Tony goes mainstream, eh? Being interviewed by CNN. :) Yesterday after I posted my update, several folks sent me a link to an interview with Tony Iommi on CNN. Here’s a few highlights:
Q: I guess for most people, what defines the early Black Sabbath sound is your guitar and Ozzy Osbourne’s vocals. Over 30 years, you have some ups and downs. How are things now … do you and Ozzy still speak?
IOMMI: Oh yes. We get on fine. But we’ve had our ups and downs. Actually, we had them at school — ’cause he went to the same school as me. We went to Birchfield Road School and he was a year younger than me. And I couldn’t stand him. He used to mix with these other kids and he was a real pain … Every time you saw him you used to give him clip ’round the ear. It was ironic how we ended up in the same band.
Q: Henry Rollins has said he thinks that the environment in Birmingham [England] explains Black Sabbath, the blue-collar feel that informed the music. Do you think that’s true, or was it just that the sound reflected your own personalities?
IOMMI: I think it’s quite right. It’s a big part of where we come from. … It was either being in a gang or being in a band. I was rough. To be in a band … I think a lot of the aggression came out in that … instead of going out and beating the other gang up, you know.
Check out the full interview over at the CNN website here.
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