BLACK SABBATH's Tony Iommi On Playing Left-Handed Guitar - "The Accident Made Me Develop A Style, And By Doing That It Created A Different Sort Of Sound"

September 21, 2013, 11 years ago

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BLACK SABBATH guitar legend Tony Iommi is featured in a new interview with Matt Blackett at Guitar Player magazine. An excerpt is available below:

GW: I read an interview where you said that after the accident either you thought about playing right-handed, or maybe you should have thought about it. I have to say, I think it would have changed the entire music business had you flipped your guitar over and played righty.

Iommi: "I think you’re probably right, because that accident made me develop a style—one that I could play—and by doing that, it created a different sort of sound. I had to make the sound bigger and work on it a bit. I couldn’t just pick up anybody’s guitar and play. I mean, the whole thing really was against me. But that sort of thing makes you work. It makes you develop something, because I really wanted to play, and I wanted to make the sound big. I had to come up with a new way of playing to make it big."

GW: You guys have always had tempo and groove changes in your tunes, and 'God Is Dead?' is a great example of that tradition. What is it that you like about doing that?

Iommi: "I just think it gets to a point in the song where it needs something—either picking the tempo up or slowing it down. If it’s a fast song, maybe a bit that slows down in it, like we did with Ronnie on 'Die Young.' It was an up-tempo thing, but then we used a quiet part in it to come down. Again, it’s just down to creating some kind of different mood in the song, and I’ve always liked that."

Go to this location for the complete interview.

Black Sabbath fans who didn’t see the band live on their recent tour will now have the chance to experience them via a new DVD, Black Sabbath: Live…Gathered In Their Masses (Vertigo/Republic).

Due out November 26th, the DVD was recorded in April 29th and May 1st, 2013 in Melbourne, Australia (additional details TBA), when the band - OZZY OSBOURNE (vocals), TONY IOMMI (guitar) and GEEZER BUTLER (bass) - kicked off their world tour in support of their 13 album, which entered the charts at #1 in 13 countries (including their first #1 in the US).

Check out a teaser video below:

Meanwhile, Black Sabbath will head to South America and Mexico in October for a headlining stadium tour (where they’re expected to play to more than 300,000 fans) and then onto Europe in November and December.

Find Black Sabbath's live itinerary at this location.

The clip below features fan-filmed video of Black Sabbath's entire August 28th show in Irvine, CA at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre:

The band's setlist on the night was as follows:

'War Pigs'

'Into the Void'

'Under the Sun'/Every Day Comes and Goes'

'Snowblind'

'Age of Reason'

'Black Sabbath'

'Behind the Wall of Sleep'

'N.I.B.'

'End of the Beginning'

'Fairies Wear Boots'

'Methademic'

'Symptom of the Universe'

'Rat Salad'

'Iron Man'

'God Is Dead?'

'Children of the Grave'

Encore:

'Paranoid' ('Sabbath Bloody Sabbath' Intro)

Black Sabbath will be immortalized in an all-original, terrifying 3D maze, Black Sabbath: 13 3D at Universal Studios Hollywood’s premier Halloween Horror Nights event, beginning September 20th. Check out newly-released back-stage footage from the upcoming event below:

The new maze, based on the darkest lyrics from Black Sabbath’s biggest hit songs and the only attraction at the horror event to incorporate 3D video, will also include scenes inspired by the legendary band’s recently released Billboard #1 album, 13. A nightmarish landscape of doom will engulf guests as they enter Black Sabbath: 13 3D and traverse through horrifying graveyards, disturbing madhouses and bone-chilling battlefields.

“We were all really excited when Universal Studios Hollywood approached us about doing a 3D ‘Halloween Horror Nights’ maze based on our music,” said Black Sabbath’s OZZY OSBOURNE. “I’ve seen the drawings of what it will look like when it’s finished and it looks amazing. I can’t wait to walk through it on opening night in September.”

Guests will come face to face with a heart-stopping Lucifer and his bride, blood-soaked dead bodies and bubbling pools of “radioactive water” while song’s inspired by 'Luke’s Wall', 'Iron Man', 'Paranoid', 'War Pigs', 'Electric Funeral' and - of course - 'Black Sabbath' violently penetrate the confines of the maze at high volume.

“Very few bands can claim to have defined a genre of music but Black Sabbaths’ remarkable influence in the evolution of heavy metal will go down in history,” said John Murdy, Creative Director for Universal Studios Hollywood. “Tony Iommi’s dark, iconic riffs, Ozzy Osbourne’s haunting vocals and Geezer Butler’s foreboding lyrics provide the perfect soundtrack for ‘Halloween Horror Nights’ and endless inspiration for our new haunted attraction Black Sabbath 13 3D.”

Halloween Horror Nights 2013 at Universal Studios Hollywood brings together the sickest minds in horror to immerse guests in the living, breathing, three-dimensional world of the most notorious and terrifying creatures and features a slate of unrivaled film production quality mazes, terror-filled Scare Zones and a fully re-imagined Terror Tram experience, uniquely themed to today’s most definitive horror properties. This year’s haunted attractions will include The Walking Dead: No Safe Haven, based on AMC’s Golden Globe-nominated, Emmy Award-winning show, and Evil Dead: Book of the Dead, inspired by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment’s chilling remake of the cult classic.


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