BLACK SABBATH's TONY IOMMI Interviewed For GUITAR WORLD Magazine's Holiday Issue

October 9, 2008

Chris Gill of Guitar World magazine conducted an interview with BLACK SABBATH guitarist Tony Iommi for the publication's holiday issue cover story. An excerpt from the chat follows below.

Guitar World: How old were you when you started playing?

Iommi: I was probably about 12. I played accordion before that. Everyone else in my family played accordion, so I got one as well. In those days you used to just sit in your room and you didn't know what to do, so I learned to play accordion. From there I moved on to different instruments, and I eventually discovered the guitar.

Guitar World: Was it a challenge to find a decent left-handed guitar?

Iommi: It was a big challenge trying to find any decent guitar, let alone a left-handed one. In England, the only ones you could find then were very cheap. If you wanted a left-handed guitar, you had to order one from a catalog and then wait three months for it to show up. A few years after I started playing, I was lucky enough to come across a left-handed Fender Stratocaster that somebody who worked in a shop had tucked away and told me about.

Guitar World: It's fascinating how the factory accident led to you tuning down your guitar to make it more comfortable to play, but at the same time it also made what you played on the guitar sound heavier.

Iommi: Everything I did was to make it more comfortable for me, first and foremost. It used to hurt a lot to play because my fingertips were very sensitive. If my plastic fingertips ever came off, which did happen one time, my fingers would be sliced right open by the strings and there would be blood everywhere. I really had to work with my guitar setup so I could be able to play. There were some limitations, but I had to try to get over it. That's how I came up with all of these other things, such as a 24-fret neck and lighter strings, so I could do more. But it really helped us get the sound we were looking for.

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