TONY IOMMI To Undergo Hand Surgery

JJ Koczan of The Aquarian Weekly recently conducted an interview with legendary heavy metal guitarist Tony Iommi (BLACK SABBATH, HEAVEN & HELL). A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

The Aquarian Weekly: In terms of putting the record [HEAVEN & HELL's "The Devil You Know"] together and capturing the band's vibe and all that, how was that different from not only the three songs for "The Dio Years", but in general?

Iommi: It's been just great. We had a comfortable time doing it. My idea doing this album was to be able to do it sort of live, to be in the studio and play live without having to keep going over and over it. We wrote the songs and then rehearsed them and then went into the studio so we could capture them pretty quick and capture them live instead of having to redo this and redo that and redo the other. It worked really well. I thought the whole process really worked comfortably. Quick.

The Aquarian Weekly: Having worked with so many different people, so many musicians and singers, do you adapt your playing style at all, or is it just riffs and then the song comes together?

Iommi: Usually it's just riffs, depending on who you're working with. Certainly with Ronnie I know what the style is going to be and we work together to make the song and all come up with a riff and that's initially how it starts. Whoever comes up with a riff that we all like and then we'll make it into a song. Ronnie'll start singing on a riff and then we'll look for another section to fit and it sort of builds up that way and all the ideas are thrown in to help.

The Aquarian Weekly: Comparing someone like Ronnie to Glenn Hughes and working with different kinds of singers, does that affect what you're feeling to write?

Iommi: I think it's a matter of the way of writing, because each singer has different ways. Glenn may hear something or Ronnie may hear something that another singer probably wouldn't on a particular riff. Some of the songs when I was working with Glenn before, there was a couple of things he picked that I wouldn't have thought he'd sing on that he did. It's good because it sends you to another way of writing. They may hear something over a certain riff that you wouldn't think they would and you sort of go, "Oh, that's good, that's interesting." Each one has their own different ways.

The Aquarian Weekly: Do you know what you're doing after this U.S. run?

Iommi: After this U.S. run, yes, we're going to have some time off. I've got to have an operation on my hand, and that's sort of a major thing I need to get done and I've been putting it off now. So we're going to have some time off while I get that done. That'll be a bit of a break, I think. Not for everybody, but it'll be some time off from touring for me for sure.

The Aquarian Weekly: What happened to your hand?

Iommi: The cartilage is gone from the thumb in my fingering hand. It's been like that now, to be honest, for a year and I've been taking anti-inflammatories and all sorts of stuff to try and calm it down, but it's inevitable I've got to have the operation because the bone is rubbing on the bone. Funny enough, I talked to Eddie Van Halen this morning, because he's had the same sort of problem, so I'm seeing him to have a chat about what happened to him. He thinks it's very successful, so we'll see.

Read the entire interview from JJ Koczan of The Aquarian Weekly.