BLACK SABBATH Guitarist TONY IOMMI: 'With Music You Shouldn't Have Any Boundaries'

March 8, 2007

Eden Munro of Canada's Vue Weekly recently conducted an interview with BLACK SABBATH/HEAVEN AND HELL guitarist Tony Iommi. A few excerpts from the chat follow:

On HEAVEN AND HELL:

“People know that it's the same band that's called [BLACK] SABBATH. [We] originally started calling the tour the Heaven and Hell tour and it's gone into calling us HEAVEN AND HELL so that people can decipher the two [bands]."

On the distinct lack of communication between Iommi and bassist Geezer Butler on one side and singer Ronnie James Dio on the other:

"It's funny with our lot. That sort of happens [where we don't talk at all], but as soon as we see each other it's like nothing happened."

On how the band started working together again after all these years:

"I went to see Ronnie when he played in England at one of his shows, and we got together, and it was just great to see him again and the atmosphere was fantastic. Ronnie went back to L.A. and then he flew over again to work with me on [a new] track. We started with one track first to see how it goes, and it was really good. We bounced off each other, and it was all very easy and one thing led to another. We started with the one track and we ended up with three tracks for this album. It was all working great and it's just materialized now into doing some shows, which we're all really pleased about."

On the differences in sound between the Ozzy Osbourne and Dio versions of BLACK SABBATH:

"Ronnie is a totally different singer from Ozzy. When I wrote for Ozzy I sort of knew where he was going to go — working with him for so many years I sort of had an idea of which things were good for him to sing on or not — and, of course, when Ronnie came in I had no idea, so it was a totally open book and just the whole style of writing changed with Ronnie."

On the band's plans to avoid playing any of the Osbourne-era staples during the HEAVEN AND HELL tour:

"Ronnie did leave himself open. He said, 'Listen, if you want to play any of the old SABBATH stuff, I'm quite open to that.' But, to be honest, I don't think we will. I mean, we may try one or two, but we've talked about just doing the Dio era, which is nice because we've got some great songs there and it'll be nice to put a show together with them."

On the prospect of creating new music with both Dio and Osbourne in the years ahead:

"It's unbelievable, really, to know that we can still do the two projects. But I think that's the way it should be, really. I think with music you shouldn't have any boundaries. You should be able to go out and do what you enjoy. At the moment Ozzy is going to be going out and doing his solo tour, so it enables us to be able to go out and do this as well. Why shouldn't we?"

Find more on
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • reddit
  • email

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).