TONY IOMMI On Original BLACK SABBATH Reunion: 'It's Like We've Never Been Apart'

June 7, 2013

Martin Boulton of Australia's The Age recently conducted an interview with BLACK SABBATH guitarist Tony Iommi. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

On the making of the new BLACK SABBATH album, "13":

Iommi: "When we started this project, we went to [producer] Rick's [Rubin] house and he played the first [BLACK SABBATH] album and said, 'How long is it since you've heard it?' So he was just trying to get us back into that vibe and we got it … getting back to the basics.

"Over the years, you do get carried away with doing different things … changing your sound, and god knows what else, but with this one, there's a lot of elements of those first albums, and while there's a lot of different stuff going on, it worked out really well."

"Rick was saying it doesn't matter how long they [the songs] are, so we played a lot of the tracks live, and I haven't done that for a while. I kept thinking 'we can re-do this part or that part', but Rick was saying 'no, we'll keep that, that's good', so it was very peculiar, but just a different way of doing things for us.

"He didn't want Ozzy [Osbourne] doing any harmonies, he just wanted it basic and singing in a lower pitch. We got into a stage on 'Never Say Die!' where Ozzy would be singing high in the studio and when we got on stage, he couldn't do it, but on this [album], he kept it at a range he can do [on stage]."

On working with other singers under the BLACK SABBATH banner, including Ronnie James Dio, Glenn Hughes and Tony Martin:

Iommi: "It's been really good for me to work with all those people,. Ronnie [who died in 2010] was great, and Glenn is an old friend with a great voice, and they're the sort of people who don't exist that much. I like working with different people and people like that … just all class."

On what it feels like to be playing with Ozzy Osbourne and bassist Geezer Butler again:

Iommi: "It's like we've never been apart, to be honest. We've all been friends for so long and it's been great getting back together — really good — and a really good way to finish off, I think, with the original lineup."

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).