hometown of Birmingham.
In 2009, for the help provided to the people of Armenia, the musician was awarded the highest award of Armenia - the Order of Honor.
Iommi has a huge collection of guitars.
The name of the group Black Sabbath means "Black Sabbath".
The first Black Sabbath album was recorded in 12 hours.
