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Introduction

Tony Iommi is an English guitarist best known for his work in the band Black Sabbath. He is regarded as one of the fathers of heavy metal, his famous riffs linger in the memories of legions of fans throughout the world, and as such stands in the 86th position of Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time list.

Career

Tony Iommi was born on February 19th in Birmingham, Enland. He started playing guitar as a teenager, going through several rock/blues bands before he decided to start his own band "Earth" along three guys he knew from school: bassist Terry "Geezer" Butler, drummer Bill Ward, and singer John Ozzy Osbourne.

One sad event was to take place early on Tony' life though, one that almost deprived the world from one of the best known guitarist: working in a metal factory a machine sliced off the tips of his right hand, and being Tony Left he thought he would never be able to play again. But he didn't quit, and started playing some soft plastic tip extensions attached to the end of his fingers.

Black Sabbath

Tony's band Earth had to change their name due to an existing band going under the same name, so they decided to be called "Black Sabbath" from then on, based on the american title of an Italian horror movie called “I Tre Volti Della Paura”.

Black Sabbath soon became famous with their dark lyrics, soothing guitar riffs & heavy sound, which was a major breakthrough in those early 70s. During this time they released emblematic albums such as "Black Sabbath" (1969), Paranoid and Master of Reality (1971), Vol. 4 (1972), and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (1973). "Paranoid," "Iron Man," "War Pigs," and "Children of the Grave" are just some of the amazing tracks they released during this period.

By the late 70s the band was exhausted from touring, and Ozzy left. The band found a new front man on Ronnie James Dio, with whom they released several albums which kept being commercially successful, touring all over Europe & Russia.