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Post by nonrabbit on Mar 16, 2011 9:41:40 GMT
Tony Iommi explains the influence Tull had on him/Sabbath for the short time he played with them - increased daylight hours and spreading the word ;D
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Post by Deleted on Mar 17, 2011 13:29:46 GMT
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Post by maddogfagin on Mar 17, 2011 19:17:38 GMT
Will have to investigate that album in due course. Cheers.
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Post by maddogfagin on Nov 22, 2013 16:42:59 GMT
ultimateclassicrock.com/tony-iommi-honorary-doctorate/Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi has been called a lot of things over the course of his incredible career, and now he can add “doctor” to the list. Published on 19 Nov 2013 CovStudent The heavy metal legend was recently awarded an honorary doctorate by Coventry University, bestowed “in recognition of his contribution to the world of popular music” as well as “his role as one of the founding fathers of heavy metal music and his status as one of the industry’s most influential figures.” Calling it “a great honor,” Iommi told reporters, “It’s brilliant. I couldn’t believe it.” Iommi joins a long and eclectic list of honorary Coventry graduates, including the artist George Shaw and Sarah Tremellen, a British entrepreneur who made her fortune in plus-sized lingerie. You can see footage from the ceremony, as well as a brief interview with Iommi, in the above video clip. As Iommi told reporters at the scene, his appearance at Coventry coincided with a small break in Black Sabbath’s current tour; in fact, after picking up his new degree, he headed straight for the airport, where he flew off to Helsinki to join the band for another series of European shows. Current plans call for Sabbath to stay on the road until at least next spring. www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-25004475Black Sabbath star Tony Iommi receives honorary degree Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi has received an honorary degree. The founder member of the Birmingham heavy metal band was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Arts by Coventry University. He said it was a "great honour" to receive the doctorate and thanked the university for his nomination. The honorary degree was "in recognition of his contribution to the world of popular music", the university said. It recognised "his role as one of the founding fathers of heavy metal music and his status as one of the industry's most influential figures". Iommi said: "It's brilliant. I couldn't believe it." He planned to head straight from the graduation ceremony at Coventry Cathedral to join Black Sabbath in Helsinki for the start of their latest European tour. He has sold more than 80 million records worldwide during his career. Other high-profile recipients of honorary degrees from the university included artist George Shaw, whose depictions of Coventry's Tile Hill landscape have won him a Turner Prize nomination.
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Post by maddogfagin on Jan 4, 2014 9:06:44 GMT
Metal, Progressive rock, Rock Music — January 4, 2014 ‘It just felt weird’: Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi on his brief stint in Jethro Tullsomethingelsereviews.com/Tony Iommi remembers the moment when he had to decide between his then-new group Black Sabbath and taking over as guitarist in Jethro Tull. He ended up only serving a brief and apparently unhappy stint replacing Mick Abrahams. “Ian Anderson asked me if I would be interested in joining them,” Iommi tells Noise11. “I talked to our guys, and said: ‘What do you think I should do?’ They said: ‘You should go for it.’ And I said, ‘Oh, thanks! (Laughs.) So, what does that mean, then?’” Iommi didn’t last long with Jethro Tull, appearing in a floppy white hat during a 1968 promotional concert film sponsored by the Rolling Stones called Rock and Roll Circus that ultimately remained unreleased for decades. The Who, John Lennon, Eric Clapton and Marianne Faithful were also on the bill with Tull and the Stones. “I didn’t feel quite comfortable with it,” Iommi says. “Even when I went down to the rehearsal with them, I took (longtime Black Sabbath bassist) Geezer (Butler) with me. I said to him afterward: ‘I don’t feel happy with this.’ It just felt weird. I said (to Butler): ‘Let’s get the band back together.’” Iommi admits that the Rock and Roll Circus film is “great fun” these days, calling the lengthy delay for its release “ridiculous. I kept asking (former Stones bassist) Bill Wyman, every time I’d see him: ‘You got a copy of that show yet?’ He said he’d get me one, and he never did. Eventually, of course, it came out — and I got a copy.” Anderson most recently released a long-awaited follow up to Jethro Tull’s Thick as a Brick, while Iommi, Butler and Ozzy Osbourne are touring behind the reunion disc 13.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 4, 2014 14:30:16 GMT
Metal, Progressive rock, Rock Music — January 4, 2014 ‘It just felt weird’: Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi on his brief stint in Jethro Tullsomethingelsereviews.com/Tony Iommi remembers the moment when he had to decide between his then-new group Black Sabbath and taking over as guitarist in Jethro Tull. He ended up only serving a brief and apparently unhappy stint replacing Mick Abrahams. “Ian Anderson asked me if I would be interested in joining them,” Iommi tells Noise11. “I talked to our guys, and said: ‘What do you think I should do?’ They said: ‘You should go for it.’ And I said, ‘Oh, thanks! (Laughs.) So, what does that mean, then?’” Iommi didn’t last long with Jethro Tull, appearing in a floppy white hat during a 1968 promotional concert film sponsored by the Rolling Stones called Rock and Roll Circus that ultimately remained unreleased for decades. The Who, John Lennon, Eric Clapton and Marianne Faithful were also on the bill with Tull and the Stones. “I didn’t feel quite comfortable with it,” Iommi says. “Even when I went down to the rehearsal with them, I took (longtime Black Sabbath bassist) Geezer (Butler) with me. I said to him afterward: ‘I don’t feel happy with this.’ It just felt weird. I said (to Butler): ‘Let’s get the band back together.’” Iommi admits that the Rock and Roll Circus film is “great fun” these days, calling the lengthy delay for its release “ridiculous. I kept asking (former Stones bassist) Bill Wyman, every time I’d see him: ‘You got a copy of that show yet?’ He said he’d get me one, and he never did. Eventually, of course, it came out — and I got a copy.” Anderson most recently released a long-awaited follow up to Jethro Tull’s Thick as a Brick, while Iommi, Butler and Ozzy Osbourne are touring behind the reunion disc 13. Beat me to the punch - looks like it's going to be a good year for you - I deleted my duplicate post.
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Post by maddogfagin on Jan 4, 2014 17:14:48 GMT
Beat me to the punch - looks like it's going to be a good year for you - I deleted my duplicate post. I only got it myself due a friend of mine down in Plymouth who, the kindly soul he his, emailed me the link. The field is yours TT, and long may it continue.
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Post by maddogfagin on Jun 5, 2014 8:02:32 GMT
4 June 2014 Last updated at 18:24 Sabbath's Toni Iommi star made Coventry professorwww.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-27702065The Black Sabbath star, Tony Iommi, has been made a professor of music at Coventry University. Iommi, guitarist and founding member of the heavy metal group, had already been awarded an honorary doctorate by the university in November 2013.He plans to return to the campus in the autumn to work with students on their song writing and composition skills. After a taster session in May, he said: "Good start, I'm looking forward to working with the students." 'Beyond value' Director of arts and culture at the university, Dr Geoff Willcocks, said: "Tony is without doubt a rock icon and he's an inspiration to so many people around the world. "It's wonderful to have such an important and respected international figure working with us." The head of performing arts at the university, Dr Sara Reed, said it was an honour to have the musician at the department. She added: "His huge wealth of experience and musical knowledge is beyond value to our students. "It's a fantastic opportunity for them to learn from such an immensely talented individual."
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Post by maddogfagin on Feb 20, 2017 8:38:28 GMT
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Post by JTull 007 on Jun 18, 2017 23:16:11 GMT
What a great couple of TULL Guys !!! Maria & I went for Sunday lunch at my old friend Ian Anderson’s house with his wife Shona and family. What a fabulous day we had and Shona cooked a wonderful lunch. It was really great to catch up and we had a lot to talk about - we thoroughly enjoyed it! Here’s a picture in their garden.
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Post by maddogfagin on Aug 12, 2017 7:41:55 GMT
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Post by maddogfagin on Oct 18, 2018 6:37:48 GMT
Tony Iommi Explains Why He Left Jethro Tull, Reveals What He Learned From Ian Anderson"I learned the way they work and it was very different from the way we worked," Black Sabbath guitarist says. Posted a day ago Full Article Here
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Post by maddogfagin on Dec 6, 2018 7:43:16 GMT
www.loudersound.com/features/black-sabbath-a-guide-to-their-best-albumsBlack Sabbath: a guide to their best albumsBy Geoff Barton 17 hours ago Classic Rock A guide to the essential albums by iconic metal pioneers Black Sabbath (Image: © Ann Clifford / Getty Images)Black Sabbath were responsible for many things: they were malevolent devil worshippers; they were evil incarnate; they turned generations of morbid teenagers into ghastly vampires; they practised black magic and got quite good at it. Or maybe not. The truth is, the Sabs began in Aston, Birmingham at the tail-end of the 1960s as a band called Polka Tulk (after a local Indian clothing emporium). By early ’69 they had wisely changed their name to Earth. Some commentators say they were originally a blues band; others claim they were a jazz-fusion outfit. What is for sure is that their Zapata-moustachioed six-stringer once played in Jethro Tull for three weeks or so. How the four band members – singer John Michael Osbourne, guitarist Anthony Frank Iommi, bassist Terence Michael Butler and drummer William Thomas Ward – stumbled on to the unique, doom-laden, bludgeoning sound of Black Sabbath has, in my view, never been satisfactorily explained. Jim Simpson, who ran a Midlands club called Henry’s Blues House and became Sabbath’s manager, once claimed the group were influenced by Kansas City swingers the Count Basie Orchestra. It seemed as likely a clarification as any. The Sabs were also responsible for introducing me to heavy metal. I remember it vividly. I was visiting my aunt and uncle in Maidstone, Kent and went shopping one late summer’s afternoon in 1971. Gazing into a record-shop window, a rather prosaic purple-and-black-coloured album sleeve with swirly writing on it caught my attention. I don’t know why, but it seemed to beckon me like the twisted fingers of a wicked witch’s hand. It turned out to be a record called Master Of Reality – and for whatever reason, I knew I had to purchase it. Immediately, instantly and without further delay. I wasn’t at all familiar with Sabbath’s music; I didn’t even know Master… was the band’s third album. As I handed over my precious shillings-and-pence to the store proprietor, little did I realise that a never-ending spiral down into the murky depths of metaldom had begun. I was just 16 years old. Oh no, please God help me. There was no turning back. Read on
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Post by maddogfagin on May 18, 2019 15:06:33 GMT
www.ultimate-guitar.com10 Unexpected Guitars Used by Tony Iommi (No SGs)Is it even possible to imagine him holding anything else? Fender StratocasterBack when Black Sabbath was called Earth, Tony had a Fender Stratocaster, most likely made in the mid-1960s. Originally in Sunburst, he and his dad spray painted it white and the guitar in question can be seen on the video footage recorded during his brief tenure with Jethro Tull. The guitar was also used for the recording of "Wicked World" on Sabbath's debut album. Link ^
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Post by maddogfagin on Feb 6, 2020 7:47:55 GMT
gnrcentral.com/2020/02/05/ozzy-osbourne-reveals-which-black-sabbath-bandmate-intimidates-him/OZZY OSBOURNE Reveals Which BLACK SABBATH Bandmate “Intimidates” HimFebruary 5, 2020 OZZY OSBOURNE appeared alongside his wife and manager SHARON OSBOURNE talked to music producer RICK RUBIN during an episode of his “Broken Record” podcast. During the interview OZZY OSBOURNE revealed why BLACK SABBATH guitarist TONY IOMMI still “intimidates him.” OZZY OSBOURNE appeared on the podcast to promote his upcoming record “Ordinary Man” A lot of the discussion was based around his 60’s and 70’s days in BLACK SABBATH saying about his bandmates “Geezer’s a great, great lyricist. [As a bass player], no one can touch him, Bill, in his day, was a great drummer. Tony, he’s always gonna be the greatest — no one’s touching him.” He had special praise for TONY IOMMI saying “He was the band, really. We were all part of the band, but he was the most irreplaceable one.” “We played with Jethro Tull, and Tony got offered the gig. And then I remember thinking, ‘Oh no, he’s gone now.’ Because Tony was something else — I mean, he still is. There’s nobody on the face of the earth that can come up with them riffs like him. He’s great.” “People will [ask] me, ‘Why did you always sing on the side of the stage?'” Ozzy explained. “I don’t know. I don’t know. It’s just fear, I suppose. Because Tony, he’s one of the few people who could walk into this room right now and I would feel, like, intimidated. He intimidates the f**k out of me — and he knows it.” “I’ve been out of Sabbath now 40 years,” he said, “but the time I was with them seemed longer than I’ve been out of it. I don’t know why that is.”
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Post by maddogfagin on Feb 12, 2020 7:46:51 GMT
Black Sabbath’s Debut: 5 Things We Learned About Its Creation and Cover ArtTo mark the 50th anniversary of the revolutionary heavy-metal album, Rolling Stone conducted exclusive interviews with the band, its collaborators, and peers, uncovering new details about how it came to be 2. The Black Sabbath album was written mostly during office hours. After a short stint in Jethro Tull, guitarist Tony Iommi came back to Earth and told the guys they needed to take things seriously. After seeing how Ian Anderson had led his prog-blues group with an iron flute, keeping regular daytime rehearsals, Iommi suggested Earth do the same. They often started rehearsing at nine a.m. “Trying to get Geezer out of bed at that time in the morning was bloody hard, but we did, and we rehearsed, and we really worked at it then because it just felt that we had something to work for,” Iommi said. “I’d left a big band at that time, so to come back to our band, it was like, ‘Oh, blimey, he’s come back. We better pull our socks up.’ And I think everybody felt like that, including me.” link
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Post by maddogfagin on Feb 19, 2020 7:37:06 GMT
kisw.radio.com/4 things you might not know about Tony IommiRock Blog FEBRUARY 18, 2020 TARYN DALY Some call him the "creator of heavy". Some call him the "godfather of stoner rock". Without question, Tony Iommi is a musical pioneer and one of the most influential guitar players of all time, and we celebrate his 72nd birthday with some fun facts about the rock legend. He was a member of Jethro Tull - for a split second. In 1968, he stepped away from Black Sabbath briefly and joined Jethro Tull, although he never recorded any material with the band, and shortly rejoined his brothers in Black Sabbath the following year. We all know how that decision played out! Tony Iommi was the only member of the original Black Sabbath lineup to remain in the band for the duration of their career, spanning nearly 50 years! Could you imagine having the same job for 50 years? Pretty remarkable. Lita Ford was once his fiance! For a brief stint in the 80s, the two were engaged. Due to an accident while working in a factory as a teenager, he's missing the tips of his right hand's middle and ring finger. Although it ultimately affected his playing style, it's the reason behind his signature sound, and it didn't stop him from topping every list of the guitar's greatest. We wish you the happiest of birthdays, Mr. Iommi! Thank you for all of the music! Happy Rocking, Taryn Daly link
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Post by maddogfagin on Feb 24, 2020 7:12:11 GMT
Black Sabbath's Tony Iommi Recalls 'Really Strange' Thing Ian Anderson Did That Made Him Quit Jethro Tull"I said, 'It's not for me, I'm going to leave,'" the Black Sabbath guitarist recalls. Posted 18 hours ago link[ a cut 'n' paste from a couple of years ago]
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Post by maddogfagin on Mar 9, 2020 7:00:18 GMT
www.ultimate-guitar.com/Ozzy Recalls Why Tony Iommi's Pre-Black Sabbath Band Had to Break Up, Comments on Guitarist Joining Jethro Tull---------------------------- Did Tony ever play with Jethro Tull?
"I think he did a couple of TV things, The Rolling Stones' Rock & Roll Circus... He did a couple of things, and he came back and said, 'If we get our stuff together, I think we can do it.'
"I was, like, 'f**king hell, he left Jethro Tull to came back to us!' And that was a big job, but he hates being told what to do, he'll f**king punch you on the nose.
"I'm all saying, 'Do it!' They were telling him to wear hats... We'd get in the van, we had nothing to lose. It was exciting."link
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Post by maddogfagin on Apr 3, 2020 14:50:36 GMT
ultimateclassicrock.com/Why Tony Iommi Walked Out of Jethro Tull Audition MARTIN KIELTY April 3, 2020 Before Black Sabbath began to refine the distinctive sound that would make them famous, Tony Iommi spent two weeks as a member of Jethro Tull – but even that brief tenure almost didn’t happen. Iommi played guitar for Ian Anderson’s band when they appeared on the Rolling Stones’ Rock and Roll Circus concert movie in December 1968, even though he told bandmate Geezer Butler he didn’t really want to do it. “I’ve always been a bit, not scared, to jump out of my field,” Iommi told Guitar World in a new interview. “I do on my own, but if you shoved me in the Eagles, I’d go, ‘Oh Christ, what do I do here?’ Much like when I was with Jethro Tull. I did that short thing with them, after Mick Abrahams and before Martin Barre. We’d supported them on one of their gigs, and they asked me, and I was like, ‘Oh God, I don’t know.’ On the way back, I was driving the van and I said, ‘They’ve asked me if I’ll join them.’ And they’re going, ‘You should go for it, it’s a great opportunity.’ I felt really bad.” He eventually accepted an invitation from Tull’s management to attend a tryout in London. “I got there and there’s, like, 50 guitar players,” Iommi remembered. “I went, ‘Oh God, what’s going on?’ Because I thought it was just me. I got really nervous and walked out.” But someone from Anderson’s team followed him out. “He said, ‘Don’t go, don’t go.’ I said, ‘I can’t do it - there’s all these other guitar players.’ He said, ‘Sit in the cafe, and when they’re all gone, I’ll come and get you.’ So that’s what we did. And then they offered me the job.” Iommi described the situation as “good and bad” because he “felt really sad” for the hopefuls who weren't given the position. “When I went down to play with them, I took Geezer with me," he recalled. "I kept saying to him, ‘I don’t feel comfortable about it.’ When I told them, ‘It’s not for me,’ they said, ‘We’ve got this movie and we can’t get anybody else quickly enough. Could you do it?’ I said, ‘Yes, I’d do that.’” He remembered “meeting John Lennon and everybody” when the Rock and Roll Circus was being filmed, and then returning home with no certainty of what would happen next in his career. “I thought to myself, ‘Have I done the right thing, going back to playing at this blues club up the road?’" Iommi noted. "But that’s how it happened.” link
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Post by maddogfagin on Apr 8, 2020 12:38:48 GMT
www.bbc.com/news/Coronavirus: Black Sabbath star Tony Iommi auctions guitar2 hours ago 8/4/2020 Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi is auctioning items from his personal collection to raise money to support the NHS during the coronavirus crisis. Among the items up for grabs is one of Iommi's guitars, which will be signed by the rock legend. The money raised by the auction will go to University Hospitals Birmingham in Iommi's home city. The 72-year-old said coronavirus was "difficult for everyone" but showed the "great work" of the NHS. "It's horrible but in some ways it's bringing people together more and realising what we do have in this country with the NHS and the great things they do," Iommi said. Iommi, who is a patron of the specialist cancer ward at Heartlands Hospital, had the idea for the auction while clearing out his studio during self-isolation. The guitar, "a lefty because I'm left-handed", has attracted nearly £4,000 in bids since the auction went live on Monday but he said he is "hoping to make a lot more on that". Iommi is also auctioning signed collectable DVD box sets, CDs and vinyl discs. University Hospitals Birmingham said it was "incredibly grateful" for Iommi's support "at this difficult time". "The money raised will help us to support our NHS superheroes who are working tirelessly to provide care to our patients," the trust's head of fundraising, Justine Davy, said. link
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Post by maddogfagin on Apr 23, 2020 13:55:33 GMT
www.bbc.com/news/Coronavirus: Black Sabbath star Tony Iommi auctions guitar2 hours ago 8/4/2020 Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi is auctioning items from his personal collection to raise money to support the NHS during the coronavirus crisis. Among the items up for grabs is one of Iommi's guitars, which will be signed by the rock legend. The money raised by the auction will go to University Hospitals Birmingham in Iommi's home city. The 72-year-old said coronavirus was "difficult for everyone" but showed the "great work" of the NHS. "It's horrible but in some ways it's bringing people together more and realising what we do have in this country with the NHS and the great things they do," Iommi said. Iommi, who is a patron of the specialist cancer ward at Heartlands Hospital, had the idea for the auction while clearing out his studio during self-isolation. The guitar, "a lefty because I'm left-handed", has attracted nearly £4,000 in bids since the auction went live on Monday but he said he is "hoping to make a lot more on that". Iommi is also auctioning signed collectable DVD box sets, CDs and vinyl discs. University Hospitals Birmingham said it was "incredibly grateful" for Iommi's support "at this difficult time". "The money raised will help us to support our NHS superheroes who are working tirelessly to provide care to our patients," the trust's head of fundraising, Justine Davy, said. link blog.eil.com/Tony Iommi raises more than £19,000 for NHS charityApril 19, 2020 JP Cartwright Music News Tony Iommi has raised more than £19,000 for Birmingham’s Heartlands hospital charity after auctioning a number of personal items. The Black Sabbath icon revealed earlier this month that he had been planning to hold An Evening With Tony Iommi charity event when coronavirus struck. Rather than wait for the all clear, the guitarist put several items up for auction, including a signed Epiphone SG, an autographed Supersonic Years box set, various signed versions of The End, and a copy of the Dehumanizer CD with his signature. The BBC report that the guitar sold for £11,300. Iommi said on Twitter: “Many thanks to everyone who bid for the auction, it’s a great result. We’ll do our best to get things sent out as soon as we can.” Announcing the charity auction earlier this month, Iommi said: “Now as all charitable events have been cancelled, I wanted to still do something to help. So, I’ve put a few things together of my own up for auction. All the money raised will go to the Birmingham’s Heartlands hospital charity. “Please! I hope that you can help – they really do need our support. Without these doctors and nurses, what would we do? We owe them so much.” Last week, Iommi told Birmingham Live what he’d been doing during the current lockdown, and added: “I think this has brought us all closer. I’m even in touch with Ozzy every day as he gets over his own health problems in Los Angeles.” Tony Iommi ✔@tonyiommi Many thanks to everyone who bid for the auction, it’s a great result. We’ll do our best to get things sent out as soon as we can.
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Post by maddogfagin on Jul 10, 2020 6:50:35 GMT
www.loudersound.com/Black Sabbath, Birmingham, and the invention of heavy metalBy Mick Wall (Classic Rock) 16 hours ago Ozzy, Geezer and Tony reminisce about the early days of Black Sabbath and the creation of a genre linkAfter that they started again as a four-piece called The Earth Blues Company – a mouthful quickly shortened to Earth. But the new band managed only a smattering of appearances before it all went out the window again when Tony was offered the job of replacing guitarist Mick Abrahams in Jethro Tull.
“All the rest of the guys were like: ‘This is a great opportunity, you should do it!’” Iommi recalls now. “But I wasn’t sure.” The thought of decamping to London was so daunting he persuaded Geezer to go with him, “cos I didn’t know anybody down there”.
Indeed, Iommi had been there less than a week when he decided he’d made a mistake. Tull singer Ian Anderson was “separate to the other guys”, he explains. “He’d sit on one table and they’d sit on the other. And it just didn’t feel like a proper band to me. So I talked to Ian and said: ‘Look, I’m gonna leave. I miss my old band.’ But I tell you what, it changed our career.
"I said to Geezer: ‘Let’s get back together again and f**king get some work done and make this happen. We can become big too. But let’s get rehearsing at nine o’clock in the morning and stop pissing around.’ I learned all this, basically, from Ian Anderson, because he cracked the whip. I realised that that’s what we had to do. And it really helped. It got us into writing our own stuff, and it just worked from then on.”
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Post by orion12 on Oct 30, 2020 12:31:34 GMT
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Post by JTull 007 on Jan 21, 2021 1:46:29 GMT
Jethro Tull - Song for Jeffrey (commentary by Ian Anderson) Excerpt from the film "The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus", recorded on the 11th December 1968. Features a rare lineup including Tony Iommi who was on a break from Black Sabbath. This version is the alternative audio track from the DVD, with Ian Anderson talking about the event. (5.1 music version available below because Youtube took the other one down.) WHO IS YOUR FAVORITE ROCK STAR? ANDREW T. POST · LINK WRITTEN BY CJLUCAS.LUCAS@GMAIL.COM ON JANUARY 16, 2021
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Post by maddogfagin on May 26, 2021 6:37:37 GMT
www.blabbermouth.net/TONY IOMMI Looks Back On His Brief Stint With JETHRO TULL: 'I Felt A Bit Out Of Place'May 24, 2021 Diversion Podcasts, a division of Diversion Media, has released the latest episode of "Backstaged: The Devil In Metal". Hosted by bestselling author and music journalist, Jon Wiederhorn, this 12-episode podcast offers a one-of-a-kind journey through the history and culture of heavy metal. The podcast explores elements of darkness and extremism in the music and, examines how a generation of rebellious rockers took the phrase "sex, drugs and rock n' roll" to an entirely new level. In this week's episode, Wiederhorn dives into the origins of BLACK SABBATH and the unique backstory of lead guitarist Tony Iommi. During the episode, Tony shares the highs and lows of his journey to becoming a metal legend, including the near career-ending injury that actually added to SABBATH's dark, demonic sound.
Later in the episode, hear from BLACK SABBATH lead vocalist Ozzy Osbourne as he recounts the early blues influence of the band which included a saxophone and a slide guitar player. Also featured in the episode, PANTERA vocalist Philip Anselmo and ANTHRAX guitarist Scott Ian praise the band for their fearless sound and explain how Iommi and BLACK SABBATH laid the foundation for every riff written in metal.Speaking about his brief stint with JETHRO TULL in December 1968 after leaving EARTH, his pre-BLACK SABBATH band with Osbourne, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward, Iommi said: "I felt really weird not being with the other guys. I really missed them. But the thing was I felt a bit out of place 'cause I was joining basically an established band and I wanted to be a part of an established band; I wanted to be able to earn my own dues, if you like. I didn't wanna join a band that was already doing well and I was just gonna be the guitar player. I wanted to be in a band where you all worked together and you are a band. I didn't wanna be the guitar player in JETHRO TULL and like a side musician; I wanted to be a part of a team. So I said to Geezer, 'Let's get the band back together,' which is what we did. We called Ozzy and Bill from London, and we said we're coming back. 'If everybody's really serious about this, I'm willing to leave and we'll get back together again and really work at it. And that's what everybody suggests.' So that's what we did." "Backstaged: The Devil In Metal" is a production of Diversion Podcasts with iHeartRadio. New episodes can be found each Friday on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever you find your favorite podcasts.
Wiederhorn is a seasoned music journalist, having written about rock and metal for more than 30 years. He is the author of "Raising Hell: Backstage Tales From The Lives Of Metal Legends" and the celebrated classic "Louder Than Hell: The Definitive Oral History Of Metal" (with Katherine Turman). Wiederhorn is a former editor at Rolling Stone, a former writer for MTV News and the co-author of "I'm the Man: The Story Of That Guy From Anthrax" (with Scott Ian), "Ministry: The Lost Gospels According To Al Jourgensen" (with Al Jourgensen), and "My Riot: Agnostic Front, Grit, Guts & Glory" (with Roger Miret) and He has also written for Rolling Stone, SPIN, MTV, Guitar World and Revolver, among others.
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Post by maddogfagin on Jul 18, 2021 5:42:41 GMT
Tony Iommi Says He Never Saw His White Fender Strat After Crazy Sax Swap, Lists Favorite Black Sabbath Riffs"This mad idea, trying to play the sax, and then eventually I got rid of it," the guitarist says. During an appearance on Gibson's The Conversation, Tony Iommi talked about his white Fender Stratocaster, the guitar used in the early stages of his career, during his '68 Jethro Tull stint, and on the "Wicked World" track on Sabbath's 1970 self-titled debut. During the "Black Sabbath" recording sessions, the Strat's pickup stopped working, prompting Tony to use his Gibson SG that he's stuck with ever since. He now said on what ultimately happened with the instrument (transcribed by UG): "I actually swapped my Strat for a sax - this mad idea, trying to play the sax, and then eventually I got rid of it. "And Geezer [Butler, bass] saw the Strat in a pawn show, and he said, he was going to buy it for me on the afternoon buy-back, but somebody already bought it. But yeah, I've always stuck with the SG since then." Iommi previously said about the white Strat (transcribed by UG): "I had the Strat up until the first album. When we went to record that, I bought an SG prior to that. ... "We got into doing the first track on Black Sabbath album, 'Wicked World,' and then my guitar started playing up, and suddenly it went off, the pickup had gone wrong. And the producer was going, 'Don't worry, you have the other guitar.' "We only had it for a day, the studio, to record the album, so I used the Gibson, and ever since then I never looked back. I loved it and played that, that became the guitar that was on all the albums up until 1980." Back to the first interview, Iommi was also asked, "What's your favorite riff you've ever created?". He replied: "God, I don't know, because I think everyone you do when you're doing them is your... 'Black Sabbath' was the first one we've done, and that was different, and then I liked 'Iron Man.' more here
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Post by maddogfagin on Dec 18, 2021 6:48:53 GMT
www.ultimate-guitar.com/Tony Iommi Recalls What He Thought When He Left Black Sabbath for Jethro Tull & How Things Changed When He ReturnedThe guitarist also reflects on the accident that robbed him of a fingertip or two. Posted 16 hours ago During an appearance on BBC Radio, Tony Iommi looked back on his brief 1968 stint in Jethro Tull and how it affected Black Sabbath. He also discussed the famous accident that cost him his fingertips and played a role in defining the sound of Sabbath. Discussing the early days of Black Sabbath, Tony said (transcribed by UG): "Well, we were doing these blues clubs, and we played with Jethro Tull, and at the time, [guitarist] Mick Abrahams was leaving, or they fired him, it was a bit of a commission on stage. "After the show, they asked if I would be interested in joining them, I went, 'What? I'm already in a band.' 'I know, but would you be interested in joining Jethro Tull?' And god, I was like, 'I gotta talk to my band...' "So, on my way, I sat with the band, I said, 'Look, they've asked me if I'd be interested in joining them...' "They said, 'Oh, you should go for it!' 'Thanks very much.' I thought they were getting rid of me then. "So that sorta started and I did some filming with Jethro Tull but it really wasn't for me at the time." Didn't you do the Rock and Roll Circus with them? "I did it, yeah, which for me was brilliant because I've come from a small band, and for me to suddenly meet every idol you could probably think of - John Lennon was in the film, and The Who, Taj Mahal, and I was there with Jethro Tull. "God, it was just another world... "Anyway, the guy that came down with me as well, one of the roadie chaps we had, we were having a lunch break, it was chicken and stuff, and John Lennon was paying attention to the chicken, of course, he was vegan. "So he gave the chicken to one of the guys working with me, he was starstruck, 'Oh, John Lennon gave me chicken!'" It must have been an amazing... epiphany must be a strong word, but once you realized being with Jethro Tull, you went, 'Ah! OK, they have a work ethic!' "It did, it told me a lot because I saw the way they worked and I took that back to our band, 'This is what we need to do.' "They thought I must be mad but they did it. Geezer [Butler, bass] never saw the light of the day until 12 o'clock normally. "But I said, 'No, we gotta rehearse at 9 o'clock.' So we would go around to his house, pick him up, we would get there to the rehearsal, and it started working. "It was a serious thing. And because I had the chance of being in Jethro Tull and didn't do it, our guys had more to show. And it sort of worked." The influence that that first [Black Sabbath] album has had on an entire genre can't be underestimated really. It was largely down to you and what you did with the guitar, and the way you tuned it. And I don't want to dwell on your accident, but that was kind of why you had to retune the guitar, wasn't it? "Absolutely. After my accident, that changed my life completely because I was told by so many doctors that I wouldn't be able to play again, just forget about it. "Well, I said, 'I really want to do it.' 'Well, you will have to take another job.' But I really wanted to do it and I said, 'There's gotta be a way to learn to play and carry on.' "One of the chaps from when I had my accident brought me a record of Django Reinhardt, put it on, and I thought it was really great. "And then he told me a story of Django Reinhardt where he plays with just two fingers. And it really inspired me to carry on. "So I started making my own [finger]tips, so I made my own out of the Fairy Liquid bottle, melted it down, and made it into a bowl, sat there with a hot soldering arm, and make it a hole in it that would fit a finger. "I would sit there for weeks, rubbing it down to shape it like my finger. It being plastic would slip off the finger, so I had to find a material that would grip the string, which turned out from various things to be leather from my old jacket. And it worked! "Funny enough, I stung up bits of leather from that jacket all them years ago. It was a complete jacket. And it worked, it'd done the job! So I just learned to play with them, which wasn't easy because you couldn't feel anything, there was a big lump on your fingers." The mechanisms of how that worked on your fingers had an effect on how you had to sort out the guitar to make it comfortable to play. "Absolutely. I had to think the whole thing with the guitar, and I would split the guitar down, fold the frets down, make it the most playable for me. "I had to make it work out for me, I had to come up with the idea for strings, and you couldn't go and buy a set of strings in them days, they didn't have them. "So I made my own setup and I used banjo strings first, and then dropped it down so it would be more comfortable to me and didn't hurt my fingers as much. So it was a whole process of going through from start to finish changing the guitar." Of course, Bill's drumming is only Bill, Ozzy's voice that is only Ozzy, and Geezer's bass and lyrics are only Geezer - all that came together perfectly. And if it hadn't, there wouldn't be Black Sabbath. "No, absolutely, everybody just jelled in the band. Ozzy was singing, Geezer was playing. As I've said, Geezer has never played the bass before and became one of the best bass players around. "And Ozzy got his unique voice. It all just worked. We all also had an unorthodox style of playing. "Bill never used a full set of sticks because in the days before Sabbath, when we used to do gigs with the band before, Bill couldn't afford to have drumsticks, so he would find half of a stick that had been broken somewhere we'd set through our way. "Bill learned to play with these half-sticks. It was fascinating really, it took him years before he ever bought proper full sticks."
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Post by maddogfagin on Dec 25, 2021 6:53:13 GMT
faroutmagazine.co.uk/when-tony-iommi-joined-jethro-tull/When Tony Iommi briefly joined Jethro TullMick McStarkey FRI 24TH DEC 2021 12.00 GMT We all know that Tony Iommi is one of the titans of metal, but at one point, things could have been much different. In September 1968, Iommi nearly swapped his leather jacket for the waistcoated fusion of Jethro Tull during a time he was playing in Earth, Black Sabbath’s early form. After Earth played a show with Jethro Tull, the opportunity arose in which original Tull guitarist Mick Abrahams was fired. Weirdly, Abrahams had been dismissed mid-set after a series of handwritten messages were passed between the band whilst on stage. After the show, Iommi was asked by the band if he would be interested in joining them. Iommi was unsure at first, and being the ever-humble man that he is, asked Ozzy Osbourne, Bill Ward and Geezer Butler what they thought. To his surprise, they responded with: “You should go for it!”, and so, Iommi did. He got back in touch with Tull, and told them that he’d take the job. However, things then took a turn for the surreal. Iommi turned up to rehearsals expecting to get right into it, but there were “50 other guitar players there”. Thinking that he was wasting his time, Iommi headed straight for the exit. However, on his way out, one of the band members of the Nottingham blues group, Ten Years After, who Iommi hasn’t named, caught him and said: “Don’t go, they really want to hear you, go and sit in the cafe across the road”. Rightly, Iommi was furious, feeling as he’d been duped into a previously unannounced audition-type scenario. Reflecting on the incident later, Iommi recalled that there were some “well known” guitar players who sat alongside him. Regardless, he waited in the cafe until they came and fetched him. He played, and was offered the job. With success falling into his lap, Iommi took the opportunity but couldn’t shake the feeling that he’d let his friends down. The bands that influenced Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi Read More Not wanting to turn his back on his old bandmates, when the time came for Iommi to travel to London to rehearse with Tull, he took Geezer Butler with him. Butler sat at the back of the room whilst they rehearsed, and Iommi thought, “Oh, this is terrible”, and after a while, he realised that he’d made a mistake: “They were different,” he later explained. “We (Earth) were all together and had a bit of a laugh and fun; it was different for them.” The bands were antithetical in their approach. The final straw for Iommi was when they went for a lunch break in a cafe, and that frontman Ian Anderson was sat apart from the rest of the band. Iommi was told by the other three band members that Anderson didn’t like sitting with other people. He thought that attitude was “strange”, and his mind was made up. He told Anderson, “It’s really not the sort of thing that I thought it would be” and that was it. However, Iommi did make one dint in popular culture with Jethro Tull. He appeared as part of the band for The Rolling Stones Rock & Roll Circus, but after that, he was gone. He reunited with Earth in November 1968. Despite the disappointment, it wasn’t all bad for Iommi. Professionally, it taught him a lot, and ironically, Tull’s strict method of working was something that he would take back to Earth and Black Sabbath when they renamed themselves in 1969. Filming with The Rolling Stones, Iommi met The Who, John Lennon and other enormous stars of the time, and it galvanised him, giving him a clear idea of how things “could be”. Of his short working relationship with Ian Anderson, Iommi said: “I learned quite a lot from him, I must say. I learned that you have got to work at it. You have to rehearse. When I came back and I got the band (Earth) back together, I made sure that everybody was up early in the morning and rehearsing. I used to go and pick them up. I was the only one at the time that could drive. I used to have to drive the bloody van and get them up at quarter to nine every morning; which was, believe me, early for us then.” He explained: “I said to them, ‘This is how we have got to do it because this is how Jethro Tull did it.’ They had a schedule and they knew that they were going to work from this time till that time. I tried that with our band and we got into doing it. It worked. Instead of just strolling in at any hour, it made it more like we were saying, ‘Let’s do it!'”. Thank goodness Iommi decided to return back to Earth.
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Post by maddogfagin on Jan 19, 2022 6:30:50 GMT
faroutmagazine.co.uk/why-ian-anderson-called-tony-iommi-the-man/The reason why Ian Anderson called Tony Iommi "the man"Eoghan Lyng TUE 18TH JAN 2022 13.00 GMT Rock music, like anything, hinges on circumstance. In many cases, the incidents that have unfolded into legend may not have occurred if the stars had aligned slightly differently. Indeed, there are several other universes at play, in which a variety of alternative scenarios play out. Imagine a world where Paul McCartney walked out on The Beatles to work in a factory, as per his father’s suggestion? Picture a universe where Roger Taylor abandons Queen to play with Peter Gabriel and Genesis? And then there’s another portal where Noel Gallagher takes a moment to breathe, reflect, before joining his Oasis bandmates onstage for a brilliant show in Paris. Well, one scenario almost became a reality, and had it taken off, we may never have heard Black Sabbath or even heavy metal. In an interview with Far Out, Ian Anderson discussed working with Tony Iommi, a guitar player who had left his burgeoning Birmingham outfit, to work with Jethro Tull. “Well, Tony came in to mime to a pre-recorded backing track on The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus,” Anderson recalled. “Tony’s approach to music rather struck me, because everything was very clear cut, the chords were simple fifths; they were very ambiguous. His melody lines could weave around and dictate whether something was a major, or a minor, or a seventh, or any other interval. Melodically simple and transparent way of making music. He was a great solo guitarist, and could play quite fiery guitar solos. I was intrigued by his sound- he was obviously not a blues guitarist. What it was, was really a precursor to heavy metal, so he came by invitation, and we started playing together in a studio. I don’t want to call it ‘an audition’, because it was a bit of mutual exploration to see if a symbiotic relationship might evolve out of that.” While it didn’t snowball into something grander than a one-off performance, Anderson holds nothing but admiration for the Birmingham born guitar player. “At the end of a few days, we probably both decided that it wasn’t going to work, because some of the songs I was writing were partly a little more complex, as I only discovered at the last minute, Tony was finding some of these things difficult to play,” Anderson explained. “The way I was playing them, and showing them on the guitar…what the chord sequences were…they were due to his physical limitations because of an industrial accident, but rather like Django Reinhardt, it didn’t stand in his way. It actually helped him develop a unique style, and laid down the foundation of everything you could call ‘heavy metal’. Tony was the man: Tony was the prime moving force. It inadvertently became a genre of music. But he wasn’t in Jethro Tull in the sense that he didn´t perform with us outside that point.” In a strange parallel with Anderson, Iommi is the only person to perform on every Black Sabbath album, and much like Anderson is with Jethro Tull, Iommi serves as both the band’s musical director and custodian. Judging by the interview with Anderson, it sounds like both parties benefitted from the amicable parting of ways, but the flautist is right to label Iommi “the man.” He may not be the most technically accomplished of guitar players, but he did single-handedly create a genre by himself. Known for their fast freneticism and plodding guitar licks, anthems ‘Iron Man’ and ‘Paranoid’ captured a movement that was pivoting away from the happy-go-lucky charm of the ’60s into something more sinister sounding and denser. Black Sabbath were arguably the first mainstream band in which the guitarist took centre stage. As if recognising his place, vocalist Ozzy Osbourne sang from the side of the stage, while Iommi stood in the middle, those power chords rising in the air. Sometimes, it’s better to enjoy the rock stories we have, and not focus on the alternate dimensions. And with Jethro Tull and Black Sabbath, audiences got to enjoy two formidable groups who added to the spectacle, lexicon and genre of rock. Stream the performance of Iommi and Jethro Tull below.
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