TONY IOMMI Says HEAVEN & HELL May Start Performing Some OZZY-Era SABBATH Material

August 26, 2009

Jed Gottlieb of BostonHerald.com recently conducted an interview with legendary heavy metal guitarist Tony Iommi (BLACK SABBATH, HEAVEN & HELL). A few excerpts from the chat follow below.

On his riff-writing ability:

"I stockpile them [riffs] at home. I've got a hundred of them stashed away, but I never go back to them. Every time I go to write an album, they come more fast and furious then before."

On his love for volume:

"From day one, we were always louder than anyone. We certainly made sure no one could talk in our shows."

On BLACK SABBATH's early days:

"We were always asked to turn it down. They'd tell us to turn it down or they wouldn't book us again. And unfortunately even now, and this is a sign of the times, there's a lot of restrictions on the sound. In Europe, we'd play 50,000-, 60,000-people festivals and we'd go out there and there would be somebody with a meter saying, 'You can't play any louder than this.' At one show in Bond, the limit was so low that I actually used only two (amplifier) cabinets of my eight. Bloody hell, I haven't used two cabinets since maybe the '60s."

On the Dio-era BLACK SABBATH:

"A lot of bands, like METALLICA and FOO FIGHTERS, really relate to those Dio albums. I think Dave Grohl has said one of his favorite albums is (1981 Dio SABBATH album) 'Mob Rules'. A generation of bands like that have taken to this stuff, and it's trickled down to the fans."

On performing only Dio-era SABBATH songs as HEAVEN & HELL:

"We love 'War Pigs' and 'Iron Man' and 'Paranoid', but we've played those for 40 years so it's been a nice change. Maybe next year we'll do some of the old stuff."

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