Tony Iommi - Rock musician

Download Subtitles

Transcript

:00:14. > :00:21.put out the burning forests. For all. -- time for HARDtalk. The crew

:00:21. > :00:31.are of metal, the king of the heavy riff. His band is topping the chart

:00:31. > :00:33.

:00:33. > :00:40.again. Although looks at his bed and her all the behaviour of Ozzy

:00:40. > :00:47.Osbourne, the guitarist, Tony Iommi has led to the full and now cancer.

:00:47. > :00:57.Still recording and touring, what keeps in mind? - are what keeps him

:00:57. > :01:14.

:01:14. > :01:21.Tony Iommi, will come to heart talk. How does it feel to be back on top

:01:21. > :01:27.after all these years? Fantastic. I mean, to have a number one all over

:01:27. > :01:37.the world - what can you say? It is just brilliant. You even managed to

:01:37. > :01:40.

:01:40. > :01:50.knock Rod Stewart OP the top! Mark are mack. Much you think burning

:01:50. > :01:50.

:01:50. > :01:54.home influenced what became black Sabbath -- Birmingham. A lot. This

:01:54. > :02:04.is the background of an hour music. The industrial side of it. Being

:02:04. > :02:09.brought up around going and not particularly very nice. We wanted

:02:09. > :02:15.to get out but you were trapped, really. Is it was the way to be

:02:15. > :02:21.able to get out. It eventually did get you out but for some time you

:02:21. > :02:31.were there, practising, and learning to trade. We often think

:02:31. > :02:36.the 60s was the swinging time, a and? I do not think so. Knights. We

:02:36. > :02:43.touring. touring. All the power house -- for

:02:43. > :02:47.our house stop. Was it a reaction to all that he's an up stop? Yes.

:02:47. > :02:54.It was talking about the nice things and we came out talking

:02:54. > :02:58.about the things that really are happening in the world - divorce -

:02:58. > :03:04.the other side of life. Not a particularly cheap or perspective

:03:04. > :03:14.or message to put out. It refects how you felt about?

:03:14. > :03:14.

:03:14. > :03:20.I think so. The based on was responsible for most of lyrics. --

:03:20. > :03:26.the bass player. I did the music side. I get blamed for that. Even

:03:26. > :03:35.so, you were part of the bike, the scary music thing. Ozzy Osbourne

:03:35. > :03:40.said you came up writing scary music because he grew up from it -

:03:40. > :03:47.across the road from a cinema which showed horror films. It was that

:03:48. > :03:57.feeling of being frightened. Are That

:03:58. > :03:59.

:03:59. > :04:05.that in mus?I ? that in museat. A liked to have that same feeling

:04:05. > :04:11.from the music. In in the didn't happen at all. Told me about the

:04:11. > :04:18.accident? The acts and happen before Black Sabbath. -- the

:04:18. > :04:25.accident. I had just been offered this job to go to Germany. You were

:04:26. > :04:33.way out there. Absolutely. I really liked playing with them. My mother

:04:33. > :04:37.of... Are at work and a work in a factory doing welding. Somebody

:04:37. > :04:44.used to cut the metal and stone the down to me and I would world. One

:04:44. > :04:48.day, these pose and didn't come so that we on the machine and I had

:04:48. > :04:54.never worked on the machine ever. The thing came down on my hand and

:04:54. > :04:59.as I pulled back, it took the edge of my finger off. What happened

:04:59. > :05:05.before that, I'm sorry, I went home for lunch and are said to my mother,

:05:05. > :05:09.I'm not going back in to work today. I am going to stop. She said, you

:05:09. > :05:15.go back in and make sure you finish up your day and that is what

:05:15. > :05:20.happened. She must have felt quite at about that. She probably did.

:05:20. > :05:27.But it is strange how things happen like that stop it is weird. It i it

:05:27. > :05:34.had not gone, my stock would change - it may create a start of play.

:05:34. > :05:38.Explain that. It was almost serendipity. It was. It made me

:05:39. > :05:44.invent a way of playing because I had to make these caps for my

:05:44. > :05:52.fingers. I went to the hospital and they said, you might as well keeper,

:05:52. > :05:57.basically. That would not except that. But all it must be a way. The

:05:57. > :06:02.manager of the foam who own work for, brought me a break cut round

:06:02. > :06:10.and he said, can I play it. I said I was not in just that. It did not

:06:10. > :06:14.feel up run. Which has listen to it. I said, that was great stop and he

:06:14. > :06:24.said, this guy plays with two fingers. And it inspired me to do

:06:24. > :06:25.

:06:25. > :06:30.what. I made some tips myself. washing up ?I ? washing up n?

:06:30. > :06:38.And noted it down, got a hot soldering iron and made a hole in

:06:38. > :06:45.it until it in my finger. I just sat there for ever running down to

:06:46. > :06:50.make the shape of a finger. Then had to to find something that would

:06:50. > :06:57.end. At the end of the day a come up with that much so that would

:06:57. > :07:01.grip the string and a good that. Very primitive, Robinson Crusoe

:07:01. > :07:08.thing - but it worked. If you listen to what some of your fellow

:07:08. > :07:13.musicians and said, the king of the heavy riff, without him, it would

:07:14. > :07:23.not exist. It ended in to hit the metal. We knew topped the poll,

:07:24. > :07:26.

:07:26. > :07:36.they praised the highly its dinky white he played. -- the way you

:07:36. > :07:45.

:07:45. > :07:54.play. Let's eat some of your plane. What make that kind of playing

:07:54. > :07:59.special and the stink it? -- distinctive?I ? distinctive... I

:07:59. > :08:03.used to be able to play proper court in a conventional way but I

:08:03. > :08:12.had to come up with a different way altogether because I could not play

:08:12. > :08:17.the same way. I had to work on how to press on the strings because

:08:17. > :08:21.they could not feel anything apart from the pain. You could not feel

:08:21. > :08:29.how much you have been in the strings. Even today?It is still no

:08:29. > :08:36.sign. I still use chips that are made for me now. You can afford it?

:08:36. > :08:46.I still have to put Labour on. I have an old jacket from the 60s. --

:08:46. > :08:50.

:08:50. > :08:56.an end there. I use that. They last about three weeks. Not everyone is

:08:56. > :09:06.impressed by heavy metal music. For all its pervasiveness, it really

:09:06. > :09:08.

:09:08. > :09:14.inspired a lot of music, the bulk of the music, he says, macho, speed

:09:14. > :09:21.demon solace, and drums - it is a bit unimaginative. What can I say

:09:21. > :09:29.to that? What you say to that?I do not know. I do not know how to

:09:29. > :09:39.answer that. I do not cast ourselves as he be metal. A lot of

:09:39. > :09:48.

:09:48. > :09:53.Power. You try to create some kind of vibe. It was not just the music.

:09:53. > :10:00.It was a distinctive side. That is what unknowns people about the

:10:00. > :10:04.music. They fill in I think it exploits their emotions. It tries

:10:04. > :10:12.to build atmosphere and it is actually a bit, in that sense, a

:10:12. > :10:17.bit unhealthy. I do not think it is. We have at a lot of... It depends

:10:17. > :10:23.what bands you are on about... What we do, we have at a lot of letters

:10:23. > :10:27.over the years, from people who said, and got the music. You have

:10:27. > :10:33.helped me tremendously through these hard times because they went

:10:33. > :10:42.through the songs, the lyrics, the field, and it has genuinely helped

:10:42. > :10:47.people. And yet, you perform in a way that plays up the satanic image.

:10:47. > :10:56.You're not a coulters? Not at all. We dabbled in it in the early days

:10:57. > :11:02.because we were young and you're inquisitive. As far as any kind...

:11:02. > :11:07.Win over sacrificed any body of the age or anything like that. -- we

:11:07. > :11:12.never sacrificed. When we did the first album, the record company did

:11:12. > :11:19.the cover and that is what done it. The inside of the cover was an

:11:19. > :11:28.upside down Cross. So that started everybody OP. You're wearing the

:11:28. > :11:31.Cross today the right way up. Is it disingenuous - was it a cheap

:11:32. > :11:41.thrill or the audience was my we believe in what we didn't play.

:11:42. > :11:42.

:11:42. > :11:49.Everything we played we have to feel it and believe it. The

:11:49. > :11:54.audience - we have been here for 45 years. You answer that. What about

:11:54. > :12:02.the diminish it was Mark that, again, was just something I like.

:12:02. > :12:08.And never even knew about it to be on us when it first did it. I did

:12:08. > :12:14.not understand or back. We were 19 the use. Would you explain for

:12:14. > :12:22.people-watching. What was behind that. Black Sabbath was the sop but

:12:22. > :12:29.-- the first on that had that. Apparently they are the notes you

:12:29. > :12:35.never use. But I never knew that. To me it was creating music and

:12:35. > :12:45.that's all I do, I create music. I do not tried to create anything to

:12:45. > :12:45.

:12:45. > :12:55.upset anybody, destroy people. It has helped more people. We are not

:12:55. > :13:02.satanist, certainly not. For some quite... You talk about a nurse who

:13:02. > :13:07.killed herself and paradise was playing beside her. That is right.

:13:07. > :13:14.We never knew what the reason was. There is always going to be

:13:14. > :13:19.something they will find. Does it bother you? You hate for anybody to

:13:19. > :13:26.have killed themselves. There is not saying it was ours. It is

:13:26. > :13:35.saying that at paradigm on the turntable. Ozzy Osbourne was

:13:35. > :13:41.talking about a guy that killed all those women, he had the lyrics

:13:41. > :13:47.written on the wall. Ditch you thank you had gone too far? No, the

:13:47. > :13:53.lyrics are about what was going on in the world. You have to talk to

:13:53. > :13:57.the geezer. He would write about what he had seen and what we felt

:13:57. > :14:04.we were going through, people we were bumping into, the type of

:14:04. > :14:09.people. You say the lyrics you wrote but you were part of that,

:14:09. > :14:13.part of building the environment, their image, the sound which was so

:14:13. > :14:19.important - that creates some responsibility, does it not?

:14:19. > :14:25.you're looking into it that deep, yes, we look at it as music. The

:14:25. > :14:30.lyrics written because geyser or was said to me, he has to write

:14:30. > :14:40.powerful lyrics to go with the powerful music. It was your fault,

:14:40. > :14:48.

:14:48. > :14:54.You could have Rolls-Royces, Lamborghini is, quite a lifestyle.

:14:54. > :14:59.You look back on that lifestyle with a tete with affection? I can't

:14:59. > :15:07.change it but there are things, certain things, you could have done

:15:07. > :15:15.differently. What things?A lot of the staff. Give me some examples.

:15:15. > :15:22.The drugs side. If I'd known that, I would have not done that to that

:15:22. > :15:28.extent. Ozzy Osbourne described cocaine as a cancer to the band.

:15:28. > :15:33.was, absolutely. How much long-term damage did it do? As far as the

:15:33. > :15:38.band is concerned, I think it did a lot of damage. Initially we thought

:15:38. > :15:42.it was great and helping us be creative. At the end of the day,

:15:42. > :15:48.when it came to the point where we had to replace ourselves, we were

:15:48. > :15:56.in a bad way. He was certainly in a bad way. We had to fire him, which

:15:56. > :16:00.was awful. Did you do that face to face? Actually, the drum up told

:16:00. > :16:08.him. We were going to it all tell him to go there but Bill step in

:16:08. > :16:12.and told us - -- told him without us. It was a terrible thing. He got

:16:12. > :16:17.to the stage where he was not into it any more and he was doing too

:16:17. > :16:24.much of everything, we all doing this stuff. He was worse than us, a

:16:24. > :16:30.few stages ahead. What were you doing? Cocaine, way ludes, all of

:16:30. > :16:34.the stuff around at that time. Not acid or anything like that. Indeed

:16:34. > :16:39.some things starting off as a practical joke that you look back

:16:39. > :16:45.upon now th?I ? upon now th practical joke. Spraying one of

:16:45. > :16:50.York band members gold which may have killed him? Another one got

:16:50. > :16:55.third-degree burns on his legs after setting fire to his legs.

:16:55. > :17:03.Beale was the drummer, he was the one we picked on and he liked it,

:17:03. > :17:08.to be honest. If he did not play out that day, he would ask why we

:17:08. > :17:12.did not pick on him that day. was different to the kind of

:17:12. > :17:20.practical jokes that you would have done in the school yard back in

:17:20. > :17:24.Birmingham when you were kids. This different scale. It got really

:17:24. > :17:29.silly. When we sprayed him caught, we were laughing at the time but we

:17:29. > :17:37.did not realise how silly that was. A gifted the drugs make you lose

:17:37. > :17:43.respect? Probably, yes. I think it does in the end. You do get taken

:17:43. > :17:48.over by them. It depends upon what you do. Does it make you want to

:17:48. > :17:54.sort of reach out to some of the younger musicians now and say to

:17:54. > :17:59.them, if you knew what I knew, you would not be touching this stuff.

:17:59. > :18:05.It's like what my parents would have said to me. You have to

:18:05. > :18:11.experience certain things sometimes. However much I said not to do these

:18:11. > :18:15.things, don't do this or that, are they going to do it? I don't know.

:18:15. > :18:19.You think you were setting a bad example to the fans and the people

:18:19. > :18:24.buying your music? They still bought the music and half the time

:18:24. > :18:29.you were composing while of your face. I don't think it was a bad

:18:29. > :18:37.example. It was a personal thing brass. We did not share it or give

:18:37. > :18:43.people things. We did it for Russ, experimentation. Trying stuff. We

:18:43. > :18:48.once we hit America, I never did anything until America. Then it

:18:49. > :18:53.went berserk. You spoke about firing Ozzy Osbourne which you did

:18:53. > :19:00.at the end of the 70s. He has obviously come back to the band

:19:00. > :19:05.after a long period away. At one point you were having a legal

:19:05. > :19:10.dispute over the ownership of the name Black Sabbath. He said as a

:19:10. > :19:16.kid he was a real pain at school. I get the impression it's been quite

:19:16. > :19:20.a complicated relationship? school, the school we went towards

:19:20. > :19:24.a tough school. Ozzy Osbourne was younger than me. That was always

:19:24. > :19:29.the case when I first went to the school we were picked on by the

:19:29. > :19:35.older kids, that's just the way it was. So you pick on him?We did not

:19:35. > :19:40.pick on him, he was a pain and a nuisance. He is funny now when we

:19:40. > :19:45.look at it. But at that time he was. You would probably give him a clip

:19:45. > :19:49.around the ear. But years later, that and nor in quality deduce some

:19:49. > :19:59.favours when you had a little pain that you were not thinking about

:19:59. > :20:03.doing anything about? I'm talking about the diagnosis. Yes, yes, that

:20:04. > :20:09.knocked me for 61 were found out I had cancer. Ozzy Osbourne made you

:20:09. > :20:17.get it checked out? We were working at his house in Birmingham. We were

:20:17. > :20:22.riding the album. I was getting some preening in my groin. He said

:20:22. > :20:26.to me, you don't look well. I did not feel well and I told him what

:20:27. > :20:34.was happening. He told me to go and get checked out and organised a

:20:34. > :20:40.doctor. I told him I would sort it out. I did. I saw a doctor in her

:20:40. > :20:47.Los Angeles. They wanted to cut something off to see what it was.

:20:47. > :20:55.There may told you? Back in England, they told me. I went to the

:20:55. > :21:02.hospital to have a prostate problem. I had an operation. While they were

:21:02. > :21:09.Cutting they took out a lump and they told me that it was not

:21:09. > :21:19.Prostate cancer but they found lymphoma in that lump. I was very

:21:19. > :21:19.

:21:19. > :21:24.disappointed. I said, oh no. What is lymphoma? I kind of new. When

:21:24. > :21:30.you before you'd lost one of Ozzy Osbourne replacements. He had

:21:30. > :21:34.stomach cancer. Did you think you would get the same thing? Yes, I

:21:34. > :21:41.did, absolutely. Ronni was complaining about his stomach. I

:21:41. > :21:47.told him to see the doctor. He said yeah, yeah, I will after the tour.

:21:47. > :21:53.Of course it was too late for him. After the tour, it had spread.

:21:53. > :22:00.think the cancer had an effect to the band, playing a part in this?

:22:00. > :22:06.think it brought us closer together than we ever have been. It kind of

:22:06. > :22:15.suddenly reality about what may happen. Everybody called together