Tony Iommi - the legendary guitarist and composer, is the founder of the band Black Sabbath, which had a great influence on the development of hard rock as an independent style of music. Iommi is put on a par with virtuoso guitarists such as Jimi Hendrix, Jimi Page and Ritchie Blackmore. In the list of "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" by the influential Rolling Stone magazine, Iommi is ranked 25th.
Early work
Tony Iommi (full name Frank Anthony Iommi) was born on February 19, 1948 in England (Birmingham). His parents - Anthony Frank Iommi and Sylvia Maria were Italians, and Tony was the only child in the family. His parents were very "musical." Father played the accordion, and mother played the harmonica. This fact from childhood influenced the future of Tony. At the age of ten, Tony enters high school on Birchfield Road. Ozzy Osbourne also studied at the same school, which Iommi subsequently takes as a vocalist in his group. By the age of 15, Tony already knew how to play the guitar and rehearsed, creating with his friend the band "The Rockin 'Chevrolets". After its breakup, Tony is auditioned and invited to the professional band "The Birds & The Bees", who is going 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 fell under the press, and he lost both phalanges. Tony fell into a severe depression, all the doctors said that he could never play the guitar. But once his friend brought him a record of Django Reinhardt, a gypsy jazzman who played beautifully with just three fingers of his left hand. This inspired Tony so much that he didn’t even want to relearn how to play with his right hand, but came up with special fingertips to help him clamp the strings. After this injury, the game style of Iommi became inimitable.
Six months after the injury, the musician already managed to play in various rock and blues bands, such as: Mythology, Polka Talk Blues Band, Earth.
In 1968, the case briefly leads Iommi to the Jethro Tull group, but after disagreements within the collective, he returns to his Earth group, which he renames Black Sabbath.
Careers at Black Sabbath
Since 1969, thanks to Iommi and his unique style of playing the guitar, Black Sabbath released their first successful album of the same name, "Black Sabbath", which was reissued in the United States and sold in a million copies. The group, at that time, was played by four friends from Birmingham: vocalist John Michael Osbourne, 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 has become a classic and hard style icon -rock. In music, Tony constantly wanted to experiment and look for something new in the sound of the group, while Ozzy Osbourne, on the contrary, wanted the group to not change its usual style. On this basis, the group had constant disagreements, and in 1979, Iommi decided to dismiss Osborne. After Ozzy left, his place was taken by Ronnie James Dio, Former vocalist for Rainbow. At the first rehearsal with Dio, the song "Children of the sea" was written, and in April 1980 Black Sabbath released an updated new album, "Heaven and Hell".
The album sold over a million copies and finished ninth in the UK. Ronnie James Dio was not only a great vocalist, but also a songwriter. Thanks to this, the group gained even more fans and fans.
The second and final album featuring Dio - "The Mob Rules" was released in November 1981 and became gold. But the relationship between the new vocalist and Tanya was strained, so in November 1982, Dio leaves the group and begins a solo career. And in its place comes the equally popular Deep Purple soloist - Jan Gillan. With the participation of Gillan, the band 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, the band broke up.
Left alone, Tony decides to buy back the copyright for Black Sabbath and again seeks a new line-up. 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 music and lyrics.
Further, the guitarist continues his solo career, as well as engaged in charity work.
In 2012, Tony Iommi was diagnosed with cancer at an early stage. Fortunately, after timely treatment, the musician got better. After the fight against the disease, Tony began to worry that a tight tour schedule would lead him to a new relapse. Therefore, he decided to announce the final tour called "The End". The tour started in January 2016 and included a visit to America, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, and, of course, native Britain.
