Well, I just finished reading, “Iron Man”, by Tony Iommi through the Ibooks app on the Ipad today. We all know that Tony Iommi, a guitarist who was made famous for creating and inventing a genre of music that most of us love, that genre is metal. He inspired the genre just by simply playing with Jethro Tull briefly for the Rolling Stones’s, “Rock and Roll Circus”, show. The metal genre got it’s sound out of Jethro Tull.
I’ve read a lot of rock memoirs over the years. Most of them focused on drugs & alcohol, the partying lifestyle of a rock star. This book had a little bit about drugs, alcohol and sex addiction, but this book mostly focused on the music career of guitar great, Tony Iommi. The book was pretty detailed on Tony’s career, everything from starting off playing in local cover bands to starting Earth, the blues band, the Black Sabbath, solo career, Heaven & Hell, etc. The book was even pretty detailed throughout the entire Black Sabbath career. It went through every album and every member lineup.
While Black Sabbath went through so many members over the years, the original lineup with Tony, Ozzy, Bill Ward and Geezer Butler will always stand out the most, of course. The band will always be well known by the original lineup. The band didn’t become legends over night. They were a struggling band in the old days. They scared the shit out of people with their music in the old days and had trouble getting accepted as a band. They were accused of being satanists because of their dark lyrics and music.
Tony never liked being accused of being satanists with Black Sabbath. That is why Tony and Ozzy always wore the cross necklace, you see on them, all the time. They wore the cross necklace, not because they were religious, it was to help prove that they aren’t devil worshippers. Tony said Black Sabbath’s songs were never intended to be Satanic even though people thought it was. They just liked horror movies and scary things.
Black Sabbath broke up in the past, because nobody got along well and didn’t want to do it anymore. So Tony moved on to different projects. We all know that the original Black Sabbath members, reunited on and off over the years. Sometimes they get along well and sometimes they don’t.
Since Black Sabbath announced an official reunion with original members earlier this year, you just wonder how long that’s going to last ’cause Tony said if the band ever got back together again, things could blow up again and the reunion might not happen at all this year. Depends on how well they get along and how well they stay committed to each other. Black Sabbath announced a reunion this year and recording a new album, hopefully the tour does actually happen. I’m sure they get along well fine now.
Back to the book, it was a very inspiring read. I read a lot of rock memoirs, and this is the best one I’ve ever read. Tony told a lot of funny and entertaining stories. When Black Sabbath announced their reunion this year, it got a lot of mixed opinions from people. Some were in favor of their upcoming comeback and some weren’t. For those haters & nay sayers of Black Sabbath out there, you need to respect them. You all love metal because of them. They created the genre. Without them, then all the metal bands you all like wouldn’t even be around today. Do you think Metallica, Megadeth and Slayer would be around today if Black Sabbath never did? Hell no. Metal was all because of them.
This book is a must read for any Black Sabbath fan or metalhead. This is definitely one of the best books of the year.
Kev
K'Brocking 
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