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Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi has described viewing footage from the band’s final concert as an “emotional” experience that proved “difficult to watch” given the close bond between its members.
The 78-year-old musician, often dubbed the Godfather of Heavy Metal, co-founded the legendary rock group during the 1960s with Bill Ward, Terence “Geezer” Butler, and the late Ozzy Osbourne.
Recorded during their Back To The Beginning farewell performance in Birmingham last July, the concert has been made into a feature film scheduled for release in October.
Asked whether he anticipated an emotional response to the release, Iommi told the Press Association: “Yeah, I do yeah. I mean I’ve watched the footage and it’s emotional. I’ve watched it only twice now.
Osbourne passed away from a reported heart attack at age 76, just over two weeks after that final performance. He had previously experienced prolonged health problems, including multiple surgeries following a fall and a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease.
Reflecting on life since Osbourne’s death, Iommi noted that “it’s been up and down for me”, explaining: “I’ve just kept busy, really”.
He added: “I’ve just kept busy, really, you know, I can do nothing else.
“I do what I do, and it’s been up and down for me.
“Obviously, the Sabbath thing has finished, but it’s enabled me to do other things, other ventures, and I played on Robbie Williams’s last album.”
Their collaboration featured on the rock track “Rocket”, which debuted in May last year.
On Wednesday, Iommi received an MBE from the Princess Royal at Windsor Castle, honouring his contributions to music and charitable causes.
Reacting to the accolade, he told PA: “Brilliant. Really, it’s really going.
“I mean, I’ve got a lot of awards over the years… but this is very special to me because (it is) from our own country, from England, so yeah really great.”
He remarked that Osbourne, famously known as the Prince of Darkness, “would have been pleased” by the recognition.
Born in Birmingham in 1948, Iommi’s musical career was nearly derailed by an industrial accident in which he lost the tips of two fingers on his right hand and was told he might never play again.
Defying expectations, he linked up with drummer Ward in 1968, teaming with bassist Butler and singer Osbourne to form Earth Blues Company.
After renaming themselves Black Sabbath, the band achieved global stardom over the following decade, selling millions of records led by iconic tracks such as Paranoid and War Pigs.
Despite undergoing numerous lineup changes, Black Sabbath secured two UK number one albums, earned four Grammy Awards, and gained entry into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.
Although celebrated as pioneers of heavy metal, Iommi told PA that the band initially struggled because they “came up with something completely different”.
He reflected: “We came up with something completely different in those days, which was really difficult to get through, but the whole thing is belief, believing in what you do, and we love what we’ve done.
“And it took a lot of work because there was no internet then, and no websites and all the rest of the stuff.
“You had to physically go around all these places and play, different countries and word of mouth, so that was sort of how you had to do it then.
“But yeah, I mean, I didn’t know to this day now that we were as big as ever.”
Beyond music, Iommi has committed to charity work, supporting organisations such as Macmillan Cancer Support following his own lymphoma diagnosis, from which he announced he was in remission in 2016.
Earlier this year, he auctioned a guitar to raise £53,000 for a new haematology and oncology unit at the Birmingham-based Heartlands Hospital Charity.
Iommi stated: “I love doing the charities, and it’s very close to my heart because I was diagnosed in 2011.”
He added of the auction: “I enjoyed doing that. It’s nice to give back because I know what it’s like for those patients, and they needed new machinery and new beds, and it was great to be involved, to be able to do that and help to buy the new stuff.”
The guitarist expressed satisfaction with his forthcoming solo project, From the Dark, arriving on October 23, noting he was “looking forward to that coming out”.
