How Tony Iommi got his electric guitar tone in Black Sabbath is the stuff of legend. It is the origin stories of origin stories.

There was the brutal machining injury to his fretting hand, requiring the use of thimbles to play again. If Django Reinhardt was an inspiration, the determination to continue came from within. Iommi sized down his electric guitar strings, mixing them with super-light banjo strings to go easier on his fingers. He would arrive at his downtuning epiphany soon enough...

Initially, Iommi played a Fender Strat. He had tracked Wicked World with one before it crapped out and he switched to the SG. Happenstance, a quirk of fate, and lo, Iommi would go on to become one of the most famous SG players.

Like most players, Iommi was an early adopter of Marshall amps. But a local amp builder by the name of Lyndon Laney made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. There began a lifelong collaboration and lifelong friendship until Laney’s passing in April 2026.

“I think I was using Marshall early on, and then Laney on the first album, but when we first wrote [Black Sabbath] songs I was using a Marshall 50-watt,” Iommi told MusicRadar in 2010. “I switched to Laney because they started up around the same time as us and they’re a Birmingham company. To be honest, they offered to give us all this gear when nobody else did. What do you say to that? ‘OK!’ So I used them.”

He had found the Gibson SG. He had found a way of playing that circumvented his injury. He now had the amp. What tied it all together was a piece of kit he was introduced to in 1968, the year before Black Sabbath formed, when he was cutting his teeth in Mythology. A drugs bust over some hashish in their practice space brought fines upon on Mythology. The band soon split.

We have to remember that this was a different time. When you went into a guitar store, there was no pedal cabinet. Okay, you might have been able to pick up a Maestro FZ-1 Fuzz-Tone, but most players faced the similar conundrum; if you wanted distortion, you got it the old-fashioned way, you turned your amp up.

But someone turned Iommi onto a unit that sat on top of your amplifier and worked some magic with it. Enter, the Dallas Rangemaster…

“When I lived in Cumberland, when we did the Mythology thing, there was a guy up there and I used to use his treble booster called a [Dallas] Rangemaster to give my sound a bit more oomph,” recalled Iommi. “A guy from another band up there said, ‘I can make that sound better for you’. So he took it off me and brought it back the next day.”

This was a febrile era for homespun guitar electronics. If something didn’t sound quite right, there was always someone who had a soldering iron, a handful of spare transistors and capacitors, and some ideas on how the circuit could be improved.

In this case, Iommi had the guitarist of Spooky Tooth, Luther Grosvenor, on hand to give him exactly what he needed. It worked gangbusters with his Laney tube amp, and better still, no one had one like it.

“I don’t know what he did to it, but it was really good,” said Iommi. “I used that treble booster on all the early Sabbath albums and put it into the Laney because it boosted the input and gave it the overdrive I was looking for, which amps in the early days didn’t have.”

Other gizmos would enter the picture. In 1970, when he tracked the solo to Paranoid under the watchful eye of producer Rodger Bain, Iommi applied a ring modulator to the solo. Iommi would become a fan of the Tychobrahe Parapedal wah pedal. His touring rig grew, and for the post-reunion Sabbath shows it is monstrous, controlled by a custom Pete Cornish routing and control unit. But this this modded Range Master was the secret sauce to Iommi’s sound.

Not everyone appreciated it. Iommi’s good friend Brian May of Queen also used the Rangemaster, having watched Rory Gallagher use one. He understood its appeal and urged Iommi to stick with it even if other people in the band and crew would complain about its eccentricities. It wasn’t unknown for the Rangemaster to have a Spinal Tap air base moment onstage.

“I used to rely on Brian a lot because I’d constantly have problems with people saying there was too much interference coming through my booster,” said Iommi, speaking to Guitar World in 2024. “I’d have to explain, ‘I know, but that’s part of my sound!’ In them days, you’d pick up bloody taxis and everything. There was no isolation. Brian would back me up and say, ‘That’s the sound – don’t change it.’

“Sometimes you’d get some boffin come along telling me, ‘I can get rid of that for you,’ and I’d say, ‘Oh, can you?’ But it would always change the sound and I didn’t want my sound to change. The only person who understood how I felt in those days was Brian, because he had the same problem. We both had a bit of noise but were ultimately getting the sound we wanted.”

Iommi used that same modded Rangemaster right up into the Heaven And Hell era, when Iommi started experimenting with Marshalls in his rig, with the late John ‘Dawk’ Stillwell working on his amps.

Stillwell famously designed Joey DeMaio of Manowar’s bass guitar, and had worked with Ronnie James Dio in his Elf days before doing jobs for Rainbow and Deep Purple.

Stillwell knew his stuff but made a grave mistake with Iommi’s rig.

“I used that treble booster up until 1979 when I had a guy come in to build me some Marshalls,” said Iommi, in his 2010 MusicRadar interview. “They gave me a whole stack of Marshalls and this guy came in and rebuilt them. In the meantime, while he was building these things, he threw my treble booster away. I didn’t know until it came to the time when I was looking for it and he said, ‘Oh that? I threw it away. It was crap.’”

Iommi was devasted.

“I couldn’t believe it,” he said. “I’ve never seen it from that day on and my amps didn’t sound right without it.”

There are no shortage of treble booster clones. In 2001, Analog Man’s Mike Piera sent Iommi the company’s first Beano Boost. Iommi’s signature Laney amps have their own boost section.

But the Rangemaster behind Iommi’s Black Sabbath tone has long been consigned to landfill, and only one man knows the real secret of what went in that Dallas Rangemaster all those years ago…

What do you get the guitarist who has everything? Let’s just assume they have already got their own Gibson (and Epiphone) signature guitars. They already have their own custom-wound electric guitar pickups (Gibson again).

What if they have actually heaved heavy metal into existence, and have pretty much seen it all?

This festive season, Brian May had this exactly problem when thinking of a suitable Christmas gift for his best pal, Tony Iommi; and he found the perfect gift. He got the Black Sabbath guitarist and godfather of heavy metal a master-built left-handed version of the Red Special, the electric guitar May built with his father when he was starting out and has used almost exclusively ever since – only this Red Special comes with some choice customisations, as per Iommi’s preferences.

Overseeing the build was Andrew Guyton, of Guyton Guitars, who has first-hand experience with the O.G. Red Special, having been tasked with refurbishing it. Guytone has been making officially authorised replicas of it since 2003, and he infused this Queen guitar with some classic Sabbath DNA.

“It’s built with the exact vintage construction of Brian May’s original Red Special, but shaped to match Tony’s iconic Jaydee Old Boy neck,” explains Guyton.

Like May, Iommi is a big fan of the Dallas Rangemaster treble booster. It was a huge part in finding his sound. Guytone has taken all of this into account. “[It] features a built-in treble booster and authentic vintage-style pots and pickups to replicate the classic tone,” he adds.

All that is missing is a Vox AC30 – and maybe a Maestro Echoplex – and you have Brian May’s tone, all in one guitar, but with the feel of one of the most legendary metal guitars of all time, the Jaydee Old Boy.

The Old Boy built by John Diggins in the late 1970s and was first used by Iommi to record overdubs on Black Sabbath’s 1980 studio album, Heaven & Hell. Soon after, it became his number one electric.

A second-gen SG-style electric, it reflected Iommi’s changing tastes, from the big stuff (the pickups, the 24-fret neck) to the small but significant details, such as the strap button being moved from the top horn to the neck heel, a feature that now all Gibson SGs share.

Old Boy’s distressed finish could be said to be ahead of the curve. But that was just an accident.

Diggins had made this guitar on his kitchen table. The finish didn’t cure properly. Oh, and someone left it in a car in a baking hot day.

“It wasn’t forced. It wasn’t made to look like that,” said Iommi, in the official Tony Iommi website. “It had nice paintwork when I first had it, and it just fell away. One of the stupid things was leaving it in the boot of a car in the States, and the heat made all the paintwork start bubbling – that’s what started the relic look.”

Chances are Iommi won’t be leaving his new Red Special in the boot of the car. This one is a keeper. “Huge thanks to my best friend Brian May and master builder Andrew Guyton for this incredible left-handed Red Special replica,” wrote Iommi. “Andrew personally delivered it last week — a true gift from Brian, two years in the making. Christmas came early!”

Festive, heartwarming, we love it. And maybe these two legends should put these guitars to work in the studio some time soon.

What is it?

As Black Sabbath say goodbye, Tony Iommi's guitar story continues – and the return of his signature humbucker is great news for those of us looking for some added Ironman in our diets, without stumping up for a full-blown signature guitar.

Tony Iommi’s return as a Gibson signature artist actually came about as a result of these pickups, after the request came in for Gibson to make him some more bespoke humbuckers. Things moved on from there and restarted officially with production models based on Iommi's first "Monkey" SG Special starting in 2020.

Those models stayed authentic to the original with P-90s. But the Black Sabbath legend has previous form when it comes to signature humbucker pickups with Gibson – his was the first signature humbucker set launched back in 1997, based on a design he was using in his UK-made Jaydee guitars. Ten years later Iommi put his name to another first with the first Epiphone signature model, an ebony version of the G-400 – and its Sabbath crucifix inlays weren’t the only notable addition.

“I insisted they put my signature pickups on it,” Iommi told me in 2011. “Which were expensive really to go on that, but I didn’t want them to just put my name on the guitar and that was it. I wanted it to be at least something that I’d use. And that was my deal all along with Gibson.”

The guitarist has carried that commitment on for his return to the Gibson fold, and now players have the chance to upgrade their own SGs (other guitar models are available) with his current choice. But Iommi’s tone has undeniably changed over the years, so where do his humbucker sit as an option for other players as well as those compelled by the power of the tritone?

Specs

• Launch price: $229/£199
• Type: Alnico 2 / ceramic humbucker pickup
• Features: Four conductor wiring as standard, wax potted,
• Contact: Gibson

Build

The thoughtful folks at Gibson UK have saved me getting my trusty ol' soldering iron out by sending an Epiphone SG with the Iommi pickups preinstalled. I specifically asked for this model from the “Inspired By Gibson” Standard range rather than a full-fat Gibson SG Standard because ickups are the obvious upgrade choice for more affordable guitars. Though I’ve been mightily impressed with the stock Probuckers I’ve encountered from the Epiphone range.

With no visible polepieces like most Gibson ‘buckers, the look is more sleek and minimalist for the chrome covers – but the construction here is different too.

Under the cover is a combination of Alnico II and ceramic magnets with blades rather than pole pieces designed to offer a more consistent sound for the magnetic field when Iommi is bending strings. Something that plays a huge role in Sabbath songs such as Iron Man and Into The Void.

The other key requirements for Iommi were sustain and clarity in the high-gain scenarios he thrives in. There were also distinct needs that have been consistent through his career; “We had to make sure it worked with my light gauge strings and low tunings, but still pack a punch,” notes the man himself. “The result has got some serious output.”

With this in mind the humbucker is waxed potted and epoxied to prevent a feedback fest at high gain and volumes, and the 15.7k pickup (our reading) features four-conductor wiring for series, parallel, and split coil options if the player desires. Notably, there is no Iommi humbucker ‘set’ available to buy – the pickups I have here are the same, designed for bridge or neck positions just like Iommi has.

Sounds

Alongside the Epiphone SG Standard I have some added context with an Epiphone SG Modern and my own 2005 Faded Special (with a stock 490T humbucker in the bridge and a Seymour Duncan ‘59 I installed in the neck). I need to get around to installing a JB in the bridge, but maybe this pickup might present serious competition for the slot?

Iommi’s origins lie in the bite and punch of the P-90 from his original “Monkey” 1964/’65 SG Special, and there’s an unmistakable growl to the midrange of the bridge here that feels linked to Sabbath’s trailblazing early ‘70s era. But compared to my own SG Special and the Modern Gibson has loaned us for ProBucker comparison, the highs sound a little rolled off from the Iommi pickup and it makes for a distinct sound that is much more obviously reminiscent of Iommi’s own lead tone than even I was expecting. It’s also quite appealing for a lower gain crunch blues tone through a UA Lion '68 Plexi modelling amp pedal.

Moving back to the SG Modern's ProBuckers and the difference is stark; the Iommi is so much more focussed and articulate compared. The low end is tighter for palm muting and it’s a real upgrade to the Modern for power chord-based playing because the highs aren’t creating unwelcome transient distraction and the clarity for low note bends is undeniable.

In the neck this pickup is a notable change; neither flutey or flabby, and it’s actually an excellent clean sound to my ears. The loaner Modern sounds thinner and more jangly through a Fender Deluxe Reverb compared. There’s a mellow character from the Iommi that’s quite distinct with the mid focus, unlike the usual humbucker experience for me. Perhaps there's something in opting for a neck pickup that isn't designed for that role alone.

Verdict

With the price here on the premium side for a pair – and it should be noted the construction process of these pickups is probably unique for Gibson – only Iommi diehards will probably do the double. But even as a fan, and someone who has drifted from traditional ‘buckers towards the brighter clarity of Firebird and Wide Range options for my guitar mids, I was genuinely delighted with just how distinct and impressive Iommi’s signature humbucker is.

The real cherry on the cake was when I tuned down to drop D; even with guage 10 set of strings the sense of snarl and definition with the expected thickness was really satisfying as I rolled through some Sabbath, old Silverchair and Helmet riffs. A lot of fun! Then bringing in the bite rather than chime of the middle strings for some discordance with the low end is a real weapon to wield, while extended chords in higher gain levels don’t seem to suffer from a clash of frequencies because the highs are rolled back so judiciously.

The return of the Iommi Signature Humbucker is a welcome one. It's unlike any humbucker I've tried before, probably because the blueprint has evolved from a hum-cancelling take on a P-90 into the demands of higher gain levels as Iommi's rig has changed over the years. But the voicing is so well considered that cleans aren't overcooked with compression and those drive-drenched E string bends really do sound great. Should we have expected anything less from Iommi and Gibson?

MusicRadar rating: This humbucker is a must-try if you’re looking for an upgrade and play heavier music, or indeed just want to try something a bit different in the humbucker stable. Because just like Iommi was capable of exploring far more with Sabbath than juggernaut riffs, this is more than just a heavy metal pickup.

Hands-on videos

Sweetwater

Gibson has unveiled a new signature electric guitar pickup for the Godfather of Heavy Metal, Tony Iommi – or rather it has unveiled an old one, reissuing the Black Sabbath icon’s much loved signature humbucker after a number of years out of production.

Developed in the late ‘90s by JT Riboloff, Gibson’s then head of R&D Department, it was a piece of history – Gibson’s first ever signature pickup, and featured in Iommi’s signature guitars with Gibson.

Is this the ultimate aftermarket mod for anyone looking to give their electric guitar (preferably, an SG) a power-up for premier cru riff-work. Paraphrasing Tony Iommi here but it’s one to file under “You know it makes sense”.

“I’m really excited that Gibson’s bringing back my signature humbucker, they were getting pretty hard to find!” says Iommi. “This pickup came about after a lot of time spent in Nashville, just experimenting with different setups to get that perfect tone and sustain from my favourite guitars.”

He’s not exaggerating. At the launch event at the Gibson Garage London, Iommi said Riboloff had them locked in at the Nashville factory for the night. All the other staff had gone home. “Couldn’t we go and get something to eat, just to get out of here?” wondered Iommi. No, sorry. Riboloff was cooking.

But what he was cooking up was something special, a bespoke wind, inspired by Iommi's John Birch custom pickups, but reaching for something better – or at least incremental improvement, the leitmotif of Iommi's career – featuring Alnico 2 and Ceramic magnets, voiced for sustain and clarity in high-volume, high-gain scenarios. Like everything in Iommi’s rig, it was tailored to his specifications.

“We had to make sure it worked with my light gauge strings and low tunings, but still pack a punch, and the result has got some serious output,” says Iommi. “They’re on my signature guitars too, and I couldn’t be more pleased with how they turned out.”

Gibson CEO and president Cesar Gueikian is a fan of them. He has had them on his guitars for 15 years and counting.

“I was blown away with the distinct Tony Iommi and Black Sabbath sound I was able to get out of them,” he says. “They have such a great, clean look with the unique pickup cover, and we are excited to bring the Rifflord’s signature humbucker back as we continue to pay tribute to Tony.”

And Gibson is paying tribute to Iommi throughout August, with a documentary series featuring the likes of Scott Ian, Zakk Wylde, Steve Vai and Iommi’s good friend Brian May to debut on its GibsonTV YouTube channel.

“It’s great to have the first signature pickup from Gibson back, and there really isn’t a more fitting artist than Tony Iommi,” says Lee Bartram, head of commercial and marketing EMEA, Gibson. “Tony is synonymous with the Gibson SG, but now the volume, presence, and overall power he produces through his playing can be experienced in other models too, whether at home, in the studio, or on stage.

“Thanks to Tony for his continued support and trust; these pickups are the result of our constant collaboration, and we look forward to what’s next for our partnership.”

As for the specs, they are wax-potted. Back in the day, Iommi used to horrify Ozzy Osbourne, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward as he would wax-pot the pickups himself.

On one occasion, they were staying in a caravan in Cumbria, Iommi experimenting with wax-potting to try and reduce the noise from his Gibson SG, Laney tube amp, and Dallas Rangemaster setup. The smell was overpowering.

Well, here, Gibson has done all that work for you. Average DCR readings for these are 16k. They come in chrome housings as standard, with four-conductor wiring.

Available now, priced £199/$229, the Tony Iommi Signature Humbucker is available now. See Gibson for more details.

Almost everyone who is anyone in the world of metal and hard rock was at the Back To The Beginning concert at Villa Park last month. But one band who were not represented in any way were Sabbath’s contemporaries, Led Zeppelin.

Now in a new interview in this month’s Mojo magazine, Robert Plant has revealed that he actually was invited to perform that day, by his fellow Midlander, Tony Iommi.

“I said, Tony, I’d love to come, but I can’t come,” recalls Plant. “I just can’t. I’m not saying that I’d rather hang out with Peter Gabriel or Youssou N’Dour, but I don’t know anything about what’s going on in that world now, at all. I don’t decry it, I’ve got nothing against it. It’s just I found these other places that are so rich.”

In truth, hard rock hasn’t been Plant’s thing for a while now. His solo work over the last few decades has largely been coloured by folk, World music and country. And that’s continued in his current band Saving Grace, which play largely traditional tunes or at least modern spins on them.

And whilst live they do drop some acoustic versions of old Zep tracks, Plant says they have to “be very careful that we make sure it stays closer to Bert Jansch than Axl Rose.” They’re touring this autumn, but don’t expect to hear Stairway To Heaven.

“When people say that I don’t like Stairway To Heaven, I just don’t like the idea of it,” Plant explains. “These iconic things – they’re just what they are. But you know, most people have missed some of the best Zeppelin stuff. For Your Life, on Presence. Achilles' Last Stand! Fucking hell. Just extraordinary that three people and a singer can do that.”

But the idea of getting Zeppelin back together one last time doesn’t appeal: “to do it for the sake of it was never what Zeppelin was about”, he tells Mojo. Neither is he interested in banging out old Zep tunes in huge venues.

“(These new) gigs are small enough so that if nobody wants to go, it’s not the end of the world,” he says. “And so, by having that laissez-faire, easy-going, whatever it’s called - suicidal! - attitude, instead of doing the football stadium with some old mates … we were free. We could mess about.”

The ten-track self-titled album, Saving Grace, by Robert Plant comes out on September 26.

Tony Iommi has spoken for the first time since news of Ozzy Osbourne’s death broke on Tuesday. In a lengthy interview with ITV, the guitarist talked, movingly, about his shock at his bandmate’s seemingly sudden passing and about what happened immediately after the Back To The Beginning gig on 5 July.

"It was a shock for us," Iommi told the broadcaster. "I mean, when I heard yesterday, it couldn’t sink in. I thought, ‘It can’t be.’ I only had a text from him the day before. It just seemed unreal, surreal. And it really didn’t sink in. And in the night, I started thinking about it: ‘God, am I dreaming all this?’ But as I said before, he’s not looked well through the rehearsals.

"I think he really just held out to do that show. I really feel – and me and Geezer were talking about it last night – that we think he held out to do it, and just after that, he’s done it and said goodbye to the fans. And that was the end of it, really.”

The show – which saw Ozzy perform five songs with his own band and then four with Sabbath – will never be forgotten. Certainly, it’s unlikely such an incredible bill of rock and metal artists will be assembled in the same place ever again. According to Iommi, the band themselves were quietly pleased after their performance.

"Well, he went to his dressing room and I went to mine and Geez went to his and so on," says Iommi. "And then he came over. He came around before he was leaving on a wheelchair that brought him in to say goodbye and have a little chat for a bit. And he seemed all right. He enjoyed it. And he said, ‘Oh, it went all right, didn’t it?’ I said, ‘Yeah, it did.’

"But as I say, when I had the text off him the day before yesterday saying he’s tired and he’s really got no energy. And I thought, ‘Oh, dear.’ ‘Cause it’s a lot for him to do that under the problems he’s got.

"And we could see it in rehearsal. We didn’t want him there every day at rehearsal, because it’s too much. He just wouldn’t be able to stand it. So they’d bring him in and he’d sit down and sing a few songs, and then we’d talk about some rubbish old times or whatever, have a laugh, and then he’d go. And that’s sort of what we did, really.”

Knowing that the band managed to do that gig before his passing has been some compensation, Iommi said. “I’m really glad we did it. It was a final thing for everybody. If we hadn’t have done it, people couldn’t have seen the band and Ozzy and it would have been a shame.”

Black Sabbath packed a lot into the 1970s. They began the decade by inventing heavy metal and ended it by sacking legendary frontman Ozzy Osbourne.

In between were all sorts of highs and lows - which guitarist Tony Iommi discussed in a 2011 interview with Classic Rock.

Iommi began by talking about how the band’s self-titled debut album was slaughtered by music critics upon its release in February 1970.

“It wasn’t nice to read the reviews,” he said. “It’s your first album ever, and you get all the music magazines to see what’s been said about it, and then all you read is: ‘What a load of crap!’ I just went, Oh my God…

“It was hurtful at first, but you learn to live with it after a while. And the most important thing is - we believed in what we did. And that was the way life went for us, right from the beginning. We had to get over a lot of fences.

“I didn’t mind if a reviewer said, ‘It’s not my cup of tea, but a lot of kids do like it.’ But they said that nobody liked us. That was a little upsetting. But we just forged ahead. It’s the only way you can do it.

“You’ve got to believe in what you do. You can’t just fall apart because of what other people say.”

Iommi recalled how Sabbath’s first European tour shaped the sound of their second album Paranoid - and especially its classic opening track War Pigs.

“We ended up playing in this one place in Zurich for what seemed like an eternity,” he said. “In reality it was just a few weeks.

“The first night we arrived there, the place was packed, and it was fantastic. A band was playing, it was their last night and they had champagne. We thought, ‘This is great!’ Little did we know that they couldn’t wait to get out of there.

“When we played the next night the place was as dead as a doornail. We were playing to hardly anybody. Our audience was a couple of hookers and some lunatic who used to do handstands in front of the stage and all his money would fall out of his pockets.

“But we carried on, and we played for ourselves, and it gave us the opportunity to jam and write, because we had so long to play. Every night we had to play seven 45-minute spots. We hadn’t got enough songs, so we used to make up stuff. Which was great, really. That’s where War Pigs came from and some of the other tracks – from jamming.”

As Sabbath got more and more successful, and toured heavily in America, Iommi encountered unexpected challenges with his gear.

He admitted: “We had some problems playing in those big arenas. The Spectrum in Philadelphia, being an ice rink, they had this big machinery in the back – generators to keep the ice from melting. And this machinery always used to effect my equipment.

“My whole guitar sound just turned into this horrendous racket. I had this treble booster that I plugged into my amp, and you name it, it picked everything up – you’d hear a bloody cab radio and all sorts. So those gigs for me were a bloody nightmare.”

The band’s 1973 album Sabbath Bloody Sabbath is one of their very best, but Iommi remembered then making of that album as a struggle.

“We started trying to write and I just hit a wall,” he said. “I couldn’t think of anything. I couldn’t believe it. I’d never had writer’s block before. And the more worried I got, the worse it got.

“In the end we decided to go somewhere that was out of the way, so we went to Clearwell Castle [in Gloucestershire]. I thought, ‘We’ll get a bit of atmosphere there.’

“There were dungeons in the basement and that’s where we set up the gear. And as soon as we got down there, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath was the first track I came up with, the first riff.

“The whole vibe in those dungeons made me come up with that riff. And once we’d got the starter song, we could just carry on. That was great for us. It was really good, quite exciting.”

Sabbath’s 1976 album Technical Ecstasy had a more experimental sound, which, as Iommi recalled, was mostly his own work.

“We had a keyboard player then, Gerald Woodroffe. And we’d gone to Ridge Farm [in Surrey] to write the album and rehearse.

"It was good for me, because I could rehearse with Gerald. The other lads used to stay in bed quite late, so you didn’t want to make too much noise. But I’d sit down with Gerald and we’d write all this stuff. So that album was different from the others, but I did like it.

“We went to Miami to record Technical Ecstasy at Criteria Studios. Maybe that wasn’t such a good idea.

“We all stayed in a place right on the beach, and I’d go down to the studio and nobody would be there!

“The Bee Gees were recording there too. I spent a lot of time hanging out with Barry Gibb. And the Eagles were there, too, in the room next to us. The Eagles had to pack up and go because we were too loud!”

The 1978 album Never Say Die! was the last they made before singer Ozzy Osbourne was fired in controversial circumstances.

Iommi described the recording of that album as a miserable time.

“I don’t know how we got that album done,” he said. “I booked the studio out in Toronto, never having seen it in my life. I booked it because the Stones had used it. But when we got there, it was just too plush, it wasn’t right for us. I had all the carpet ripped up because it just sounded dead in there.

“We had to rehearse in the morning at this cinema, and it was fucking freezing cold. And then at night we’d go into the studio to record. So it was very hard to put that album together, very frustrating for us all.”

It was while promoting Never Say Die! that Sabbath toured with Van Halen as the opening act. This proved a chastening experience as Sabbath were routinely blown off stage by the young and hungry Van Halen.

Iommi confessed: “We were burnt out and had come to a stage in our lives when the band was not right.

“When we did that tour, Van Halen were really hot to trot, whereas we were established, but burning out.

“We were good friends with Van Halen. We had them on tour with us for eight months, and Eddie Van Halen became one of my best friends.

“Eddie was the first guitarist I’d heard come up with the tapping method. And he was a great player. But that tour was difficult.

“Van Halen were really good. They were great musicians, energetic onstage. But we hit a wall.

“We didn’t know where we were going - and Van Halen were really going somewhere. They were jumping all over the stage, and we were like old farts in comparison.

“They used to be side of stage every night watching us. You could see that they wanted to learn. And they did. They worked hard and really did good. We’d gone as far as we could at that point.”

Black Sabbath would begin the next decade with a new singer - Ronnie James Dio.

But that of course is a whole other story…

With Black Sabbath about to play their last ever show at Villa Park this weekend, Laney Amplification has unveiled a super limited edition replica of Tony Iommi’s signature tube amp head to mark the occasion.

The Black Country Customs TI100 is handmade in the UK, and is an exacting replica of Iommi’s 2012 signature head, complete with the grille plate with crosses backlit in red. Each amp comes with a signed and numbered backplate, plus a certificate of authenticity, limited edition guitar picks and commemorative postcards – and everything you need to nail his electric guitar tone.

A dual-channel amplifier, the TI100 is made for metal guitar, with its Lead channel voiced for down tunings, and does not want for high-gain saturation. But it does a lot more.

The Rhythm channel handles all your cleans, right through to blues guitar crunch. And with an onboard boost section, one per channel, it gives you a footswitchable hotter voice for each channel.

The engineers at Laney’s Black Country Customs workshop configured the boost so that it works just as would in the pedal. When activated, adjust the bright red Boost dials accordingly and they will hit the front end of the guitar amp with some extra decibels.

As Laney's product manager, Simon Fraser Clark explains, when he was co-designing the original TI100 with Iommi, he wanted something different.

“Tony is very much one of these people who hasn’t rested on his laurels,” says Clark. “In 2012, Tony came to us to start talking about his new signature amp, the TI100, and that was used on the 2013 tour, for the album 13, and it was a departure in his sound from pervious tours – he wanted something that was a bit more heavier, had a bit more compression to it, a bit more gain. So that led to the TI100.”

Each channel has its own three-band EQ and controls for Enhance and Presence. The latter is something most players will be familiar with; it allows you to adjust the high-end response of the output section, a little post EQ spritz and polish – it can sometimes give your electric guitar tone the extra sparkle it needs to make harmonics and feedback pop out.

Enhance does something similar for the low end frequencies. Again, it sits in the output stage, and shapes the response. Fully counterclockwise, that response is tight, the kind of tone you might use for contemporary metal styles, full-bore chug and all that animalistic business.

Turn the dial clockwise and it opens up a bit, letting those chords bloom – fine-tuning for doom. It is nice to see independent Enhance and Presence controls for each channel; it is more common to find them as global controls serving both.

Under the hood there is a quartet of 6L6 power tubes, with 8 2AX7 preamp tubes. Altogether you get 100-watts to play with. Laney are only making 50 of these. They come with a protective covering, and all the case candy and extras mentioned above.

But this is an amp that was designed to play. It’s built for the road. Those integrated grab handles are a super practical feature when lugging a 21.5kg amplifier up a flight of stairs.

Other nods to pragmatism include an “ultra transparent” effects loop that can accommodate your pedalboard – and/or rack equipment. The loop has an FX Return Gain dial so you can compensate for any change in gain when effects are applied, and you can bypass the loop altogether.

The TI100 ships with an FS4-TI footswitch for changing channels and turning each channel’s boost on and off. Again, this is replete with signature details, with Iommi’s signature and cross logo on the enclosure.

Around the back of the amp there are all the 1/4” speaker outputs you’d need – 4 Ohms, 8 Ohms, 2x 8 Ohms, 16 Ohms, 2 x 16 Ohms… It’s a serious piece of kit, and they’re only making 50 of ‘em. And Sabbath have only one show left, Back To The Beginning, Villa Park, Saturday July 5.

As Laney says, it was Laney in the beginning for Iommi, the LA100BL pressed into service as he inaugurated heavy metal with Black Sabbath’s eponymous anthem, and it has been Laney all the way since.

Priced £2999, the Black Country Customs Tony Iommi TI100 is available now. See Laney Amplification for more details.

Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi admits that he is worried about the band's upcoming performance at singer Ozzy Osbourne’s farewell show in Birmingham on 5 July.

In a new interview with Music Week, Iommi says of the event at Villa Park: “This would be a big, monumental thing if it all comes good. The worrying thing for me is the unknown. We don’t know what’s going to happen.

“Normally, when we’d tour, we’d rehearse and run through the thing for a while, and it’s just us. But with this event there are so many other moving parts.”

This show, under the banner ‘Back To The Beginning’, will feature performances from a host of guest stars including Metallica, Guns N’ Roses and Tool.

Ozzy Osbourne is scheduled to perform a set of solo material before reuniting with Black Sabbath alongside Iommi and fellow founding members Geezer Butler and Bill Ward.

But with Osbourne in poor health, Iommi says that fans should not expect too much from the singer.

“You’re used to Ozzy running around,” Iommi says, “but he certainly won’t be doing that for this show. I don’t know if he’s going to be standing or sitting on a throne or what.”

Iommi says he is approaching this show with “excitement mixed with fear”.
He clarifies: “Once we start playing, then we’ll know we’re doing it. It’s always a worry, even when we did tours before, there’s always that build-up, and then it gets to the point that we do it and it’s OK.”

He also states that this show is definitely the final performance from Ozzy and from Black Sabbath.

“It’s absolutely the end,” he insists. “This show has come up because of the situation [with Osbourne’s illness] and because it’s a charity thing. But there’s no way we could go out and do a tour.

"Everybody in the band is looking forward to doing it, though it’s a nerve-wracking thing, as we’ll be touching on some stuff that we haven’t done for a long time.”

When Ozzy Osbourne was kicked out of Black Sabbath in 1979, fans were stunned. But as guitarist Tony Iommi insisted, the only other option the band had was to split up.

In an interview with Classic Rock, Iommi recalled how the problem with Osbourne came to a head in Los Angeles during sessions for Sabbath’s ninth album.

“We had some chats with Ozzy," Iommi said. "Whether he’d remember them or not, I don’t know.

“I was in a terrible position, because I was the one who used to go to meetings with the record company. I’d go over to Warner Brothers and they’d say: ‘How’s the album coming along?’ ‘Oh, alright.’ ‘When can we hear some tracks?’ ‘Um, soon…’

“I was lying. It just wasn’t happening. We were coming up with riffs, but Ozzy just wasn’t into it anymore.

“He’d done too much of everything. A lot of times when we were working, he’d be asleep on a couch.”

Osbourne would later claim that being sacked by Black Sabbath for drinking too much and doing too many drugs was akin to being “hung by a jury of murderers”.

Iommi maintained that the band’s bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward were in agreement that Osbourne had to go.

“It wasn’t just my decision to fire him,” the guitarist said. “It was a decision made by all three of us.

“It was Bill who told Ozzy. Ozzy probably thought I was behind it all, but it was a band decision. It was either we break up or we carry on without him.”

Iommi also admitted that he had contacted another singer, Ronnie James Dio, before the decision to fire Osbourne was made — and that the contact was made via Ozzy’s future wife and manager Sharon Arden.

“I got in touch with Ronnie through Sharon,” Iommi said. “I met Ronnie at a party.

“I really didn’t feel happy with the way things were going with Ozzy. I thought about doing something with Ronnie. And then when we split with Ozzy, I said to the others, ‘Well, why don’t we try Ronnie?’

“We’d heard the Rainbow albums with Ronnie singing. I thought we had to try to see what we could do with him.”

American singer Ronnie James Dio had made four albums with Rainbow, the band led by ex-Deep Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore.

The second of these albums, Rising, was released in 1976 and featured the classic track Stargazer.

In 1978, however, Ritchie Blackmore decided to pursue a more commercial hard rock direction with Rainbow — a move which resulted in Dio being replaced by British vocalist Graham Bonnet.

Dio was therefore available when Iommi made his approach.

Iommi knew that it was a gamble. But this was one gamble that really paid off.

“Ronnie had so much against him,” Iommi said. “It was so hard for him to walk into a band as established as we were, and he wasn’t a big chap, just a little guy.

“But I just looked at the size of the talent. He sang so well.

“As soon as we heard Ronnie sing with us, we knew he was the right man. It was different to what we’d done, but there wasn’t much else we could do.

“We started writing completely differently, because Ronnie was such a different kind of singer. If we had got another singer who sounded like Ozzy, I think that would have been worse. It had to be something different. The music we wrote with him was a different approach.

“It was like we were starting over again. But it made us fight again. We’d lost that fight — you get too comfortable. It made us have to work again, it kicked us up the arse, and that was good for the band.”

With Dio in place of Ozzy, a rejuvenated Black Sabbath created one of the greatest albums of their career — Heaven And Hell.

Released in March 1980, the album included a monumental title track and others destined to become classics — Neon Knights, Children Of The Sea and Die Young.

In September of that year, Ozzy Osbourne bounced back with his first post-Sabbath album, Blizzard Of Ozz, featuring a new guitar hero in Randy Rhoads.

Over time, Heaven And Hell would be acclaimed as a true Sabbath classic and arguably the crowning glory of Ronnie James Dio’s career.

Back in 1980, what this album represented for Tony Iommi was a new beginning and a complete validation.

“I had an excitement about the band again,” Iommi said. “I had to keep this band going. I’ve never been one to give up. I had to fight and to try and make it work.

“It would have been so easy to have turned my back on it and just said, ‘That’s it.’ But I couldn’t do that. I had to go with it and make it work. And it did.

“Heaven And Hell turned out to be great album. Black Sabbath hadn’t died. We were back out there with Ronnie and the band was great again.”

Here's a collaboration no one saw coming. Robbie Williams has recruited Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi to play on his new single, Rocket, the first track shared from the former Take That singer’s forthcoming album, Britpop.

The track features electric guitar from Iommi throughout, and is a sort of bland high-energy pop-rocker that is more P!nk than Paranoid, and comes and goes in under three minutes. Whatever you can say about Williams he is at least eager to get right down to it.

Britpop (stylised BRITPOP, all caps, you gotta shout to be heard these days) is scheduled for release in the Autumn, and you can expect more guest appearances.

“I set out to create the album that I wanted to write and release after I left Take That in 1995,” said Williams, on Instagram. “It was the peak of Britpop and a golden age for British Music. I’ve worked with some of my heroes on this album; it’s raw, there are more guitars and it’s an album that’s even more upbeat and anthemic than usual.

“There’s some ‘Brit’ in there and there’s certainly some ‘pop’ too – I’m immensely proud of this as a body of work and I’m excited for fans to hear this album.”

There are no details as to who produced Rocket, or as to how a boyband idol ended up working with the Godfather of Heavy Metal, but it’ll keep Iommi’s chops up as he prepares for Black Sabbath’s final curtain call – this time for real – on 5 July at Villa Park when he takes to the stage with metal’s original Fab Four for the Back To The Beginning one-day festival.

Sabbath are headlining. The lineup reads like a who's who of metal guitar. There will be sets from Metallica, Slayer, Pantera, Gojira, Halestorm, Alice In Chains, Lamb Of God, Anthrax and Mastodon.

Rage Against The Machine’s Tom Morello is musical director for the show and has put together an all-star band featuring Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan, Slash and Duff from Guns N’ Roses, Wolfgang Van Halen, Zakk Wylde, Anthrax’s Scott Ian, Ozzy Osbourne alumni Rudy Sarzo and Jake E Lee, and many more. Morello will no doubt play.

Hey, maybe Robbie Williams will be a surprise guest. Isn’t 2025 crazy?

Okay, speaking of Iommi guesting on other people’s records, Williams should be congratulating himself. This is a coup. Iommi does not make a habit of it. He guested on NWOBHM heroes Quartz’s 1977 debut album, but then he was producing his fellow Brummies so maybe that doesn’t count.

Notably he joined forces with Cathedral on Utopian Blaster, from the UK doom legends’ 1995 album, The Carnival Bizarre.

He also played on Diamond Head’s 1993 album, Death And Progress, on a track called Starcrossed (Lovers of the Night). Come to think of it, that is maybe what ChatGPT would come up with if you asked it to come up with a Ronnie James Dio-era Sabbath song-title.

Iommi joined Dio on Girlschool’s I Spy, from 2008’s guest-laden Legacy album, and contributed lead guitar to Candlemass’s Astorolus – The Great Octopus, from 2019’s The Door To Doom. And of course he did his old mate, Ozzy, a turn on Patient Number 9.

Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi reckons that the band’s dark image was great for getting publicity in their early days - but it could have cost him his life.

In an interview with Classic Rock, Iommi recalled how Sabbath’s heavy music and the references to Satan in their signature song Black Sabbath created a powerful mystique around the band.

“The image was good and bad, really,” Iommi said. “It created this thing, this kind of aura, and people wanted to come and see what we were like.

“So I think in one way it helped us. At one point we weren’t doing any interviews, so nobody knew much about us. I heard stories about people being frightened to meet us!”

Iommi said that he and the band’s bassist Geezer Butler had a keen interest in the occult.

“We were young and learning and trying to experience things,” he said. “So we were really interested in the occult, Geezer and I. Very interested in what it was like on the other side of life.

“I think in those days we were open to a lot of stuff. We tried a Ouija board and frightened each other!”

But as Iommi admitted, this dark image was - almost literally - a double-edged sword.

“With a name like Black Sabbath, we had all sorts of weird people coming to the gigs in America – witches and all sorts,” he said.

“There would be people coming to our hotel with black cloaks on, lighting candles. It was something that grew out of proportion.

“You never know what people will do. You didn’t know what sort of people would be around. Some of those religious weirdos were as dangerous as the Ku Klux Klan.

“And the most disturbing thing I ever had was when one person came on stage with a dagger to stab me. Very disturbing to say the least!

“We were playing this open-air show, and when we got to the venue, somebody had painted a cross on a door in red….

“We didn’t think much else of it. But later on we found out this bloke had cut his hand and drawn the cross in his blood.

“He was some religious freak.”

Iommi revealed that he had no idea how much danger he had been in that night.

“During that show, my amps were playing up and I really got pissed off,” he said. “I lost my temper and kicked my stack over and walked off. And as I’m walking off, this bloke’s behind me.

“He’d got past security but somebody managed to jump on him. I didn’t know what was happening. I was still moaning about my gear.

“It was only afterwards that I found out this bloke had a dagger and was trying to bump one of us off!”

Black Sabbath’s Vol.4 is more than just a great album. It is a monument to excess. And if one track in particular sums up the craziness of this band’s life in the early ’70s, it’s the weird instrumental with the joke title: FX.

As Rolling Stone accurately described it: “Vol. 4 is one of those difficult ‘cocaine’ albums that bands were fond of making back then. Sabbath was rich, bored, huge in America, and it was the Seventies—you do the math.”

During the summer of 1972, the four members of the band lived together in a mansion in Los Angeles, and it was there that the songs for Vol.4 were written and rehearsed.

As Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi recalled in an interview with Classic Rock: “We lived in a beautiful house in Bel Air. It had a ballroom and bar leading out to the garden, and we rehearsed in the bar area.

“It was a big room. We had the gear set up there, but we never thought for a minute that all the sound was going out across the valley!

“It was dead quiet outside. You could hear a pin drop at night.

“We used to write in the day and jam at night. It was a great atmosphere. We had a fabulous time.

“In this ballroom there was a grand piano. I’d never played piano before. But that’s where I leant to play, and the first thing I wrote on it was Changes.”

A beautiful ballad, Changes was a radical departure for Sabbath.

And there were other experiments on Vol.4.

The album’s opening track, Wheels Of Confusion, has the complexity of progressive rock.

The heaviest number, Supernaut, turns funky halfway through.

And then there is FX. 1min 44sec of odd noises from Iommi’s guitar.

As Iommi remembered it, the band were working at The Record Plant studio when FX was created on the spot.

“It was a mad time,” Iommi told Classic Rock. “We used to have this coke flown in especially, in sealed containers, sealed with wax. You’d peel the wax off and there are these phials of coke.

“We’d sit up all night. We used to make our own entertainment.

“And there was one day when we were in the studio and I took my guitar off and put it on the stand, and as I put it down it went, Boing! And that became FX.

“For the life of me I can’t think why we ended up taking our clothes off, but that’s how we recorded that track, prancing around, naked, banging the guitar."

“It was one of those stupid things that you do," Iommi said. "We were stoned, of course.

"We were always joking around. That was our release - to joke around or play jokes on each other."

In February 1975, exactly 50 years ago, Black Sabbath were working on their sixth studio album Sabotage. It would become one of the greatest and most influential albums in rock history.

It was also the last classic album that Sabbath would make with singer Ozzy Osbourne.

The album was recorded at Morgan Studios in Willesden, north-west London, a state-of-the-art facility where Sabbath had made their previous album, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. The band worked at Morgan for a total of four months, split into three-week sessions.

Mike Butcher had been the engineer on Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, and he was charged with producing Sabotage.

In an interview withy Classic Rock, Butcher recalled that the sessions ran to a loose schedule. “I’d arrive at two in the afternoon, but the band wouldn’t start showing up until four. And because Morgan had a bar, that’s where the guys would wait for the others to arrive. So most days, we’d start work at nine and go through till one or two the next morning.”

Guitarist Tony Iommi – identified by Mike Butcher as Black Sabbath’s “unofficial leader” – stated that Sabotage was in part a reaction to the complex style of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, on which the band had combined their signature heavy metal with elements of progressive rock, aided by Yes keyboard player Rick Wakeman and even an orchestra.

“We could’ve continued getting more technical,” Iommi said, “using orchestras and everything else. But we wanted to do a rock album.”

Iommi said of Sabotage. “The sound was a bit harder than Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. My guitar sound was harder.”

Iommi’s heavy riffing is the dominant tone on Sabotage, not least on the song chosen as the album’s opening track, Hole In The Sky, which begins with the hum of amplifiers set at maximum volume and a scream of “Attack!”

The scream was an in-joke, delivered by Mike Butcher, who explained:“Sabbath had a supporting act who had a manager who would stand behind them on stage shouting, ‘Attack! Attack!’” says the producer. “So that’s what I shouted from the control room through the Tannoy.”

Even heavier was the album’s most famous and influential song, Symptom Of The Universe. Its bludgeoning, staccato riff would provide the template for Metallica and countless other metal bands, but it was more than a one-note head-banger. It ended in a funky coda, created by the band jamming while recording the track and subsequently overdubbed with acoustic guitar.

There were more left turns throughout the album. Iommi may have set out to make a more straightforward rock record, but Sabbath continued the experimentation they started on Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. And, ironically, it was Iommi who created the most bizarre and unorthodox song ever to feature on a Black Sabbath album: Supertzar.

More atmospheric even than the song that gave the band its name, Supertzar was a dark, dreamlike piece featuring the English Chamber Choir, and described by drummer Bill Ward as “a demonic chant”. Tubular bells, played by Ward, carried an echo of the 1973 movie chiller The Exorcist.

On this track, the only connection to conventional rock music was Iommi’s slow guitar riff, played like a death march.

Ozzy had no part to play on Supertzar, but what he heard as he observed the song being recorded was, in his words, “a noise like God conducting the soundtrack to the end of the world”.

Iommi said, with characteristic reserve, that “it sounded really different and really great”.

In stark contrast was Am I Going Insane (Radio), essentially a pop song written by Ozzy on a Moog synthesiser, which he played on the finished track.

“Oz drove us all nuts with that Moog thing,” Ward recalled, “but the song was great. And in hindsight, it was kind of a precursor for his solo career. His personality was blooming on this song.”

The ‘Radio’ in the title was British rhyming slang: Radio Rental – mental.

As bassist Geezer Butler said, Ozzy’s lyrics were “definitely autobiographical”.

Sabotage is essentially the connoisseurs’ Black Sabbath album.

A retrospective review in Rolling Stone stated: “Sabotage continues the theme of themeless epic suites with twisted stoner-prog anthems that rock as hard as the early days, but also hyperextend themselves in unexpected ways.

“It might be the most underrated of their albums, and was certainly the original band's last stab at greatness together.”

By the time Black Sabbath began their Never Say Die UK tour on 16 May 1978 in Sheffield, the wheels were perhaps starting to come off the Ozzy-era of the band. And it didn't help that their support band was starting to get more attention than them. But looking back now, Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler can see Van Halen's presence on the tour as more of a double-edged sword.

"They were great – I really liked them", Geezer tells Brave Words in a new interview promoting his autobiography, Into The Void: From Birth To Black Sabbath-And Beyond. "They did one of my favourite all-time Kinks songs You Really Got Me, so I immediately really liked them from the cover of that and that was one of their first hits singles. But as the tour went on, cracks started to appear between the upcoming LA rockers and the established Birmingham godfathers of heavy.

"David Lee Roth became like an Ozzy clone, and it was really upsetting Ozzy at the time," explains Geezer. "Whatever Ozzy did one night, David Lee Roth would say the same thing the next night, and it was upsetting Ozzy." There was also tension between Tony Iommi and Eddie Van Halen on the guitar side. 

"Eddie was doing these extended solos, so Tony had to have word about that," adds the bassist. The two would later become close friends, but Geezer also saw distinct advantages to Van Halen's presence on the tour. 

"But it was good because they brought in this whole younger audience for us and they actually brought in some women and girls [laughs] that we'd never really had at our gigs. But what pissed us off was Warner Brothers completely concentrated on Van Halen and it was almost like we were the support band," says Geezer. "Warner Brothers were like, 'You're old hat and Van Halen are the future'. They did everything for Van Halen and nothing for us – no promotion for us whatsoever. But [Van Halen] were great guys and a great band [and there were] long-lasting friendships – especially Tony and Eddie." 

Sabbath's time would roll around again with Ozzy, and their last reunion even birthed a new studio album in the shape of 13. The 2013 Rick Rubin-produced album saw a back-to-basics approach with Sabbath seemingly going back to their roots, but it's becoming clear that some of the band were not satisfied with the results. 

"When we did the 13 album that took forever," reflects Geezer. "And some of it was great, and some of it not so good. It just didn't have the same feeling as the old '70s albums or even Heaven & Hell… I think the longer you take over something, it becomes forced in the end and you lose the initial rawness and feel of the music."

Neither the bassist or bandmate Iommi believe they would repeat the experience of working with Rubin again.

"Nope," he laughs. "He certainly wouldn't work with me ever again, or Tony. Tony was incredibly disappointed with him. In fact Tony took some of the master tapes and redid them."

Ozzy Osbourne himself lamented to Stereogum in 2022 when asked if he felt good about the record being their final creative statement. “Not really, because, to be perfectly honest, I didn’t really get a charge from the album," the singer said. "Although [producer] Rick Rubin is a good friend of mine, I wasn’t really… I was just singing.

“It was like stepping back in time, but it wasn’t a glorious period," he continued. "Though Geezer did a lot of lyric writing for me, which he’s very, very good at. It wasn’t an earth-shattering experience for me." Ozzy also suggested in the same interview that he didn't regard 13 a true Black Sabbath album because original drummer Bill Ward didn't play on it – Rage Against The Machine sticksman Brad Wilk performed session duties for the record. 

On that note, Geezer admits he still doesn't know why Bill Ward was fired from the band after they'd started working on 13 "I still haven't got an answer from anybody [as to] who fired him and why," he tells Brave Words. "I mean there's been rumours about his health and that kind of thing but I was listening to stuff that we were doing with Bill on that 13 album and I love it – it really does sound like the old Sabbath, the first three albums, the drumming on it and I love that kind of thing."

Ward later turned down the band's offer to play with the band on "two or three songs" when they toured and felt they "couldn't risk it" when it came to possible health issues once the world tour was underway. But perhaps there's a chance to put things right to some extent… 

"Ozzy's been texting me about doing one final show and that's it, with Bill," Geezer reveals. "But it's just not gonna happen… but then I always said the original Black Sabbath wouldn't get back together and then the next day the next Ozzy called me up said, "[We need] to get the band back together!' You say these things and hopefully if a miracle happens it would be great to do it but it's up to everybody's health and how they feel about it."

Geezer's perspective is clear on the matter though

"I'd love it to happen to do a final [show] even if it's just one song with all four of us with Bill on the drums. It certainly couldn't be a tour, it could only be one or two shows and three or four songs I suppose. But that would be it, it wouldn't be a tour or anything like that."

• Geezer Butler: “Drugs never made me play better. I’d think so at the time - then when listening to it back sober, I’d have to redo everything”

As a developing and beginner guitar player, learning riffs from your idols is a great way to push yourself to that next level. By learning classic riffs, you expose yourself to a range of techniques and note patterns that you may not find in simple chord-based songs.

Learning classic riffs is also a really fun thing to do. You can compare your own learning and progress against the recorded version of the song as a benchmark of how far you’ve come. 

It’s also fun when those around you recognise riffs that you play as being from songs they know!

The 10 riffs in this lesson are all classic, well-known riffs that will give you a range of skills you need to take your guitar playing to that next level. Across the 10 riffs you’ll encounter a range of challenges, all designed to help you be a better player.

1. Cream – Sunshine Of Your Love 

This riff is from '60s British supergroup Cream, featuring Eric Clapton, and this single note riff is a great one to get you started with changing strings while picking single notes. During this riff you’ll only be playing one note at a time at all times.

The riff also contains a three note chromatic line on the A string, starting at the 12th and ending on the 10th fret. This is useful for working on using multiple fingers.

The final phrase also contains a slide and a small string bend, check out the video for a full demonstration of how to play this.

This riff is great for practising alternate picking, but, it is slow enough that you can downpick it all if you wish.

2. Black Sabbath Iron Man 

This riff is definitely one for the fans of heavier music. Tony Iommi is one of the Godfathers of heavy metal guitar, and this riff is just one of the many crushing rock riffs he delivered in the early Black Sabbath years.

This riff is played entirely with power chords and contains some chord slides which can be tricky for new players so start slow when working on the slides. 

The original was played entirely on the Low E and A strings but in the video this is shown rooted on the A string as this feels a little easier for the slides.

3. David Bowie – Rebel Rebel

This iconic Bowie riff sounds simple, but it has a few little surprises under the hood.

Starting with an Open D string, the guitar then jumps to the B string where it slides from the 3rd to the 5th, but pay attention to how this slide takes place, at the same time as the sliding note, the high E string is played open and let ring. This creates a drone against the note on the B string.

This open string drone is played across a few other notes along the B string too.

There are a few moments in this riff where you will need to play open strings as single notes or double stops but keep them snappy and prevent them from ringing. This is to maintain the tight sound of the riff. Nothing in this riff should blur into anything else.

4. Metallica – Enter Sandman

This is a masterclass in showing that you don’t need many notes to make a memorable riff. 

There is a note on the 7th fret of the A string that you’ll be playing twice, I’d recommend playing this note with your third finger and keeping that in place for the duration of the riff. This allows that note to ring and blend with the other notes around it. 

The same is true for the open G string, you want this note to ring and drone against the notes that follow it.

You’re only playing 6 notes in the entire riff, and one of those just so happens to be played twice!

5. The Beatles - Day Tripper 

This is a fun riff to learn and it also gets you working on playing across three strings at the same time. 

The riff starts on the Low E string which is played open, and the first fretted notes you see are the 3rd and 4th frets on that string but resist the temptation to play either of these notes with your fretting hand index finger, you’ll need that for the next part.

Using your index finger, play the A and D strings at the 2nd fret, you can either fret both together, or roll from one to the other.

This cross-string motion is great for getting your left and right hands coordinated. 

You’ll also be revisiting a power chord shape, as seen in Iron Man, although this time the notes are played separately. 

6. Rolling Stones – (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction

This riff was actually never intended to be a guitar riff at all. When the band were in the studio tracking this song, Keith Richards had a vision for a horn section hook. He switched on his trusty fuzz pedal and laid down this iconic riff as a guide track for the horns, and the rest is history.

This riff is entirely played on the A string and is only three notes. You’ll just need the 2nd, 4th and 5th frets here.

There are a few legato shifts in this riff, it uses slides, hammer ons and pull offs to create a slinky, horn like feel, but you can pick every note if you wish.

This one is easy to learn, but so much fun!

7. AC/DC – Back in Black

This AC/DC classic can be played with open chords or power chords. If you choose to use the open chords, as shown in the video, you can use E, D and A major.

This riff has a lot of space, so there is plenty of time for you to focus on nailing the chord changes that you have in front of you.

Where this riff does present some challenges is at the end of each repeat. On the first repeat, these is a short, E Minor Pentatonic lick. This lick descends the higher part of the scale before playing a bend, release pull-off combo. The phrasing of this is quick tricky to get right, the only person who can really nail this is Angus Young himself!

8. Jimi Hendrix – Foxy Lady

This funky Hendrix riff isn’t that easiest riff, but it’s great for your string skipping and accuracy building.

The first three passes of the riff are the same, it’s a low note, a double stop on the B and E strings and a muted hit. The only thing that changes is the low note you play. On passes 1 and 3 it’s the 2nd fret of the Low E, on the 2nd pass of the riff it’s the 4th fret of the D.

The final bar of this is a simple 4 note ascending run before it starts all over again.

The biggest thing to focus on in this riff is getting the two strong hits on the lower notes then making sure they’re muted before you hit that double stop.

9. Arctic Monkeys – Do I Wanna Know?

This riff is becoming a bit of a modern classic, and it’s really useful for working on your timing as some of the phrases are played just ahead of the beat.

Don’t worry too much about the timing at this stage, just focus on playing the riff as you hear it. You can worry about the intricacies of the timing later on.

This riff combines notes on 3 strings as well as hammer ons, slides and quick position shifts. There is even one section where you do a hammer on and a slide in one motion. You may recognise a similar finger roll motion from the Beatles track you learnt earlier in the lesson.

Take time your timing learning this one, it’s trickier than it seems.

10. Deep Purple – Smoke on the Water

This is probably the most iconic guitar riff of all time. And it’s been overplayed, overused and overhyped. It’s been frowned upon by every guitar store owner in the world and it’s been played incorrectly on the Low E string by thousands of guitar players.

This is the Deep Purple classic Smoke On The Water. This track was written as a joke after the band witnessed a music venue on fire in Montreux after a Frank Zappa concert. The smoke in question is the smoke from the fire that seemed to glide across Lake Montreux.

This riff is made up entirely of double stops and for the most accurate and authentic recreation, should be played with just your fingers. Playing this with your fingers gives is a rounder, warmer sound.

The ultimate beginner guitar lesson: 11 essential steps to get started as a new guitarist today

British guitar builder John Diggins of Jaydee Guitars passed away on 2 January following complications battling a long-term illness. 

Birmingham luthier Diggins had built guitars under John Birch before branching out on his own in 1977. His most famous customer, Black Sabbath's Tony Iommi, used his SG-style designs as his go-to instruments for stage and studio with No. 1 'Old Boy' – his most recognisable guitar. Slade's Noddy Holder, Angus Young and Iommi's bandmate Geezer Butler also had custom instruments made by Diggins. 

"What a terrible shock to hear from JD's wife last night that my old pal John Diggins had passed away!" Iommi reacted on his social media channels. "He was a very dear friend to me and we’d known each other since the '70s. He’s built many guitars for me over the years and he was a superb craftsman who loved what he did. He will be sadly missed but not forgotten. My deepest condolences go out to his wife and family. R.I.P John."

"It is with deep regret that we have to let you know of the sad passing away of Jay Dee (John Diggins)," said Jaydee Guitars announcing the news. "He died suddenly but peacefully in hospital on the morning of Tuesday 2 January, following complications in battling a long-term illness.

"He will be dearly missed by all who knew him, especially his wife Helen, sons Michael and Andrew and grandsons Jake and Toby. Funeral arrangements will be made shortly and announced here."

Michael and Andrew joined the business to build guitars alongside their father, and will continue his legacy alongside grandson Toby at Jaydee Custom Guitars. 

Few bands of the early '70s created such a defiantly idiosyncratic sound as Jethro Tull. Formed in Luton in 1967 and named after an 18th century farmer/inventor, the band emerged from the late 60s British blues boom and forged a dense sonic mix which incorporated heavy rock, flute-led folk melodies, blues infused licks and surreal lyrical imagery. 

Led by enigmatic frontman Ian Anderson, the band attained massive critical and commercial success in the early 1970s with albums such as Aqualung (1971) Thick As A Brick (1972) and A Passion Play (1973).

The band started life as the Blades, an outfit formed in Blackpool, where the family of Edinburgh-born Anderson had moved in 1960. By 1967 they had moved south to Bedfordshire and in December that year Jethro Tull were formed. 

In 1968, they released debut album This Was, opened for Pink Floyd at the first free rock festival in Hyde Park and appeared on the Rolling Stones’ Rock & Roll Circus, with Tony Iommi on guitar.  He had replaced guitarist Mick Abrahams but the Black Sabbath founder lasted only a week before leaving and being replaced by Martin Barre. 

In May 1969, after touring with Hendrix and Led Zeppelin, they scored a No. 3 hit with the song Living In The Past. What set Tull apart was Anderson’s flute playing, a unique yet divisive instrument among the late '60s blues purists. 

Their folk-tinged second album Stand Up topped the UK charts and reached No. 20 in the US, catapulting them from the margins to the mainstream and opening up touring opportunities in the UK and US. By then Anderson had developed a charismatic and eccentric onstage presence, with his wild hair, frock coat and tights, enhanced by an expression of mad-eyed delirium.

But it was their fourth album Aqualung that would become their magnum opus. Released in March 1971, the album heralded a whole new sonic template for the band, introducing progressive rock themes while fusing strident hard rock passages with more ethereal folk. By then, the line-up behind Anderson was Martin Barre (guitar), John Evan (keyboards), Jeffrey Hammond (bass) and Clive Bunker (drums). 

On Aqualung chief songwriter Anderson found his lyrical voice, introducing themes that were more serious and intellectual. The album was inspired by old photos of homeless people on the Thames Embankment. The core lyrical themes of religion and alienation chimed with listeners in the UK and in the US. The album went on to sell seven million units worldwide.

The band’s fifth Thick As A Brick followed in 1972, a ‘parody’ concept album featuring just one 43-minute track, and in 1973, A Passion Play was another creative high watermark. 

On Songs From The Wood (1977) the band shifted towards folk-prog, inspired by Anderson’s move to rural Buckinghamshire. Over the following decades they continued to stretch themselves creatively – the hard rock of 1987’s Crest Of A Knave being one of the high points, but it is arguably their 70s output, most noticeably Aqualung, Thick As A Brick and A Passion Play, that yielded their most enduring sonic riches.

 1. Aqualung – Aqualung (1971)

If one song defines everything that made Jethro Tull unique, this is it. It’s a song regarded by many as their masterpiece, the title track of an album inspired by old photos of homeless people on London’s Thames Embankment. Imagined stories of these transient characters from society’s margins inspired a rich vein of songwriting in Anderson. 

Lyrically, it’s both literal and melodramatic. ‘Snot's running down his nose / Greasy fingers, smearing shabby clothes…  Feeling like a dead duck / Spitting out pieces of his broken luck.”

The track meanders between hard and soft passages but is anchored by a staggered, overdriven guitar riff, written by Anderson on an acoustic and then shown to guitarist Martin Barre.  

"I wrote the main riff in a hotel room in New York City,” Anderson told Guitar World magazine in 2013. “At the time I was trying to write songs that had [single-note] lines that would translate on the electric.”

Barre’s choice of gear on this album was heavily influenced by Leslie West of Mountain, who Tull had toured with in the US. “I thought his tone was tremendous, so I bought a Les Paul Junior,” Barre told Vintage Guitar magazine in October 1997. “That was the only guitar I used on the Aqualung album. I didn’t use any effects; I plugged straight into the Hiwatt. The reverb or any other sounds were studio rack effects.”

In a 2015 interview with Classic Rock, Barre recalled recording the solo to this song, when Jimmy Page walked into the studio. 

“He walked into the control room to say hello, just as I was recording the solo to Aqualung. Now, in those days, if you didn't get a guitar solo in one or two takes, it might become a flute solo. It was, 'Go in there and do it or else'. And here was Jimmy waving like mad – 'Hey, Martin!' – and I'm thinking, 'I can't wave back, or I'm going to blow the solo'.

2. Thick As A Brick (Side 1) – Thick As A Brick (1971)

Ian Anderson was not happy with critics hailing Aqualung as a concept album and so allegedly conceived Thick As A Brick as a parody of a concept album. The original packaging was designed as a 12-page newspaper, with Anderson using surreal Monty Python-style humour to poke fun at the band, the fans and the music critics. As he described it, the plan was to "come up with something that really is the mother of all concept albums".

The album has just one long track, split over two sides. In some ways, the plan backfired, because what Anderson came up with, certainly across the hugely engaging 22 minutes 39 seconds of side one, is a flawless slice of progressive rock. Or as Classic Rock put it “such a brilliant piece of music that it stands almost in a category all by itself”.

Apart from drummer Clive Bunker, who left and was replaced by Barriemore Barlow, this is the same line-up as Aqualung, and the playing is exemplary – adventurous, assured and nimble. 

English folk influences pervade across this piece, interspersed with full-on breakneck prog – complex stabs, time signatures, arpeggios and phrasings with organ, bass and flute in particular providing soaring, virtuoso performances. Lyrically, the whole work hinges on the notion that an eight-year-old boy, the fictitious Gerald Bostock, had written all the lyrics for the album.  

“I have to admit that I really imposed the whole idea on the other guys,” Anderson told Classic Rock. “But, for whatever reason they went along with it, and actually warmed to the task once we got stuck into the music.”

 3. Locomotive Breath – Aqualung (1971)

Another masterpiece from the Aqualung album and a track which has served as the band’s encore since 1972. “Despite the title, it’s actually about the problems of population explosion and the demands society puts on us as a consequence,” recalled Anderson in 2020. "We’re on a train heading in the future, whatever that might lead, and we cannot get off. The song is meant to be a bit scary and threatening.

“I keep being drawn back to the subject [of trains], because public transport is part of my life. I don’t drive, so rely on buses, trains and the like. But here it is about a serious social issue.”

The track intros with John Evans’ bluesy piano, before lurching into bombastic hard rock. “In the shuffling madness,” begins Anderson, “Of the locomotive breath / Runs the all-time loser / Headlong to his death”.

Unusually for the time, the song was pieced together from overdubs, because as Anderson put it “Locomotive Breath was actually an utter failure when we tried to play it all together. It didn't gel. We didn't get the groove.”

4. Songs From The Wood  – Songs From The Wood  (1977)

Jethro Tull fans were dealt a stylistic curveball on their tenth album, Songs From The Wood, which veered away from the dense prog leanings and immersed itself in pastoral folk-rock with tinges of classical. This title track opens with close vocal harmonies and Anderson’s vocal timbre fits seamlessly within the folkier style.

The prog time signatures and complex stops and starts are still there but the hard rock is absent and there’s a warm grandeur. By 1977, Anderson had bought a farm estate in rural Buckinghamshire, which prompted his pursuit of a folkier, more organic sound.

Lyrically, the album was filled with medieval imagery and there’s a poetic feel throughout. “Let me bring you all things refined / Galliards and lute songs served in chilling ale / Greeting well-met fellow, hail / I am the wind to fill your sail.”

5.  A New Day Yesterday – Stand Up (1969)

Guitarist Martin Barre replaced founding member Mick Abrahams on Tull’s second album and it’s the former’s explosive riffing that dominates this opening track. It’s a stunning piece of music, blending classical, blues, jazz, and psychedelia into a strident, new ‘progressive’ rock sound. 

The production is spacious, with fluid bass and big ambient drums. Raunchy harmonica reflects the band’s blues roots and Barre’s powerful stabs and squalls weave within the whole. At its core, this is heavy blues, primitive and compelling. At 1:47, Barre lurches into a growling solo before Anderson picks it up on Hammond organ and flute at 2:10. 

Opinions differ on what guitar Barre used on the Stand Up album. As he explained to Guitarist magazine, he used a Gibson 330 for his first audition, and due to feedback issues with the hollow body he bought  Gibson SG Special for the next year before he bought the Les Paul Junior.

He complimented his sound with one particular effect. “In the very early days, I used Hiwatt and they didn’t drive very readily and so I had this horrible treble booster," Barre told Guitarist in 2015. "It pushed things at the front end but unfortunately, it was very, very prone to picking up radio stations, particularly in America. It was a nightmare. Sometimes the radio signal was louder than the guitar! 

“When I started using Marshall amps, I found that I could ditch the treble boosters but I think it put me off for life, really. I thought all those things are more trouble than they’re worth."

The supergroup Hollywood Vampires were joined by Black Sabbath legend Tony Iommi in his home city of Birmingham on 11 July to perform the classic Paranoid.

Iommi, 75, and his 'Old Boy' Jaydee guitar joined members Joe Perry, Tommy Henriksen, Alice Cooper and Johnny Depp for their second encore at the Utilita Arena in Birmingham.

Writing about the night, Cooper posted on Instagram: The Hollywood Vampires were visited by Black Sabbath icon Tony Iommi tonight in Birmingham, who joined us for Paranoid at the end of our set. What a night! You're a true Vampire now Tony!"

The band has been joined on July 9 at London's 02 to play a tribute to Jeff Beck with Ronnie Wood and Imelda May on a cover on Train Kept A-Rollin' 

• Tony Iommi admits that, yes, sometimes he got carried away playing guitar solos – but Ronnie James Dio was his enabler

Black Sabbath have just released a newly restored 40th anniversary edition of their first ever live album, Live Evil, the centrepiece of which is a triumphant performance of Heaven And Hell that closes out with Tony Iommi leaving footprints all over his wah pedal, and scorch marks on the first three rows as he cuts loose on a guitar solo.

Iommi might be a man who will forever be defined as metal guitar’s original riff lord, but this freatkout is a reminder that Iommi could cut heads with the best of them, and that the Ronnie James Dio era gave us some of Sabbath’s strongest moments as the band rebounded from the the departure of Ozzy Osbourne.

Iommi was a guest on Eddie Trunk’s Siriux XM radio show recently and was reflecting upon the era, and was asked if he was conscious of the shifts in guitar that were under way. This was the dawn of the ‘80s. Eddie Van Halen had already changed rock guitar, jimmying open Pandora’s Box with all-new techniques that inspired an arms race for six-string oneupmanship. 

California was a hot-bed of innovation in guitar gear, and the practice of playing it, but Iommi told Trunk he was already in his zone, explaining that he had made his bones in the ‘70s, and as such he had been overplaying long before anyone else showed him how. 

“Since the ‘70s, I’d always played a solo. I mean, yes, I got carried away a bit too long sometimes,” he said. “Listening back to things, you think, ’Bloody hell! That was a bit over the top. Too long.’ But you just sort of get taken over with it, and it doesn’t seem as long as it is. And we had done it from the ‘70s. It was the thing. Everybody done guitar solos and drum solos in the ‘70s. That was what we did, and just never changed. We went on and on and on, and always done that.”

With the late, great Ronnie James Dio on the mic, Black Sabbath had a new energy, and Iommi had a willing accomplice. When it came to guitar solos, Iommi says Dio was an enabler. The story had always been that there were creative tensions by the time Live Evil was recorded and released, that Dio was exerting too much control. But Iommi spoke fondly of that time, telling Trunk that Dio’s presence allowed them to be play around with the set and the arrangements. And yes, to play more solos.

“We’d come off and I would say to Ronnie – and not just for the sake of it – ‘Oh, you sounded great!’ And he said the same. We would all encourage each other, and that was a major part of it, to push each other,” said Iommi. “Ronnie, he’d sort of say, ‘Play a longer solo. Play this.’ It was good to hear that instead of, ‘Oh, don’t play a solo!’ It was good to be encouraged that way, and we would do that with each other.”

Live Evil included the extended version of Heaven And Hell, with Iommi’s solo, and the band reprised the track during The Sign Of The Southern Cross. It wasn’t just Dio’s presence that had changed Sabbath’s sound. 

Bill Ward was gone, replaced by a coltish Vinny Appice whose raw power drove the band on. “He was just perfect for that lineup,” said Iommi. Appice duly took his share of the spotlight in a thumping solo during War Pigs. Dio was all in for mixing up the set.

“It was really good with Ron. It would encourage us to try different things, which was really good, and we would be able to do that,” said Iommi. “We would actually be able to pull songs out of the hat and do them. Ronnie was capable of doing all that catalogue, and that was a great thing. 

“And we could fiddle around with them and put a bit of another song in, teasers coming in and out, a bit of thought into the stage set. And Ronnie was always involved in it and it was really a good band, a tight band. We got really tight.”

Black Sabbath’s Live Evil 40th Anniversary Super Deluxe edition is out now via Rhino/Warner. If you are in the US or Canada you can follow Eddie Trunk’s show at SiriusXM, or catch the full interview with Tony Iommi above or wherever you get your podcasts.

Never say die, as the Black Sabbath song and album goes… and never say never when it comes to reunions – just ask KISS and Mötley Crüe. Even Sabbath had a so-called 'final' gig with the original members billed as the 'Last Supper' back in 1999, that proved to be nothing of the kind. But bassist Geezer Butler seems very much resigned to being retired from playing live now, and his reasoning suggests he really means it.

Firstly, when it comes to Sabbath doing the odd show following the last gig of The End tour in Birmingham in 2017 there's the obstacle of the 73-year-old musician no longer speaking to singer Ozzy Osbourne. 

In Butler's new memoir Into The Void: From Birth to Black Sabbath, the bassist and Sabbath lyricist elaborated that, “Me and Ozzy are fine, it’s just that we’re both ruled by our wives.”

Butler explained to Ultimate Classic Rock that “We didn’t fall out,” Butler claimed, “it was the wives.” But there's clearly more to Geezer's decision to walk away from music than that.

“I don’t want to do anything anymore," he told Rolling Stone. And away from the relative luxury of touring with Sabbath, his experiences with his last band Deadland Ritual with Matt Sorum and Steve Stevens in 2018 soured his taste for touring.

"I didn’t realize how hard starting from scratch is, especially when you’re used to your own plane and staying at the Four Seasons and the Ritz Carlton … and then you’re back in little clubs and getting on a bus together,” he told Rolling Stone. “It just didn’t suit me.” 

Butler's last live appearance was an exceptional circumstance – playing SAbbath songs with Lars Ulrich and Sebastian Bach at the Taylor Hawkins memorial in LA, but he's reportedly still recording, and told Rolling Stone that he's recently sent Sorum a song he'd written. 

If he, Ozzy (and their respective wives Gloria and Sharon) did relent, any Sabbath action would still unlikely feature the original four members, with Tony Iommi and drummer Bill Ward. The latter walked away from the band in 2012 when he was offered what he called an "unsignable" contract.

 “Ozzy and Tony didn’t think he could do it physically,” Butler reflected with Rolling Stone. “And so the alternative was if he could come along and do maybe three or four songs and then do the rest with a different drummer. But Bill says, ‘No, it’s either the whole thing or nothing.’ And I totally understood and respected that.” 

In the book, Butler goes into more detail about the turmoil between Sabbath and Ward during a period that also saw Iommi being treated for cancer.

"We suggested to Bill that he come on tour and do a few songs a show, but Bill, proud bloke that he is, insisted it was all or nothing," he writes, part of an extended excerpt published by Rolling Stone. "I was upset that what should have been a triumphant return for the original lineup had turned into a bit of a soap opera — and ended up making it worse. While Bill was churning out public statements, Sharon was giving me her side of the story, including that Bill had refused to play a charity gig at Birmingham’s O2 Academy. Stupidly, I then put out a statement on the internet, including a line about Bill wanting money for said charity gig. I regret doing that, because I’d ended up doing the band’s dirty work. Worse, I’d betrayed Bill’s friendship by not believing his side of the story, which was that he’d actually agreed to do the charity gig for free."

Into The Void: From Birth To Black Sabbath… And Beyond by Geezer Butler is out now, published by HarperCollins. More info on Amazon. 

Few guitar players in history have had a greater impact on the instrument than Django Reinhardt, who died 70 years ago today in Samois-sur-Seine, France. 

Reinhardt’s name is synonymous with Gypsy jazz, and his influence on jazz guitar was titanic, leaving its mark on Wes Montgomery, Charlie Byrd and George Benson. His ability to adapt to the loss of the use of his ring and pinky fingers on his fretting hand after a devastating caravan fire in 1928 speaks volumes of his character and passion for the instrument. 

To be able to play at all would be a triumph. To play as he did – so clean, so quick, with such clarity – was a miracle. Those live clips we see of him on YouTube bear testament to that.

Speaking to MusicRadar in 2019, Benson said Reinhardt left him in awe for his determination to play on through and adapt to his disability. “He was harmonically interesting and had unbelievable technique,” he said. “That guy really swung hard!”

Reinhardt’s influence on the likes of Chet Atkins, not to mention his protégé Tommy Emmanuel, was clear for all to see. When asked which players changed his life, Emmanuel, whom many might consider the finest acoustic guitar player in the world, listed Reinhardt first and described him as the Louis Armstrong of guitar.

“Django created a whole genre of music that people are still listening to and trying to emulate,” said Emmanuel. “They call it ‘Gypsy jazz’, but I think Django just called it jazz. Django had more good ideas than any soloist I’ve ever heard. He had a great drive in his playing and a beautiful tone from his acoustic guitar. Towards the end of his life he showed us he could play bebop and play incredible inside lines like Charlie Parker.”

Jeff Beck and Jerry Garcia were fans. Willie Nelson loves him. Derek Trucks told us that he nearly named his son Django, before ultimately choosing Charlie Christian for a namesake. “He was just so powerful,” he said Trucks. “And he was another one whose right hand was just devastating, the rhythmic shit he would do, and just the confidence that he did it with. There is something about him being a Gypsy musician and the way you could just hear it in his playing. Every inch gained was hard fought for with Django.”

There is also a case to be made that without him there would be no heavy metal as we know it. When Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath lost fingertips on his fretting hand in an industrial accident there was a question of whether he could continue as a guitarist. But Reinhardt was the inspiration to carry on. “I could relate to Django Reinhardt after losing two fingers, and listening to him inspired me to play more,” Iommi told Gibson TV in 2020. Like Reinhardt, Iommi sought a workaround, and in lighter strings and tuning down he chanced upon a new sound for electric guitar.

“I used banjo strings at first because I was trying to find anything that was light that I could use, and I dropped the gauge down so that I was using a fifth [string] as a sixth,” he said. “That worked for me.”

Reinhardt’s ability, his capacity to imagine new chord voicings and solo ideas blew William DuVall’s mind. Speaking to MusicRadar in 2019, the Alice In Chains frontman/guitarist said his talent was “jawdropping” by anyone’s lights. The back story? Well, that makes it legendary.

“Even without the whole story background, he’d be one of the greatest to pick up the instrument,” said DuVall. “Factor in the injury and how he had to adapt his techniques. It’s similar to Les Paul, who had a car accident which left his arm unusable. They thought he’d never be able to play again, so he got his arm permanently fixed into position and bent so he could keep playing. Those guys really were the music. It shows in their recordings and playing.”

John Jorgenson, of The Desert Rose Band and Hellacopters fame is well placed to offer his perspectives on Reinhardt the man and his legacy. Jorgenson played him on film, appearing alongside Charlize Theron and Penélope Cruz in Head In The Clouds, John Duigan’s film about interwar Europe, [see his part below].

In conversation with the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in 2021, he detailed Reinhardt’s history, and how by 13 and 14 years old, Reinhardt was taking hard-scrabble gigs of playing banjo-guitar in the Parisian bal-musette. Back then, playing such venues was a life of danger.

“They were rough. People were in there and they would be dancing, and there would be fighting,” said Jorgenson. “The band would actually be in a little Juliet balcony kind of a thing – and they’d pull up the ladder after they got in because they didn’t want anybody messing with them! [Laughs]”

The makeup department gave him an idea of what Reinhardt had to contend with when he addressed the guitar after the accident.

“When I got the chance to play Django in the movie they put makeup to make it look scarred and burned and, actually, if I tried to open these [fingers] and play normal it hurt,” he said “So it kind of kept my hand in that position for the whole time.

“Django’s hand was pulled back, burnt these tendons, and it caused these two fingers to be stuck permanently in this position. These two fingers [index and middle] get super strong, and he could figure out how to angle around and use these and place them

 “A lot of his famous chords – like Manoir de mes rêves (Django’s Castle), which Chet recorded, if you just sit your hand like that on a guitar it kinda comes out that chord. And then jam these up the fingerboard… It was really phenomenal what he figured out using his thumb over the top of the neck like Hendrix used to do a lot. Just phenomenal.”

Not everyone got Reinhardt straight away. A young Peter Frampton didn’t. Speaking to MusicRadar in 2013, he recalled his parents having recently got a turntable and they would play Django Reinhardt And The Hot Club Quintet. 

It didn’t work for him at the time. The year was 1961. He was into the Shadows. Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent, and Scotty Moore with Elvis were tearing things up. How could any kid resist that. But hearing Reinhardt planted the seed. 

“It didn’t take that long for me to get it,” he said. “It became evident to me that this man, Django Reinhardt, had full command of his instrument, to say the least. He became a real favourite of mine, and ultimately one of my real guitar heroes.

“What I really appreciate about Django is his choice of notes when he’s expanding on the melody, and that comes from inside. The passion that he put into each note was unbelievable – I think that's part of his Gypsy soul. The man played with fire. He was ferocious. 

“And yet, he could be so delicate; he covered every mood and shade. More than everything, yes, I appreciate his chops, but it was his choice of notes and the way he made you feel when he played. There was such a beautiful melodic soul that came out of his music.”

All of this is why remember Reinhardt after all these years. Jorgenson says it is the flair that Reinhardt displayed with the instrument, and the fact he gave us something we never had heard or seen before. And what cannot be underplayed was the fact that it was Reinhardt who was the first to play the impossible on guitar. 

“I think that’s one of the reasons why Chet and Les Paul, and George Benson and Jeff Beck, and the Beatles, Tony Rice, every guitar player in every style loves Django,” said Jorgenson. “I think because there wasn’t anybody before him that was that dynamic and flashy, and did stuff that you didn’t even think was possible. I mean, maybe there was but however they were they weren’t recorded, and nobody knew.”

You can check out the full interview with Jorgenson above. And read Peter Frampton’s tribute to Django Reinhard here.

Paul Gilbert has posted a tribute to the late pop icon Burt Bacharach, an instrumental cover of God Give Me Strength, performed solo on his Ibanez Fireman signature guitar.

Bacharach teamed up with Elvis Costello in 1996 to write and record God Give Me Strength, which was originally released as part of the soundtrack to the Allison Anders musical, Grace Of My Heart, and was later included in the 1998 full-length studio album between the two artists, Painted From Memory.

Bacharach died of natural causes on Wednesday 8 February at his home in Los Angeles. He was 94.

Gilbert’s cover was originally shot as a video lesson for one of his students via the online guitar lessons platform ArtistWorks, but as a massive Bacharach fan, the Portland-based guitar virtuoso had to share it to a wider audience.

“I love Burt Bacharach,” wrote Gilbert on Instagram. “Listen to the original with Elvis Costello, and hold on to your heart.”

A player who burst onto the scene as a coltish young shredder who tried to persuade Shrapnel Records’ founder and supremo Mike Varney to put him forward for the vacant guitarist in Ozzy Osbourne’s band, aged 15, Gilbert is not a guitarist you might immediately associate with the soft-focus yet emotionally profound songwriting of Bacharach. 

But when you think of his melodic sensibility over the years, and then watch this performance – zero shred, zero frills, just chords, dynamics, and melody – it all makes sense.

As an artist, Gilbert has never been shy in giving his influences their due. On occasion, that will be the guitarists who inspired him, like when he sat down with MusicRadar to reveal the 10 guitarists who blew his mind. Or most recently with the release of Dio’s Holy Diver as a single, and the announcement that his next studio album will be a tribute to the great Ronnie James Dio. 

The Dio Album features rearranged covers of classic Dio tracks from all periods of his career, from Rainbow to Sabbath then with Dio. It gives Gilbert the opportunity to reinterpret one of metal’s greatest vocalist on slide guitar, and also to dig into the styles of Tony Iommi, Ritchie Blackmore and Vivian Campbell.

Gilbert says the project gave him “serious chills”.

“These amazing riffs are the steel girders of the songs, upon which everything else rests,” he said. “It had been a while since I’d been this deep into metal rhythm guitar playing, and it felt like I was digging up gold nuggets of fire with a magic platinum shovel. All while wearing a star-covered wizard hat! The guitar solos in these songs came screaming from distant mountaintops. Ritchie, Tony, and Vivian set the standard breathtakingly high.”

The Dio Album finds Gilbert joined by drummer Bill Ray. All the electric and bass guitar is performed by Gilbert himself. The Dio Album is available to preorder now and ships 7 April through Music Theories.

The more we think about this, the more we think it might be a brilliant pairing of two seemingly different worlds; Birmingham's metal godfathers Black Sabbath and the city's Royal Ballet. Consider the drama, the darkness and bombast of Sabbath soundtracking performance art – it might just make perfect sense.

Black Sabbath - The Ballet will be performed by the Birmingham Royal Ballet in September at the city's Hippodrome. It will feature eight of the band's songs reorchestrated for the for the Royal Ballet Sinfonia in a three-act performance, alongside new music inspired by the band.

The songs are a solid mix of classics alongside some mellower deeper cuts with Paranoid, Ironman, War Pigs, Black Sabbath, Solitude, Orchid, Laguna Sunrise and the mighty Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. Guitars and drums will be integrated into the performance too – though not from Tony Iommi and Bill Ward. But the guitarist does approve of the forthcoming performance – very much so.

"I’m looking forward to seeing how this all develops!" says riff lord Iommi. "Black Sabbath have always been innovators and never been predictable, and it doesn’t come any more unpredictable than this! I’d never imagined pairing Black Sabbath with Ballet but it’s got a nice ring to it! 

"I’ve met with Carlos [Acosta] several times and his enthusiasm is infectious. I performed alongside some of the dancers at the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony and they had an incredible energy, so I’m happy to go along  for the ride with them and see you on the other side!"

Black Sabbath - The Ballet is the second Birmingham-focussed commission from Birmingham Royal Ballet Director Carlos Acosta and it's been on his mind since he arrived in the UK city – also home to Judas Priest – back in 2020.

"Black Sabbath is probably Birmingham’s biggest export, the most famous (and infamous) cultural entity to ever emerge from the city," says Acosta. |So I was naturally drawn to the idea of a collaboration between what most people might think are the most unlikely of partners. 

"The band’s enthusiasm for the project is a huge endorsement," he adds. "They are putting their trust in us to deliver something completely new and original, and that’s quite a responsibility but one that we are beyond excited to take on. Everyone in the BRB company is thrilled to be involved and we cannot wait to share the vision for the show in more detail in the coming months.I have hand picked the creative team and will work closely with them to make a spectacular show."

It sounds like a great way to celebrate Birmingham's cultural heritage while attracting new people to both ballet and Sabbath's music. 

Lead choreographer for Black Sabbath – The Ballet is Pontus Lindberg  with Raúl Reinoso and Cassi Abranches as choreographers. Lead composer is Christopher Austin with composer / sound designer Marko Nyberg and composer Sun Keting. 

Performances will will take place at Birmingham Hippodrome on 23, 27, 28, 29 and 30 September 2023 before production heads to Plymouth and London for Autumn shows to be announced soon.

See you in the mosh, sorry, orchestra pit. 

Nope, we absolutely did not see this one coming. A whole album of Paul Gilbert covering Ronnie James Dio's solo, Rainbow and Black Sabbath-era songs? But who doesn't like this music, and if anyone can pull off an instrumental guitar tribute to Ronnie…

At the very least it will prompt more people into checking out the legacy of the much-missed vocal powerhouse, but the idea came about for the Ibanez maestro in an unexpected way, too.

According to the press release, Gilbert was in his car when he saw a baseball cap with the word ‘Dio’ emblazoned across the front. A seed was sown and by the time he got home a plan was cooking. Frankly, we love how Gilbert's love for the music was the only justification required for this project, which finds him translating not only Ronnie's melodies into guitar lines, but also the wonderful parts of Viv Campbell, Tony Iommi and Ritchie Blackmore.

“Playing all these metal riffs like Stand Up And Shout, Neon Knights and Kill The King gave me serious chills," enthuses Gilbert. “The guitar parts of Ritchie, Tony and Vivian brought no small number of goosebumps. 

“These amazing riffs are the steel girders of the songs, upon which everything else rests,” he adds. “It had been a while since I’d been this deep into metal rhythm guitar playing, and it felt like I was digging up gold nuggets of fire with a magic platinum shovel. All while wearing a star-covered wizard hat! The guitar solos in these songs came screaming from distant mountaintops. Ritchie, Tony, and Vivian set the standard breathtakingly high.”

Gilbert handles all the instruments for the Dio Album, with the exception of Bill Ray's drums. 

• The Dio Album tracklisting
  
  1. Neon Knights
  2. Kill the King
  3. Stand Up And Shout
  4. Country Girl
  5. Man On The Silver Mountain
  6. Holy Diver
  7. Heaven And Hell
  8. Long Live Rock 'N' Roll
  9. Lady Evil
  10. Don't Talk to Strangers
  11. Starstruck
  12. The Last In Line

• In my life: Paul Gilbert

Jackson and Death Angel's Rob Cavestany have collaborated on a Signature Pro Series model with a unique offset body shape. 

The original member of the Bay Area thrash heroes has had a custom version for a couple of years after the guitarist came up with the shape back in the '80s and took it to the Jackson Custom Shop.

"I drew it on the napkin and thought one day it would be amazing to get a guitar like this  – custom-made that way," Cavestany told KPIX CBS SF Bay Area in 2020.

Jackson helped him make it a reality and now this production model signature guitar is born - and even by metal guitar standards, this one looks special with Cavestany combining a number of design influences. It's a dream come true for him.

 “The reason I wanted a Jackson guitar was because my guitar hero, Randy Rhoads, played a Jackson guitar," he says.

"The Jackson Custom Shop built my dream machine and invented a brand new shape based on my crazy designs. I can’t wait to see what shredders everywhere do when they have a Death Angel in their hands.”

Those shredders will be pleased to know that Jackson says is combines a light weight nyatoh body with 'unparalleled' high fret access granted by the guitar's deep C-cut inner lower horn.

“I’ve always loved the look of pointy guitars," says Cavestany. "Two of my favourites, Eddie Van Halen and Akira Takasaki, played starbody shapes, but the high frets were hard to access. 

"I used the devil horn shape of guitars that Angus Young and Tony Iommi played to replace the extended wing of the starbody. Then I used the curve at the bottom of a Randy Rhoads guitar which looked like a shark's fin. It’s comfy to play sitting down, meanwhile you can get into all kinds of positions with it when rocking live!”

A 12”-16” compound radius rosewood fingerboard enhances the speed potential, with Luminlay side dots designed for low light stage conditions.

Cavestany opts for the EMG 81 active pickup in the bridge beloved by fellow thrashers Kirk Hammett and Kerry King, with an EMG HA in the neck.

In addition to the nyatoh body, there a through-body maple neck with graphite reinforcement and scarf joint.

A top-mounted Floyd Rose Special double-locking tremolo system, Jackson die-cast tuners and Dunlop dual-locking strap buttons complete the spec.

“Nobody does thrash metal quite like Rob and his killer fretwork and insanely fast riffs has been the stuff of legends for the past few decades,” says Jon Romanowski, Vice President of Category Management at Jackson. “It’s not everyday you get to bring a custom shop model to the masses. The thunderous pickups, menacing body shape, and smooth playability will have metal players everywhere wanting more.” 

The Pro Series Signature Rob Cavestany signature is $1,199.99 USD / £1,299 / €1,519 / $2399 / ¥170,500 JPY.

More info at Jackson

First up in Billy Corgan news this week, the Smashing Pumpkins chief has followed his guitar hero Tony Iommi and become a Laney amps endorsee. As with everything in Corgan's storied guitar story, it means a lot to him and he's made a 26-minute video with Laney to mark the occasion. 

The video also serves as an excellent background on Corgan's history, all the way from learning House Of The Rising Sun, getting a five minute guitar lesson from his father and practicing for four hours every single day. 

"I started very much as a guitar player before I became a singer and a songwriter," explains Corgan. "So everything I do starts with the guitar. Always."

Of course he always goes into the reasoning for choosing Laney and the context of the Pumpkins sound. Corgan is extremely knowledgeable about his tone and the choices he's made too. It's a great watch - bravo to Laney for putting it together. 

The guitarist is choosing the 2018 Limited Edition LA1000SM Supermod head. "It's a more bright, modern version of the Supergroup sound," explains Corgan. The Laney Supergroup of course is Iommi's weapon of choice. It's now part of Corgan's four-amp rig.   

Corgan also sat down for another video with his friend and current tour mate Perry Farrell of Janes' Addiction and Porno For Pyros. The two discuss their long history together and how Farrell championed Smashing Pumpkins early on. 

Again, it's a great watch. Especially for all us '90s kids! 

"You can never go back and make something great again. You can make something great now” – an interview with Perry Farrell

When it was announced in 2009 that John Frusciante was once again exiting the Red Hot Chili Peppers, fans had potential call for concern. After all, the first time Frusciante left the group in ’92, it resulted in the then-longest delay between studio albums for the group, as well as several guitarists coming and going, before the band formed a one-off album union with guitarist Dave Navarro and made the most controversial album of their career, 1995’s One Hot Minute.

But doubters’ fears were silenced But doubters’ fears were silenced when the band’s first album with guitarist Josh Klinghoffer, 2011’s I’m With You, dropped. Lead-off track, Monarchy Of Roses, juxtaposes one of the most tribal grooves the Chilis have ever committed to record with a ‘sunny’ disco complexion. 

The verse has a real gritty Iommi sound, with the ascending minor 3rd calling up Iron Man then ringing on the b5, just like Black Sabbath, while Josh uses partial chords and 16th note rhythms for the light, bright disco chorus, which is pure Nile Rodgers. So how do you go from Black Sabbath to Chic? According to Klinghoffer, the contrasting parts were planned ahead of time.

“That song is the only song that really was born out of a conversation rather than anything to do with music or musical instruments,” Josh told Total Guitar in 2012. “Flea and I – before I started playing with the band – got in the habit of going on morning hikes in the summer of ’09, and just talking and getting to know each other more. Although we’ve known each other for 10-plus years, we hadn’t really spent any concentrated time together. 

"So we were just hanging out more, talking about music, and we thought it would be a great juxtaposition to have a sort of Sabbath-y riff, a really heavy ‘dun-duh-duh-dun’ kind of thing, and then break into a joyous disco chorus. So we talked about that, and kept that model in our minds when we got into the writing room. Monarchy Of Roses was the result.”

It was a good start, but the song went through a transformation between its original structure and the version that ended up on the album. “[Producer] Rick Rubin was really involved in the arranging process with the Chili Peppers, so he and Anthony [Kiedis] helped edit it down to a nice, concise pop-length and form,” Josh told Total Guitar. “That’s an example of band members and writers of the song hearing it differently. 

"I always heard it more how it wound up being, and the ‘dun-duh-duh-dun’ Sabbath-y part being the verse. But Anthony never really heard it that way. He always heard it as a really sparse musical intro kind of thing. It took him a minute, and then he came up with the melody for that a little later… It took a little back and forth, tug of war with that, but with Rick Rubin’s help, it made it as it is now – and everyone loves that song.”

Despite Josh being “the new guy on the block”, the band made it quite clear that they had full trust in their new guitarist’s playing and songwriting skills during the song’s creation.

“We were looking for the very end of the song, the outro bridge, and Flea said, ‘I think Josh should write it right now!’ and he pointed at me. I just threw those chords out and didn’t think about it. That was a wonderful day at rehearsal, because it just showed me they have complete trust in me, and they respect my ear and my writing and my ability to hear a song. They’ll follow me if I have an idea or thought.”

There’s a similar theme to that opening feedback in the bridge, but while it’s a melody on record, Josh lets rip onstage, bashing his guitar and improvising another ‘noise’ section for the crowd.

Monarchy Of Roses doesn’t just demonstrate Josh’s guitar suitability to the Chilis, then, it also signifies a real connection with the band and their sound.

He concludes: “If you count backwards, like I said, to those conversations while we were hiking in California, it’s kind of the beginning of the I’m With You journey. It’s great that it starts the record.”

Josh Klinghoffer on Red Hot Chili Peppers: "I did a perfect 10 years with them, but for as much as I love those guys and loved playing with them, it was also enormously stifling creatively"

Ozzy Osbourne is a man of many gifts. He is the man who gave voice to heavy metal, a frontman of voluminous charisma, a wit, and one of few people who can resist the distorting panopticon of reality TV and remain true to himself. 

But one of his greatest gifts is for human resources. Ozzy is a fisher of men, somehow always finding the perfect electric guitar hot-shot to breathe life into his material. It helped that he started out with one of the best – arguably the best when it came to riffs – in Tony Iommi, amassing a legendary body of work over eight studio albums with Black Sabbath before the frontman’s ignominious exit from the band in 1979.

Ozzy was at a low ebb, and yet, through a storm of self-destruction and the fug of excess, Randy Rhoads arrived to change everything. Rhoads’ classical schooling and sense for the theatre of hard rock and metal composition gave Ozzy a sound to match his effervescence. Ozzy was born again. 

Forty years after Rhoads’ dead in a plane crash, he remains the standard that all Ozzy guitarists are judged by, and yet, just look those who have followed him… The talent is unimpeachable.

With the Diary Of A Madman tour dates still to be filled, Bernie Tormé stepped in, only to leave shortly after and be replaced by Brad Gillis of Night Ranger, whose time in the band might have been short but still resulted in some ripping performances – not least in the storming Osaka set from July 1982 that closed the Japan leg of the tour in style.

Then Jake E Lee took over, recording Bark At The Moon and The Ultimate Sin, and one live album before Zakk Wylde established himself as a keeper of the Rhoads flame. 

There were others. Joe Holmes, who took lessons from Rhoads, joined in time for the Ozzmosis tour, and spent six years in the band. Gus G was another full-timer with a pyro style, bringing power metal virtuosity to the table. 

And then there were the guests, the likes of Jerry Cantrell, who hooked up with the Prince of Darkness for 2005’s Under Cover, and on new album Patient Number 9 Ozzy welcomes Clapton, Mike McCready, Jeff Beck and old friend Iommi into the studio for cameos, with Zakk Wylde reentering the scene too.

Also, in this Andrew Watt era, in which the producer (also a guitar player) has helmed 2020’s Ordinary Man, Slash was recruited for a guest spot. If this open-doors policy is to continue, we are very much there for that. 

In future releases, who else could – and should – Ozzy Osbourne send an RSVP too? Who else is yet to cameo on an Ozzy record, and who could do the material justice? Here, we’ll suggest 10 players whose style would grace any Ozzy record.

Steve Vai

That Steve Vai participated in the writing sessions for Ozzmosis only for him not to be called in to get the gig feels like one of the great sliding doors moments in metal history. One track, My Little Man, made the final release, and was performed by Zakk Wylde with lyrics written by Lemmy.

The episode was hardly ruinous to Vai’s career; he has always kept on trucking, harvesting the universe for inspiration and putting his unearthly talents into new musical ideas. But it might make him an unlikely choice for Ozzy. Would he take it on? Would he be asked? Would we be risking a singularity if he were to play the Hydra with Ozzy singing over it?

Nita Strauss

For a short while during the interregnum between leaving Alice Cooper’s band and joining up with pop superstar Demi Levato, Nita Strauss was up for grabs. She was a shredder without portfolio, and having dovetailed with the greatest showman in hard rock history, she would have been an obvious choice for Ozzy. 

There is time yet for this power move to come to pass. Hurricane Nita tearing through Over The Mountain and I Don’t Know live would be one thing, but it would be fascinating to hear where she took Ozzy’s box-office metal sound. She has that rare quality, the high-energy and technical excellence, to make it work.

Tom Morello

Tom Morello was demob happy in 2021 with the Rage Against The Machine guitarist going full Patient #9 and inviting anybody and everybody onboard his Atlas Underground double solo album project. Eddie Vedder and Bruce Springsteen on a cover of AC/DC’s Highway To Hell? Well, why not. Alex Lifeson and Kirk Hammett? Brilliant, but let’s get Dr Fresch in, too, lest the conversation run out. 

This collaborative esprit de corps is exactly the vibe Ozzy needs in the studio. Musically, though, Morello would be fascinating. Him jamming War Pigs with the Foo Fighters saw him play it straight. On record, he could take Ozzy's sound off-road.

And those noise-rock tricks of his could be leveraged in search of an evil soundscape for the solo – it would be a neat contrast to the classicism of the Rhoads scholars. Either way, he can write a riff, and what he could do with a Sabbath-style riff, with Ozzy’s mournful bellow on top would be worth hearing.

Kim Thayil

Soundgarden’s early output was manna from heaven for Black Sabbath fans. Sure, it was not that they sounded as though their whole sound was Vol. 4: Part Deux – and there were legions of doom bands for that – but with Kim Thayil’s ear for an organic monster riff-groove and Chris Cornell’s Olympian vocals there was a similar dynamic to early Sabbath, a vibe refreshed and updated. 

Thayil sharing studio space with Ozzy would be more likely to yield a track in the vein of Lord Of This World than Steal Away (The Night), but that is no bad thing. Having worked already with Jerry Cantrell and Mike McCready, Ozzy would do well to cast his net once more into the Seattle Sound alumni.

Jimmy Page

It’s no secret Ozzy wanted Jimmy Page on Patient #9. Having the Led Zeppelin guitarist on the record would have completed a trifecta of former Yardbirds, but maybe none of us deserve Clapton, Beck and Page on the one album. 

What Page could bring to the table is evident across the Led Zeppelin discography. Led Zeppelin were more expansive than Sabbath but nonetheless applied a similar approach on those occasions when they built their sound around a Page riff, cutting loose with a sense of animalism that Sabbath had in Ozzy and Led Zep had in John Bonham’s drumming.

Page dropping one of his helter-skelter solos over an Ozzy track could be interesting. But who would not want to hear Ozzy covering When The Levee Breaks with Page on guitar? 

Gina Gleason

The circus surrounding an Ozzy Osbourne solo release would not faze Gina Gleason. Before joining Baroness, Gleason performed with Cirque du Soleil in their production of Michael Jackson: One, and she has ridiculous chops to burn. 

Gleason spend much of the pandemic downtime learning Randy Rhoads’ solos, and having admitted to HEAVY1 TV in 2020 that Blizzard Of Ozz is one of her favourite albums, the Ozzy sound is totally in her wheelhouse.

“I love the Randy Rhoads / Ozzy dynamic,” she said. “He wrote some incredible solos that were complex but were melodic and cool. There is some incredible footage on YouTube, it’s Ozzy live in Rochester in 1981, it’s a little bit of a different lineup from the recording lineup, so it’s Randy, Ozzy, Rudy Sarzo and Tommy Aldridge on drums and, dude! They just look awesome. They’re wearing amazing outfits. They look badass. And they’re killing it. It sounds amazing.”

John Christ

Having provided guitar for Evil Elvis, there can be few guitarist on the planet who are more capable of lending the Prince of Darkness’ sound a languid, bluesy darkness that kind of references early Sabbath but is really something unholy unto itself. 

Listen back to Danzig’s eponymous debut and tell us that those louche riffs, those solos and, goodness, that tone – the BC Rich through Marshall – would not complement Ozzy’s yowl.

Way back he had an Ozzy connection, too, playing in the short-lived Juice with former Ozzy drummer Randy Castillo. He surely must be available, and made a recovery in 2009 after a road accident damaged his hand. A show in which he played Wizard Of Oz. Too much time has past since for it to be an omen, but still.

Richie Faulkner

What could be more marketable than getting Judas Priest’s Richie Faulkner point his Flying V in the Ozzman’s direction for one of the great blockbuster crossover events in heavy metal history? Faulkner’s resume is immaculate for this. His style would bolster Ozzy’s sound with stage-tested British steel, a complementary flavour for an album that would no doubt have a US feel. 

Faulkner would bring aggression, a pure metal approach, fretboard pyro with a hint of hard rock past. This is the man who was so adrenalised by metal that he survived a goddamn aortic dissection! That’s character. Bring him on for a fast number, Ozzy, turn him loose on the solo.

Warren DeMartini

The hair metal scene of the ‘80s ran parallel to Ozzy Osbourne’s cresting solo success and they both shared an appetite for excess, and an exuberance that took rock and metal to the brink of – and later into – self-parody. To borrow a phrase, it was a decade of decadence and aesthetic largesse. But also of virtuosity. Warren DeMartini could tap into that sense of anything goes and reanimate it for a 21st-century Ozzy album. 

The former Ratt guitarist whose rhythm chops matched the leads, a player with game to make an OTT metal composition work, a player who’d give the fans what they want. Brad Gillis was awesome never stood a chance in the tumult after Rhoads’ passing. In the cold daylight of 2020-something, DeMartini, an O.G. ‘80s titan, could be unstoppable. 

Ritchie Blackmore

Yes it’s crazy talk. But then so was getting Jeff Beck and Clapton – the latter Ozzy suspected of stalking him! – to join the party. And if Ozzy’s career was launched upon the neoclassical rock grandeur of Randy Rhoads, summoning Blackmore out from the shadows would bring it full circle. 

More commonly found performing medieval arrangements alongside his wife, Candice Night, Blackmore might not return the call. But if answered, and he brought that Stargazer-era brand of guitar genius to the studio, it could give Ozzy a canvas as wide and grand as Revelation (Mother Earth), and the opportunity to turn in an epic album centrepiece. 

It’s unlikely, of course. In which case, well... We’d just have to put Yngwie forward for the gig. 

Epiphone has unveiled the Tony Iommi SG Special, a more affordable replica of one of the most important, if not the most important, electric guitars in heavy metal history. 

Based on the Black Sabbath co-founder and guitarist’s heavily customised 1964 Gibson SG Special, the iconic ‘Monkey’ Model, this Epiphone shares much of that Frankenstein mojo of the original – a guitar that heavy metal a sound, and put that sound to work on some of the greatest riffs of all time.

Like the guitar that inspired it (which itself was released as a signature guitar by Gibson in 2020), the Tony Iommi SG Special is built to riff. There is something prehistoric about the SG Special's appeal, as though it would be the guitar of choice for the Cro-Magnon player – a stripped down rock ’n’ roll machine with dot inlays instead of trapezoids making it look a little more utilitarian.

• Tony Iommi talks through his Gibson SG Special 'Monkey' signature model

A pair of Epiphone PRO P-90 pickups occupy the bridge and neck positions and are housed in a two-piece solid mahogany body that’s finished in Vintage Cherry. 

The mahogany neck is bound with cream, and has a rounded profile and is topped with a 12” radius Indian laurel fingerboard. Many of the appointments and dimensions here are classic Gibson/Epiphone. You’ll find 22 medium jumbo frets, a 24.75” scale length, a 43mm Graph Tech nut. 

The controls for the pickups are the standard two volume, two tone, with a three-way pickup selector mounted in the usual position, and this wiring is all hooked up with CTS pots and Orange Drop capacitors, so that when you actually turn those tone and volume pots things taper just as you want them to.

But the signature flourishes mark this out as something a little different, such as the chrome covers on the P-90s, giving the mid-section of the guitar a vintage automotive look, and the aftermarket Grover Rotomatic tuners come affixed with contemporary-style buttons. 

Iommi's signature graces the rear of the headstock, and there’s the all-important Monkey sticker inside the case that you can apply to make it look just like the original. 

As with Epiphone’s top-of-the-line instruments, the Tony Iommi SG Special comes in a hardshell case, and hovers just under the grand mark at £949 / $999. And with Iommi being one of guitar’s most-famous southpaws, we are glad to say that there are left-handed models available.

For more details, head over to Epiphone.

GUITAR SHOWCASE 2022: The genre-defining 1969 Laney SUPERGROUP that kickstarted Heavy Metal, is reimagined in 2022 as a stunning, low wattage studio head.

Laney’s Supergroup timeline

1967 – ROOTS

Laney release the iconic and genre defining LA100BL Supergroup. As used by the pioneer of Heavy Metal – Mr Tony Iommi.

2017 – REISSUED

As part of the Laney 50th Anniversary celebrations the Black Country Customs team produced a very exclusive, limited run of Tony Iommi’s original 1969 LA100BL rig.

2018 – REDISCOVERED

The LA30BL born from a single lost prototype in 1968 and features the same preamplifier circuit as the LA100BL, with a twin EL34 class AB output stage running at 30 watts.

2022 – REIMAGINED

The LA-STUDIO Supergroup, released September 19th 2022.

Modern vintage

The infamous 1967 Laney SUPERGROUP amplifier reimagined in a studio format and fused with cutting edge technology.

Hi-fidelity - low volume

The LA-STUDIO is an Impulse Response loaded, 3W <0.1W - watt version of the critically acclaimed LA30BL head. Featuring a high quality reactive load for silent, cabinet free, operation. 3 x ECC83 pre amp tubes and a single 12BH7 power tube.

Industry-leading technology

Loaded with a full TWO NOTES Torpedo module, the LA-STUDIO is a real tube amp with all the benefits and ease of use of a digital PLUGIN. Real hot tubes, real hot tone, real feel and real dynamics. The LA-STUDIO is essentially a REAL PLUGIN.

The LA-STUDIO ships pre-loaded with 6 bespoke virtual cabinets/impulse responses, built-in and ready for use.

DynIR is the next-generation of impulse response technology developed by Two Notes Audio Engineering. DynIR revolutionises the concept of a static impulse response: each DynIR Virtual Cabinet from Two Notes comes with 8 microphones, and a choice of multiple rooms. 

Using the Two Notes app, you can change the environment, move the mics around either in front or behind the cabinet, alter EQ and so much more. Hear the difference your tweaks make in real time and experience the future of on-demand tone.

Take control

Simply hook up your LA-STUDIO to your Mac or PC, Load the Torpedo Remote software and get AAA access to every parameter you could desire. With Torpedo Remote, experience a level of freedom that you’ve only ever dreamed about and discover unrivalled creative capability!

Just as the original supergroup amplifiers were made iconic by Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi, now the LA-STUDIO is THE amplifier used in Tony’s own recording studio.

Black Country Customs Pedals

Handcrafted in Laney’s UK workshop – Black Country Customs -The Difference Engine superbly emulates three classic eras of delay.

• ANALOGUE
• DIGITAL
• DYNAMIC

Its powerful processor then allows you to manipulate time by combining features from each era to form new and stunning hybrid delays. Preloaded with 50 artist patches created by the players themselves. This gorgeous delay engine comes ready to use without any fuss.

• Laney

It took Black Sabbath less than a year to morph from the rock scene’s reviled alleged Satanists into its reluctant superstars. For this change in fortunes, you could thank/blame the group’s 1970 smash-hit second album, Paranoid, which spawned three signature tunes, broke the band into the US, and left Tony Iommi with both a splitting fame hangover and a spiralling drug habit. 

“We said that we’d never write another hit single after Paranoid,” the guitarist sighed in a 2004 interview with Rolling Stone. “We’d started attracting the wrong sort of audience, all these screaming kids. And we were smoking a lot of pot. It got very out of hand, dancing naked in the studio…”

We were getting into coke, big time,” drummer Bill Ward told journalist Steven Rosen of the band’s chaotic ascent. “Uppers, downers, Quaaludes, whatever you like. It got to the stage where you would come up with ideas and forget them, because you were so out of it.”

It was this atmosphere of burnout, celebrity and narcotics that held sway as the band approached the Master Of Reality album at London’s Island Studios in early 1971. Producer Rodger Bain had returned to the control room, but the blank cheque and generous deadline granted by the label meant that musically everything was bigger, bolder and more ambitious, for better or worse. 

Ward recalls the album “was done on a 24-track board that brought us up to almost a kind of Beatles-esque level”, while Iommi concedes that “during Master Of Reality, we started getting more experimental and began taking too much time to record. Ultimately, I think it really confused us.”

Certainly, the flute and piano lines on mellow moments such as Solitude suggested a slight identity crisis, but the album’s fourth track, Children Of The Grave was an instant classic and obvious fan favourite.

With lyrics written by bassist Geezer Butler, it reprised War Pigs' attack on the futility and waste of war, with vocalist Ozzy Osbourne pondering: “Must the world live in the shadow of atomic fear? / Can they win the fight, or will they disappear?”

But the real revelation came from the seismic guitar sound. Sabbath had always been heavy, but this song was in a new league: a doomladen, tank-changing-gear grind that made Iommi’s galloping guitar work sound like the approaching hooves of apocalyptic horsemen.

This didn’t really come from the gear; it’s likely Iommi used the same ’64 Gibson SG Special ‘Monkey’ model behind the first two albums alongside Laney 100-watt heads and a Rangemaster Treble Booster. Rather, it was the happy byproduct of physical necessity.

Notoriously, he’d lost the tips of the middle and ring fingers on his right hand to an industrial accident before the Sabs took flight. So while Black Sabbath and Paranoid had been recorded in standard tuning, Iommi found it less painful to drop the tuning of his light-gauge custom Picato strings to a bowel-emptying C# for this brutal riff. “I tuned down because playing at standard pitch used to hurt,” he recalls.

Butler took the same plunge on bass, resulting in Children Of The Grave’s dinosaur-heavy groove, which is punctuated by top-fret squawks and a bluesy solo that breaks into an unsettling shriek at the 4:20 mark. Drop-tuning wasn’t new in rock at this point, but nobody had harnessed it to this extent, and in 1971, it was a risk. “If you listen to critics too much, you’ll lose your identity,” Iommi shrugged in one interview. “We didn’t listen.”

True to Iommi’s wishes, Children Of The Grave was not a hit single (though its parent album did hit UK No 5 and US No 8). Critical response was lukewarm, meanwhile, with legendary rock hack Lester Bangs describing the song as “naïve, simplistic, absolute doggerel, but in the [rock ’n’ roll] tradition”.

History has proved him wrong. These five minutes lit the fuse of several rock subgenres, from the galloping verse riffs that spilled over into the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal, through the droned chords that are pure stoner rock and, of course, the drop tuning that was revived by the nu-metal movement. Children Of The Grave wasn’t just a great rock ’n’ roll moment, it was a pivotal one.

That’s certainly an argument backed up by the endless cover versions. When Osbourne left Sabbath in 1979, ownership of the song was split, with the Sabs continuing to perform it with Ronnie James Dio, while the ‘Prince OfDarkness’ brought the song into his solo band.

“So at the end of the set, we used to do a medley,” Bob Daisley told Total Guitar of the Blizzard Of Ozz tour of 1980. “We’d do Paranoid, Children Of The Grave, War Pigs… I actually had a bit of fun doing it, but Randy Rhoads hated it. He didn’t want to play Black Sabbath stuff at all!”

Future generations were more enthused, though, and Children Of The Grave has been tackled by bands including Racer X; Amon Amarth; Duff McKagan’s pre-GN’R outfit, The Fartz; and, perhaps most successfully, by White Zombie on the 1994 Sabbath tribute album, Nativity In Black. 

“Everyone knows that Black Sabbath started everything and almost every single thing that people are playing today has been done by Black Sabbath,” admitted Rob Zombie. “They wrote every single good riff ever."

Tony Iommi interview: “None of us were brilliant musicians but as a band it worked”

Last month, Black Sabbath fans were treated to a live performance by Tony Iommi when he appeared alongside saxophonist and rapper Soweto Kinch during the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony hosted at Birmingham’s Alexander Stadium.

It was Iommi’s first major appearance since the metal pioneers played their final show in the city in 2017.

Bookending the historic event with some homegrown riffage last night, the guitarist was joined on stage at the Commonwealth Games closing ceremony by Black Sabbath vocalist Ozzy Osbourne.

Kicking off with an Iron Man intro before blasting through Black Sabbath’s 1970 hit Paranoid, Osbourne's surprise appearance alongside his SG-toting bandmate didn’t just grab everyone’s attention; it also sparked rumours of a Black Sabbath reunion.

We wonder if the Prince of Darkness knew what was lined up when he wrote on social media, “Tony Iommi, I was really proud to see you tonight at the opening of the Commonwealth Games in our home town of Birmingham.”

You can watch their epic performance here…

Formed in Birmingham in the late ‘60s by Osbourne and Iommi along with bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward, Black Sabbath’s unique sound has inspired countless musicians throughout the decades.

While Osbourne parted way with the band in 1979, he has previously returned to the Black Sabbath fold while maintaining his bond with Iommi.

Recently, it was announced the guitarist is featured on two tracks from Ozzy Osbourne’s new album, Patient Number 9, namely No Escape From Now and Degradation Rules.

Speaking of their collaboration, Osbourne said, "It was really great working with Tony. He's the riff master. No one can touch him in that respect.

“I only wish we had these songs for Black Sabbath's 13 album."

Patient Number 9 by Ozzy Osbourne is due for release on 9th September. You can pre-order it here.

Tony Iommi made a memorable appearance last week at the breathtaking Commonwealth Games opening ceremony hosted at Birmingham’s Alexander Stadium.

It was the guitarist’s first major appearance since Black Sabbath played their final show in the band’s home city of Birmingham in 2017.

Among a dazzling display of sight and sound celebrating Birmingham's famously diverse cultural heritage, the guitar legend appeared alongside saxophonist and rapper Soweto Kinch to perform an epic interpretation of music from The Trial of the Chicago 7 soundtrack.

Fellow Brummie Ozzy Osbourne was moved to write a Facebook post about his former Black Sabbath bandmate: “Tony Iommi, I was really proud to see you tonight at the opening of the Commonwealth Games in our home town of Birmingham."

Birmingham pop legends Duran Duran also took to the stage later in the day, performing a spectacular medley of Save A Prayer, Planet Earth, Tonight United and Ordinary World.

With a billion people tuning in to watch worldwide, Iommi told Birmingham World he was “bursting with pride” to be part of the all-Brummie production.

“Representing Brum is a great honour and I’m bursting with pride to be doing it,” he enthused.

“I’ve flown the flag for Birmingham all of my life because it’s my city and it’s given me wonderful opportunities.

“I like to think that Black Sabbath helped to put Birmingham on the map musically, and it’s great now that the Games ceremony will feature so many talented people from the city.

“It means a hell of a lot to me.”

Last year, Gibson launched their Artist series Tony Iommi SG Special, following the limited run of 50 Custom Shop “Monkey” replicas in 2020.

While Iommi's latest signature electric guitar model does not include certain appointments found on the original/Custom Shop replica (such as a zero fret, John Birch pickups, and hand-aged finishing) all the essential elements are present.

These include a mahogany body and neck with a bound rosewood fingerboard, a fully adjustable bridge, chrome-covered P-90 pickups, and ‘witch hat’ knobs.

Browse the Black Sabbath catalogue here.

We already know Ozzy Osbourne's next studio album features a wishlist of guitar heroes with Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Zakk Wylde, Tony Iommi. That's now extended with other confirmed guests including Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready, Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, Metallica’s RobTrujillo, Duff McKagan and late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins. Now we can hear the first fruits of it with the Beck-guesting title track of the album, Patient Number 9.

The former Yardbirds guitarist and current Strat maestro lends his expressive soloing prowess in the last third of the song and it elevates an already strong return from the Ozzman. We can't wait to hear the rest of the album.

And what a time to be alive for Jeff Beck fans, with music from his forthcoming collaborative album with Johnny Depp recently surfacing too. 

Patient Number 9 will be released on 9 September. Preorder here.  

5 songs guitarists need to hear by… Jeff Beck

James Hetfield is one of those guitar icons that's always interesting to listen to – especially as he's become more candid as the years have gone by. And when the Metallica rhythm lynchpin sat down with Ernie Ball recently to talk about his new Papa Het signature guitar strings in the video above, he was also happy to dig into his roots when it comes to influences. 

"I'm kind of a little bit of a barbarian when I play,: laughs Hetfield. "[I was] always interested in the riff. It was the foundation of the song. Tony Iommi – he's ruling the song with his riff and everything else joins him. Johnny Ramone – lots of downpicking, just fast downpicking; that helped develop my style. So kind of a combination of punk rock and heavy rock at the time turned into the downpicking style with melody along with it.

The Ramones influence makes perfect sense on reflection, though it's perhaps more surprising that it's taken 40 years to see a signature set of strings for Hetfield. The Hard Wires Master Core set is offered in a never-before seen gauge combo from Ernie Ball; 11, 14, 18p, 28, 38, 50. Ideal for hard hitters then. 

"The biggest challenge was tuning," reflects Hetfield. "You got lighter strings, you hit them hard; they're going, woah – real sharp for a second and then they settled back. It just became such a challenge, especially in the studio. 

"When we would sit down and play this thing and then, oh you're a little out. Then you've got to do it again. So the real percussive hitting of it was a challenge. When you're trying be creative in the studio and you have to sit and stop and wait for tuning, it's like a big speed bump in your creativity. It slows you down, and the quest for a string that would stay in tune better is kind of where it started. 

"Ernie Ball said, 'Let's look into this some more and see what we can do.' And we fiddled around with different gauges. We messed around with 11 through 50, we went to 52 for a second and it just didn't work. We were losing some of the brightness."

The big man is clearly impressed with the results, though we also hope Hetfield's other endorser ESP has introduced him to one of their models with an Evertune bridge too. 

"Coming up with the Heavy Core was a major milestone in strings," offers Hetfield. "It makes me a better player, actually. It makes me work a little harder. You've got to have some Metallica callouses to play some of these things at times. What I've found also is I get to add a little more gain to my amp to give it a little more forgiveness in my playing because it's so tight." 

More info at Ernie Ball. 

Classic interview: James Hetfield – "I’m able to show Lars some drum stuff and he’s able to show me riff stuff"

In the world of guitar 2019 was a line in the sand for Gibson that was overdue. It began at the 2019 Namm show in January where Gibson set out its stall not so much a comeback as a return to what it should have been doing; focussing on making great guitars. 

The robot tuner-laden brouhaha around 2015's Gibson Standard electric guitar line and eyebrow-raising decisions during Henry Juszkiewicz's era have been exaggerated to the point where you'd be forgiven for believing Gibson had stopped making any decent guitars. But it had undoubtedly lost its way in the hearts and minds of many. With the undertaking of a restructure, the power of experience and personality was needed to set things back on track. Enter stage left; Cesar Gueikian and JC Curleigh.

Gueikian is a man with a very particular set of skills that Gibson needed to oversee its product development; the combination of two decades of experience in private equity and a lifetime as a guitarist who became a serious guitar collector. That practical mindset combined with a genuine passion as a Gibson fan has paid dividends for the Brand President of Gibson and previously Chief Merchant Officer, alongside charismatic CEO James 'JC' Curleigh's experience leading another great American heritage brand; Levi Strauss & Co.

Even a cynic can't deny Gibson and its brands have had one hell of a year with releases. Three years after that NAMM they are still walking the talk. It's also gone to town bringing celebrating big names with not just one-off signature models but whole long-term release plans from building friendships with legends including Tony Iommi, Jerry Cantrell, Dave Mustaine and Gene Simmons. And when we arrive at the Gibson Guitar Showroom in London we can hear the unmistakable sound of Tool riffs blasting out from an adjoining room; it's Cesar Gueikian playing an Adam Jones signature 1979 Les Paul Custom. 

We sat down to talk about the journey so far with the Gibson and Epiphone brands, as well as what lies ahead. 

You're a lifetime guitar fan and you collect guitars – Gibsons especially. What was your perception of the company from the outside before you joined and were there any surprises when you did?

"Well, before JC and I came on, I had the opportunity to work with the prior owner, not necessarily fully engaged, but rather, having been introduced almost 10 years prior, and introduced because of my financial background and business background. With the combination with the my guitar obsession and collection, and particularly my Gibson guitar collection, at the time.

"Friends we had in common suggested we meet and then from then I had an opportunity to go to Nashville multiple times just out of pure passion for the brand and to wanting to see it succeed. Not because I was engaged by the company at all, but mostly because I was asked if I could come in, and maybe be a thought partner. And at the time, I saw many of the bad decisions and mistakes being made. And from the outside, it was painful to watch. 

"Ultimately, in a way, the obstacle course that Gibson went through was what led to the opportunity for us to come in, to get JC as our CEO; to restructure and put a new band together. And then think about, how are we going to turn this around and be, not only great custodians, of 127 years now of just epic history, but how are we going to be really great stewards of the future of Gibson and putting it back into iconic status. 

"So there are many things that when looking back on one hand, you say, and I was one of them, how could they make so many mistakes? At least in the eyes of the fans, who were very vocal. But on the other hand, that led to the opportunity to put it back on track."

It feels like Gibson is really focusing on the details of the guitars now

"I think it's not just a focus, it's probably a bit of an obsession. We have to have an obsession on quality; we have it. We have an amazing team that we put back together, when it comes to all of our, what we call our crafteries, which is how we make guitars. And it's not just how we make guitars, it's how we make Gibson guitars, which is very different. 

"So we put into put together a team that's led by our craft leader / production leader, called Jeremy Freckleton. And then from him and onto all of our crafter leaders and putting together a team of quality ninjas, it takes time to right-size and course-correct a company like this, particularly with how involved of a process it is to build Gibson guitars. 

"And three years in, I'd say that it's a really good start where we are today. There's clearly a lot of ground to cover going forward. But it's a really good start on on what we make, how we make it and being obsessed with details; attention to detail and obsession on quality."

There are obviously the cynics; the vocal minority online but seems like a lot of that has faded away.

"Yes, but that's a result of the actions we've taken in letting our guitars speak for themselves. What we didn't do was to try to go straight out trying to convert those people just by talking to them or engaging with them. Or try to do things other than focusing on the guitars and being a guitar company again, and really putting [out] high quality guitars and building the best guitars that we've built in 127 years.

"Then, as I said, that takes time but once those guitars are out in the hands of artists, in the hands of our fans around the world, and then those negative comments, they start fading away. 

"But we pay attention to them. Especially when they're constructive. We always like constructive criticism and feedback. And we have now set up the Gibson Lab, which is all about research, development, innovation, testing. So we take it seriously. And then when we find that there's something we can do better as a result of all the tests that we do in labs, and the collaboration sessions that we have in place with our quality teams, then we put that to work."

Players seem more knowledgeable than ever about the gear they play. When I look on YouTube, they're often quite perceptive suggestions.

"I know. It's not like I have a tremendous amount of time to go through them but I do spend time reading. Maybe at nights when I'm done and the familiy is in bed and everybody's sleeping  I like reading what people are saying about how we're doing."

For a while, there was a perception that whenever there was a signature model with Gibson, it was a something that very few players could afford. It seems like you're very conscious of building a partnership with with legendary artists now where also there's models at both ends of the price spectrum. It also feels like you're celebrating these names in a way that maybe Gibson hasn't done before. Tony Iommi would be a good example. That was a personal one for you, right?

"It's personal but I also think it means the same thing for all of us. And it means so much for everyone around the world. I mean, Tony Iommi, the godfather of a genre that has basically spread out and has been influencing many different genres of music now for six decades. 

"So, Tony being the godfather of the heavy metal genre, and one of the pioneers, we had an obligation to pay tribute to him and do right by him. But also, doing doing right by him is also doing right by our fans who love what Tony has done and what he's done on his own when he's done with Black Sabbath. 

"So on one hand to answer your question, yes. Paying tribute to our icons, those that have defined decades of music and influenced so many players around the world, and then at the same time, having a range of options, from all the way from the highly collectible aged Murphy Lab Custom Shop that's an exact replica of Tony's SG Monkey – the one that started it all – to a Gibson USA offering handcrafted in our Gibson, USA craftery. It's a non-aged, great representation of that instrument. 

"All the way to an Epiphone; highly accessible, but still incredibly authentic. Made by us overseas, with with great attention to detail with solid woods, but and within a very accessible price point. Which is what we're launching next with Tony; the Epiphone SG monkey. 

"To answer both of your questions, it's about paying tribute to our artists, celebrating them, and being custodians of their name. And being able to offer a spectrum of price points so that everybody from someone that grew up listening to Black Sabbath and has the ability to buy the Custom Shop model, all the way to a middle ground offering with Gibson USA, down to a highly accessible price point with Epiphone. 

"And we've been applying that across artists. Look at the Slash Collection; a collection of Gibson USA and a collection of Epiphone Inspired by Gibson electric and acoustic guitars. And that's a great principle because we can see how all those dedicated fans of Slash, that grew up through Guns N' Roses' first round, are highly interested in collecting the Gibson USA models. And then you have all the young kids that are still influenced [now] Who for them is a guitar hero? Slash. Well, they have an amazing entry point into a Slash Les Paul or an acoustic guitar through Epiphone."

When you sit down with these artists, is there a long term plan that that to be agreed on that's thinking a few years ahead?

"We're thinking normally a three to five-year plan, initially, with the intention of that relationship being much, much longer. But it requires us to plan ahead a couple of years. Because it's a very involved process of first going into the design board and really working on design, renderings, specs; trying to create a hypothesis of what we want to do together. Then on to prototyping in our prototype lab which is housed inside of Gibson USA. At the Custom Shop, Epiphone and in our Bozeman craftery we have all these prototype labs. 

"So they go into prototyping, and that's a back and forth with the artist. It can be multiple months until we reach final prototype. And then we do a pilot run to test the concept in a manufacturing environment. And then retail introduction that requires creation of marketing assets, promotional materials, content and staging of the instruments around the world so that we can actually do a proper launch. That's at least an 18 month process to get the first one out."

And with Dave Mustaine, that that sounds like an even more involved process, because it's a relationship across different brands including Gibson, Epiphone and Kramer. And he wasn't previously playing a Gibson as a signature model.

"We've been through everything that we just talked about with Dave. The good thing about working with artists like Dave, Slash, Adam and Tony is they know what they want. And so that actually makes it easier for us, because creating the initial hypotheses of what we're going to prototype is actually much faster. And so working with Dave, he really knew what he wanted. 

"We then pivoted really into creating a number of different options and prototypes that were hitting what he was looking for, leading to the final prototypes that he just took out on tour. And that was a great moment for testing. He was confident enough in the instruments that he said, 'Alright I let me put them through a tour'. 

"So in the next couple of weeks, we're going to announce the initial pre launch leading to, early next year, the actual first full launch of the initial flying Vs that are going to be Gibson. But as you said, Dave is going to span from Gibson, and inside of Gibson – the Gibson Custom Shop, Gibson USA and Gibson acoustic – then on to Epiphone. Including Epiphone Custom and Epiphone Prophecy, and then Kramer with Kramer USA-made – [at] our Gibson USA craftery – and Kramer overseas, so we can cover all the different options and price points."

The Dave Mustaine acoustic signature you've been working on has an innovative design too.

"It's really interesting because we first started with a smaller body but a sharp cutaway, and he actually used that guitar on the [Megadeth] record that hasn't come out yet. And then we pivoted into a bigger body in the style of the Gibson Songwriter. 

"And so we are going to go with that bigger body. A very particular guitar; highly involved, 24-fret acoustic. Absolutely beautiful. Every every detail into design and then the construction is a very involved process because of all the things that Dave wanted."

The perception might be that Gibson would have a softly softly approach to innovation after 2015 and be careful not to upset the more conservative guitar fans, but that's an example of quite bold innovation isn't it? 

"Innovation is not just how long it are looks or what goes into it, it's also creating the right conditions in our crafteries to be able to run a modern day business, that at the same time of being a modern day business is in celebration of craftsmanship. And so being able to come up with those concepts with Dave, for example, and what we just recently did with the Generation Collection.

"That's an innovation that we borrowed from a 1964 archive that we had, where they had developed a sound hole that was on the upper bout of the side, facing the player.  We built that guitar. We actually said, let's build that actual blueprint guitar first and see how we can put ourselves in the mindset of what they were thinking back in 1964.

"It was actually labelled the J-45 Modern, that was the title of the blueprint. After building it, we took it to the lab, and we said, 'Well knowing what we know today, what what would we do differently? And that original '64 blueprint didn't have the sound hole facing the audience, it just had that one. 

"So we decided on a hybrid concept of a guitar that has a traditional sound hole facing the audience and the player port, as we now call it, but moved on to the lower part of the guitar on the side that is actually facing you directly as you're playing, and immerses you and hits you straight away. 

"It's almost like having in-ear monitors while you're playing it. It gives you a very different sonic experience, as opposed to the sound hole like it was in the original blueprint where you actually cover it a little bit with your arm."

Is there a collection of old innovations like that that you've been compiling? 

"Yes, and that one I like it because it's I feel like it was started in 1964 and introduced in 2021. There are other things in the archives that have not been released, or we're putting through a lab."

It's been an amazing year for Epiphone. There's a perception that a player can work their way up to Gibson through Epiphone, but looking at instruments like the two '59 Les Paul Epiphone models this year, they kind of blur the lines between Gibson and Epiphone. Are you conscious of that? 

"I think there's both. There's premium icing Epiphone to get A grade Epiphone experience and an amazing price point. That is a little higher, obviously, but it's still an incredible price point for the guitar that you're getting with that attention to detail that goes into building those Epiphone '59s. 

"So it's premium Epiphone to try to get a premium instrument in the hands of people that want to buy a guitar that's $900 to $1,000, and also providing a more accessible price point with Gibson, so that there is a great sort of architecture of price points and options that makes perfect sense from Epiphone Inspired by Gibson, where you have guitars that in dollars range from $300, all the way up to $800, and then the Epiphone '59s. 

"And then, if you look at it from the perspective of the Les Paul, you have those options with Epiphone. And then once you leave the Epiphone brand, staying in the Les Paul platform and shape, then you enter Gibson, USA, and you go through the USA journey up, all the way up to the Slash Gibson USA Les Paul, and then you enter the Gibson Custom Shop. 

"So we're very conscious of providing, for example, for every one of our shapes, but here we're talking about the Les Paul. With the Les Paul , the SG, the Flying V, the Explorer, 335 we're very conscious of making sure that there's a good / better / best offering.

It feels like Epiphone has also moved away from this idea of, if you've got an Epiphone, it's because you couldn't afford a Gibsont. Especially with the return of models like the Crestwood, it's really coming into so its own as a brand again.

"Yes, and you see what we have done with the Crestwoods and the Coronets and those instruments were the originals, and the Casino. Now having the option of also getting a USA-made Casino at Gibson USA, or a USA-made Epiphone Texan, by doing that, we're actually recreating like you said, that affinity with a brand, which is actually an older brand than than Gibson. 

"Epiphone starts at 1873 and Gibson; Orville started making guitars in 1894,. Epiphone was at the forefront of that rock 'n' roll revolution together with Gibson. But by doing justice to the brand, we not only are providing instruments that, like we say, are for every stage with Epiphone Inspired by Gibson, but we also are bringing back all those originals at Epiphones that made Epiphone famous."

A lot of people picked up or returned to the guitar during lockdown and a lot of electric and acoustic guitars were sold. Do you see Gibson as having an ongoing role to play beyond the selling experience, in keeping those people inspired? Especially as there's reportedly a high rate of beginners giving up. Where do you think these opportunities can come?

"We took that decision three years ago. So we first launched Gibson TV, which has been just incredible to see. We underestimated Gibson TV, it's just become a great medium for us to engage fans around the world with with great original content, with great techniques, with great options with a partnership with Marty Schwartz [of YouTube channel Marty Music] where you can use all of his lessons and engage with him. 

"So Gibson TV was one of those first steps we took into creating that future engagement to keep people excited, and making it easy for them to keep playing guitar and learning how to play guitar. And also getting inspired by watching this amazing original content. That is for the most part guitar-driven so that fans can watch that and say, 'Alright, I need to keep learning because I want to be able to do that' – what they're watching on TV. 

"Riff Lords was another great example of getting icons to play the riffs and teach you how to play the riffs the way they play them. So that was first and then we that we started redoing our website experience. 

"We launched the Gibson App. The Gibson App has an actual tool in a partnership that we did with Amped. That is a group that has been developing for many, many years, this learning tool that uses audio augmented reality. 

"That's another option that we're offering, and that's the learning tool inside of the Gibson App that adapts to the way that you're playing when you're learning how to play a song, it listens to your playing, and it constantly adapts the lesson. So you don't have to go back and watch something again, rather it does it for you. And it tells you how to play something, maybe a couple of different ways until you get it right. And so that's been out now for over a year. 

"And we then opened the ultimate guitar experience, which is the Gibson Garage. That was a very big investment. It's in Nashville. The first one is in Nashville. It's at the heart, at the centre of culture of Nashville. And the traffic that we've been getting there is such that now it's become a destination. And that's another place where it's all about the experience.

So it's all about the experience. You go in there, you can try you can try anything from a Murphy Lab '59, or a Gold Top, all the way down to all the Epiphones and all the acoustic guitars; Custom Shop acoustic, USA acoustic, Original Collection, Modern Collection. 

"You never know who you're going to run into there because all of our artists come through, and they watch that and they get really excited. There's 200 guitars going around on a conveyor belt. It's really creating that sort of ultimate experience of what's going on at Gibson. You go in there, you say, 'Okay, I get it'. 

"So all of these steps that we've been taking are all in service to creating engagement, providing an amazing experience, making it easy to play, making it easy to stay playing, or to learn how to play, and to get inspired. 

"And then most recently, we launched Gibson Records, which is again, our natural evolution in the development of Gibson. Having first focused on being a guitar company again, and then all the things that I just talked about, leading to then launching Gibson Records. Which it's not about which genre Gibson Records is going to be focused on. Gibson Records is going to be focused on guitar music. That's what we're going to be focused on across genres of music. And starting with Slash And The Conspirators and the album coming in February. So that's going to continue to grow."

Having a physical place to see and try the guitars is important. Online you lose that. Do you have any advice for people on choosing a guitar for the first time and how they should kind of narrow down their choices?

"Well, I would say start with what what are the bands and the sounds that you love?  And that that probably starts the first filtering process and then you have a certain budget. You can get this incredible Epiphone Inspired By Gibson Les Paul for 400 bucks, or you like AC/DC, or like Greta Van Fleet and you want to get that SG. Or you say I want the more premium, crafted, USA-made Gibson USA or you have the budget to say I would like to get that sort of historical clone. And the the craftsmanship coming out of the Gibson Custom Shop. 

"So, I think it starts with, what music do you love? What sounds do you love? And then then you can start picking. It might also be that you really like the shape. You might think the Les Paul is the coolest shape. A lot of the young kids start with a Flying V or with an SG because it's also a lighter weight guitar.

"The first filtering starts with what bands do you love and where are they playing or, you know, it also can start with shapes. And then what we were talking about earlier; the price points and the good / middle / best offering that we have from Epiphone to Gibson USA to Gibson Custom Shop."

When someone is buying online, they don't get to pick up that particular guitarto try beforehand , but it feels like what we've seen coming out of Gibson and Epiphone has had consistency. Was there a new checking process that you brought in?

"We set up 15 steps, major steps, it's more involved than that, but it's about 15 major steps in the process of building a Gibson. And we've introduced 15 different checkpoints with the quality team. So it's a global quality team that is that has teams inside of each one of the crafteries. 

"Ultimately, they roll up to our production ninja, as I call him, Jeremy Freckleton. And so every step of the way there is now quality checkpoints. That didn't exist in the past. It's a very involved quality checkpoint process leading all the way down and final inspection and then once once we put the guitar in the case, it sits in a humidified warehouse, and we're very conscious of that. And from there, we actually ship around the world and we also ship directly to our fans."

There's clearly demand for the relic guitars in age parts. And the Murphy Labs work is detailed. But do you ever see Gibson being able to offer aged instruments at a lower price point or is that a compromise you're not willing to make?

"I don't think it's about a compromise. It's just how involved a processes is to age guitar, I mean, we we go through an excruciating level of detail. And it takes multiple hours to do what you see coming out of the Murphy Lab. 

"So it's not not so much as a conscious thing that we want to price it up. It's the actual labour that goes into making a Gibson Custom Shop Murphy Lab instrument and how many hours it takes. It is represented in the value."

Gibson's '50s and '60s instruments are still regarded as benchmarks for electric guitars, why do you think that is?  

"I have a very big '50s and '60s guitar collection; Bursts and Black Beauties, Gold Tops, 335s and SGs. And I think that if we did a blindfold test with our Custom Shop guitars and the originals, I think you're going to have a really hard time telling which one is which especially if I put Custom Shop Murphy Lab aged in your hands blindfolded. So, having said that, the 60-year-old guitars are epic. They've aged gracefully. The hide glue has evaporated and the thing has become a tuning fork. Which is why we continue to use hide glue.

"The Nitro has, for the most part, been breathing for 60 years and also starts to evaporate. And then the electronics, the wiring almost becomes a solid unit.  That's why it's so hard to pull one apart – you don't want to touch it. 

"When you get a really good '59 Burst made in 1959 there is that magic of the 60 years, which is why we spent so much time recreating not just the cosmetic look, but also that process of decades of ageing in the Murphy Lab. And that's why the Murphy Lab is a restricted area where that's a trade secret for us."

To buy an original from the late '50s is crazy money so it's a comparatively reasonable cost to get that kind of experience from a Custom Shop model 

"And we've done the blindfolded test for many people. They don't pass. They fail. So they pick, they can't pick. I am not going to tell you they pick a Murphy Lab over the other one. They just they just keep going; trying back and forth, trying back and forth. And then they're totally undecided."

The Epiphone's ProBuckers have been especially impressive in their current form with the sense of PAF versatility.

"We changed the Epiphone formula for the humbuckers in the ProBuckers. And also, we started incorporating Gibson USA pickups in some of the runs, like the '59s. So yes, we focused on what are the changes we needed to make with Epiphone. I mean, they have CTS Pots, and the woods we're picking now are different. They have different electronics, the pickups, especially the ProBuckers. So we've made multiple changes with Epiphone and we've simplified the offering. 

"The Inspired By Gibson offering now has an Original and Modern collection, and a Les Paul Standard and a Custom, Special and a Junior. So those were simple changes we've made with nomenclature to make it easier to understand, and then obviously changes in the actual guitars to make them a great experience to play."

It seems like the Gibson brands are quite good at introducing new finishes without going too far into the realms of crazy. Are you quite conscious of striking a balance with new and traditional? 

"Yes, definitely. When we look at our offering there are certain certain lines we don't cross. But there may be an artist that wants to do something very special. And so that's a great forum for us to explore and get out of our comfort zone, maybe with a finish or with some kind of spec. 

"So that's the way to do it; put things through the Gibson Lab and work with our artists. And then if they want to go a little wild, we kind of have permission to go there when it comes to working with an artist."

What have been your proudest moments this year?

"I look back three years, and I think where we are right now, I am the most proud of the team. When I ask myself, and I know most of us think the same way, but we ask ourselves that question of, the future looks bright for us because… and then what would you write? There are many things we talked about. But the one thing that I would add there is because we have a great team."

There's definitely the sense that the leadership team now are guitar fans.

"Absolutely. So we care. We care about the quality, we care about the legacy that we will leave behind. We care about our fans, our artists. We treat our artists just like we treat our brands. And we have a great team. 

"I think, though you can never guarantee any kind of success, what we can do is make sure that we're creating the best conditions for our future. And I think we are and I think that that we have now been able to put together an awesome team."

Can you reveal anything we can expect in 2022? 

Well 2022 will be very important anniversary of the Les Paul. The Les Paul was first introduced in 1952. So it'll be 70 years.

Do you have a kind of personal wish list of things that you'd like to see? Any more obscure models that might return? 

"We're working on a few. So maybe I'll let you leave you with; I'm excited to see a dear friend of mine Adam Jones putting a Flying V through the paces on the next tour."

 It feels like there's a there's a whole other journey to be taken with amps as well.

"The the addition of Mesa/Boogie into the Gibson family, I think is another one of those incredibly exciting moments for us, and also having the the blessing that Randy Smith is still as active as ever – who founded Mesa/Boogie 52 years ago. So Randy, we call him our master pioneer, and he's still in the lab working on designing new concepts and new circuit boards. 

We have Jim Aschow [director] who has been there for over 40 years. He's our manufacturing ninja in production. We have Doug West, who has been there for about 40 years and he leads the Tone Lab, which is our innovation lab in Petaluma, California. 

"When it comes to tone, Steve Mueller, he's been there for 30 years, and they call him the new guy. He's from Texas, so we call him Tex. He's like my tone brother. And he and I connected first. That's how we started the relationship, it was Steve and I talking about amplifiers and collaborating. Us sending some Gibsons and then them sending some sending some Mesa/Boogies so we could do content. That's how the relationship developed. And then that led to, okay, this is an amazing collaboration to an amazing partnership to… why don't we? 

"It was organic, it wasn't, 'Let's go buy an amp company'. It was working with Mesa/Boogie, one thing led to another to having the conversation. And again, to talk about lifecycle of a product and the  introduction of something new it's going to take a while, but Randy is working on the design of what are going to be the next evolution of Gibson amplifiers as well. They are going to be made in Petaluma, California. So Randy's been leading that."

For more information visit Gibson, Epiphone, Kramer and Mesa/Boogie 

Gibson has taken the race to build the best metal guitar all the way back to the beginning with the release of its much-anticipated Tony Iommi Signature SG Special. 

This USA production model comes just over a year after the company released the megabucks Custom Shop reissue of the Black Sabbath guitarist's iconic "Monkey" 1964 SG Special, and offers today's player – including southpaws – the opportunity to recreate Iommi's funereal electric guitar tone, that officially made heavy metal a thing with the release of Sabbath's eponymous 1970 debut LP.

Offered in Vintage Cherry, the Iommi SG Special has mahogany body and neck, a bound Indian rosewood fingerboard with acrylic dot inlays, topped with 22 medium-jumbo frets. Befitting SGs of the period, it has a rounded neck profile that should fill the palm nicely and give you something solid to hold onto while playing an elephantine doom riff.

There are some notable differences between the Custom Shop and USA models. For a start, there is a no ageing on the finish or routing holes below the bridge. Where the Custom Shop replic is equipped with a set of Schaller M6 tuners, the USA model has a set of Grover Rotomatics with contemporary-style buttons. The Custom Shop "Monkey" has a wide-bevel pickguard whereas the USA model is a regular multi-ply vintage 'guard.

The pickups are different, too, with the Custom Shop model's  John Birch "Superflux" at the neck and a John Birch P-90 are here replaced by a pair of chrome-covered P-90s, both wax-potted to tame feedback. 

The Black Witch Hat control knobs with silver inserts remain, however, and here you have a typical Gibson USA control circuit, hand-wired with orange drop capacitors as standard, and the set-up is familiar, with two volume and two tone controls, and a three-way pickup selector.

One thing that sets Iommi's signature SGs apart from the others in the 2021 Gibson line-up is the adjustable wraparound bridges. And of course the "Monkey" sticker, which in the case of the USA production line model is included in the case should you want to complete the Iommi look. 

In which case you'll surely want to tune down, find yourself a Dallas Rangemaster clone, a bank of Laney guitar amps and adjust your entertainment diet accordingly until a steady stream of classic horror movies, blues and classic rock delivers you the the inspiration you need.

Alternatively, you could keep the "Monkey" sticker in the case and make this modded SG Special your own; after all, that's what Iommi did, and while it is arguably the original metal guitar, drafted in when his Fender Stratocaster crapped out on him during the Black Sabbath sessions, it'll handle all kinds of styles, from jazz and blues to rock 'n' roll.

The Iommi SG Special is finished in time-honoured style with a coating of gloss nitrocellulose lacquer. It is priced £2,149 / $2,399 and available now in left and right-handed versions, so now need to play a right-handed model upside down as Iommi once did. That's progress. See Gibson for more details.

Back in 2009 the cover star for Total Guitar's rhythm issue was one of the greatest rhythm guitarists of all-time. Metallica's James Hetfield doesn't just have a right hand like a traction engine, he's written the riff benchmarks by which other metal guitarists measure their own. It's a very high bar and Papa Het revealed the mindset and discipline behind it. 

To begin with, James, when did you get interested in becoming a musician?

“I started taking piano lessons when I was about eight years old because my mum saw me basically playing drums on a piano at someone’s house once and thought, ‘Oh, he’s a musician!’ So I took some lessons at some old lady’s house, which stunk, but she gave me cookies at the end. 

"I took those lessons for three years and thought, ‘This sucks, I’m not learning any Aerosmith songs here!’ I was playing sh*t I had no care for, so I graduated to guitar because my brothers, who are 10 years older than me, were in bands at the time so there was always a drum kit, piano and guitar sitting around the house. They were like toys. I loved hard rock so I picked up the guitar.”

When you started out on guitar, did you think you’d play rhythm parts or did you just want to learn to play solos?

“When I started playing guitar, I would fiddle around with pretty much everything. I was trying out different rhythms and trying to play [Aerosmith guitarist] Joe Perry solos, but then I just started gravitating more towards rhythm because of guys like Tony Iommi, Rudolf Schenker of the Scorpions, and even AC/DC. You know, very rhythm-based stuff. 

"And then later I got into riffing as, to me, that’s what makes a song great. If you’ve got a great riff you’ve got a great song. Some dude can do an amazing solo, but if it’s over a crappy riff the song’s still gonna be crap. A riff is the meat of the song.”

You’re famed for your rhythm playing, but how would you define your style?

“Percussive. I love playing drums, so a lot of the rhythms come from beats that I have in my head. A lot of times when you’re doing a rhythm and the drums play along exactly to that rhythm, it’s less effective. I see that a lot in certain bands these days: ‘here’s the guitar riff and the kick and snare are doing the exact same thing’. 

"With Metallica, Lars [Ulrich] is always playing a little against the riff. It’s almost like I’m the drummer and he does counter beats to the rhythm. Onstage, the only thing Lars has got in his ear monitors is my guitar and some vocals. So I’m kinda keeping the tempo of the song and he’s able to get a little crazier on the drums.”

How much of your rhythm style can be attributed to Lars’ drumming?

“Quite a bit because, as I say, I have a lot of room to lay down. I might not be able to be as free as possible on some stuff because when I get loose everything goes a little wobbly! But I’m able to show Lars some drum stuff and he’s able to show me riff stuff, you know? I’m a frustrated drummer and he’s a frustrated singer-guitarist!

So it’s really great that we’re able to accept each other’s dreams that way and see it as a positive thing, not just, ‘Get outta my territory!’”

Who inspired your rhythmic riffing style?

“My rhythm gods are Tony Iommi, Rudolf Schenker and Malcolm Young – guys who just keep it steady. The Misfits too, and even the Ramones with their simplicity. It’s all downpicking! Watch some footage of Johnny Ramone and you’ll go, ‘Wow!’”

Who inspired your rhythmic riffing style?

“My rhythm gods are Tony Iommi, Rudolf Schenker and Malcolm Young – guys who just keep it steady. The Misfits too, and even the Ramones with their simplicity. It’s all downpicking! Watch some footage of Johnny Ramone and you’ll go, ‘Wow!’”

How has your rhythm playing developed over time? Do you listen to early Metallica albums and think, ’I could play that a lot tighter now’?

“Hell, yeah! I do that with stuff on Death Magnetic, man! I’m a perfectionist, but I realise you’ve got to have some looseness and character. 

"I think the ‘anal-ness’ peaked right around Justice [Metallica’s 1988 studio album And Justice For All…]. It was like, how dry can the guitar be? I wanted it as in-your-face and dry as could be. Reverb was, you know, ‘Get that outta here, what are you thinking!’ After a while that got to be a little lifeless and flat, so I realised there was a balance to be struck. 

"On Load and ReLoad we tried to get a little looser, a little bluesier. Greasy is the word.I love to riff, to down-pick, alternate-pick, gallop… That’s what I’ve always wanted to do.”

How did you develop your incredibly fast down-picking style?

“Some of the Black Sabbath stuff didn’t have a lot of speed to it; it was big single-note riffs, all about the left hand bending. The right hand for me came more about as a challenge due to having two guitar players in the early days, first with Dave [Mustaine, original Metallica guitarist] and then with Kirk [Hammett]. It was a challenge to see who could play faster, or who would give up first, and then you’d call that dude a pussy and then you’d work on it some more!

“A lot of challenges came from other cover songs we were doing like the Misfits. I would look at [Misfits guitarist] Doyle [Wolfgang von Frankenstein] and see that he was down-picking everything. On a song like Green Hell, for example, I was like, ‘Is he really down-picking that whole thing?!’ So I guess my picking style came about from competitiveness.”

What about when Mustaine left the band and you became the main rhythm player?

“I was competing with myself, for sure. You know, ‘Here’s the drum beat, can I play along to that?’ And down-picking always sounded better than alternate picking. Just in the way the string stopped, the chunkiness of it… But there’s a point where you just can’t do it and you’re making too much palm noise while you're pounding on it, so then you have to go back to alternate picking. But down-picking is tighter and heavier. And that’s the end of it!”

So, do you think that always alternate picking is a bit of a cop-out?

“Now, not necessarily, no. There are tons of songs that we gallop on. You gotta do that! There may be guys out there who can do that with all downpicking, but it gets to that point where if it’s too fast, it’s muddled. The challenge is for it to sound as good as possible. I guess, yeah, in the early days alternate picking was considered a cop out.”

Do you do any specific exercises before a show to help you loosen up?

“Not me! I’m fine. Kirk has some things with his elbow and wrist and sometimes his fingers, and Rob [Trujillo, bassist] with his forearm – you know, he’s a tarantula! He’s got a few issues, but for me the only problems I have are calluses building up on the finger bone under the skin that come just from playing too much. But as far as muscles go, thank God, I’m doing fine.”

Do you have any advice for playing complex syncopated riffs while singing melodies that are very different?

“It’s hard. At first I couldn’t do it at all, but now it’s second nature. Take My Apocalypse off Death Magnetic, for example. The rhythm of the guitar is doing the complete opposite of the vocal. Singing along with That Was Just Your Life is tough too, as there’s a part where the vocals go, ‘I close my eyes and find it all fit into place’, where I’m playing a counter rhythm on the guitar, which gives me real trouble. 

"You know what? It just takes practice! What I do is slow the riff right down and just figure out where my hand should go during a certain word. It takes a lot of time, but you will eventually get it.”

You have an unusual way of holding your pick using your thumb, index and middle fingers, as opposed to just your thumb and index finger…

“Yeah, I’ve always done that. That’s the way I hold a pencil. School teachers would whack me on the hand and say, ‘That’s not right!’ but it just made sense to me. I tried it the other way to see how it would feel, but there’s something about having that extra finger that stabilises the top of the pick. Otherwise it moves too much. 

"But I go through picks non-stop, man. They’re ground away! You see pick grindings all over my guitar. I’m working on this pick with Dunlop at the moment actually, trying to emulate that tortoiseshell pick sound – that’s obviously illegal – that has that shaley sound to it. It’s almost stone-like but with a flex. I go through 10 picks a show instead of 30!”

In Nothing Else Matters, you fingerpick the first part then somehow produce a pick from your palm to play the riff and solo. We can’t figure out how you do it!

“Where do I hold it? I think I hide it. I sort of pinch it in the arch below my middle finger. I’ll check that out when I’m playing tonight! It probably comes from playing a lot of different styles. 

"When you’re playing country stuff, you’re playing the rhythm and the melody within it. On songs like Fade To Black, The Day That Never Comes and Unforgiven I’m doing the rhythm modulations behind the lead melody at the same time. That’s something that’s become Metallica or my style, I guess.”

In terms of rhythm guitar, do you feel you have competition in today’s new bands?

“There’s a lot of nemesises or nemesi [sic] out there! There are bands that are pulling off some amazing rhythm stuff. Machine Head – amazing riffs. If you’ve got a catchy riff, you’re my competition. If they’ve been inspired by me, that’s great. It’s called recycling, man! It comes back and it makes me step up too, and I love that.”

Interview: Metallica's James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett on their tonal evolution, the art of the riff and justice for Lars

Bill Ward (1969-1980, various until 1994, 1997-2012)

“I’ve always regarded Sabbath as a live band and not particularly as a studio band,” recalls Ward of his early days with theb and, “so when I listen back to the albums I have to remember that we used to walk in, grab some mic stands, record the songs and then walk back out again!”

When asked at what point he began to feel that he was playing at an advanced level, Ward told Rhythm: “It was starting to happen on Master Of Reality. The bass drum sound had started to smooth out on Vol. 4, and then by the time we got to Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, we were really coming along very well. When we did Paranoid, our band was out working 365 days of the year – so it was very much a band in transit. We were in and out of the clubs and theatres, and getting close to playing in stadiums by the time the album came out. We were making incredible progress as far as our live shows were concerned.”

Vinny Appice (1980-1982, various until 1997)

The younger of the famous hard-rock drumming brothers, Vinny was brought in initially to keep the seat warm for Bill Ward but ended up a more permanent fixture, recording Mob Rules and Dehumanizer.

“They were about midway into the Heaven And Hell album tour when I got in. As the tour went on, it became obvious that Bill wasn’t coming back so we started getting tighter and tighter and becoming a band. Then it was, ‘Alright, we’re going to do an album.’ ‘Okay, fantastic!’ We recorded in LA with Martin Birch producing. I had to play like myself and yet I had to think, ‘What would Bill do?’”

Bev Bevan (1983-1984, 1987)

Bev Bevan, drummer with The Move and ELO, was one of the famous generation of West Midlands drummers who basically invented hard rock in the late ’60s and early ’70s. He

Cozy Powell. He was a touring drummer with Sabbath in 1983 and 1984 and contributed to the 1987 album Eternal Idol after two changes in record producer. Recalling his and his contemporaries’ early days, he told Rhythm: “That was the thing in Birmingham; we were all really loud bastards. Me, Johnny Bonham, Cozy Powell and Bill Ward. Bonham used to watch me play and then steal my ideas.”

Eric Singer (1985-1987)

Prior to donning cat face paint for KISS, Singer had been Lita Ford’s drummer for just a year when he found himself drafted in to record Sabbath’s 1986 album Seventh Star.

“It was the first actual record i did for anybody! It was going to be a Tony Iommi solo album with lots of different singers but ended up becoming Black Sabbath featuring Tony Iommi and had Glenn Hughes singing on the whole record. Most of those songs started with just us jamming riffs; there were no melodies or arrangements, per se, with a vocalist in mind. It does help when you know what the vocal phrasing is going to be because as a drummer you can accentuate and be more melodic and enhance the arrangements. We didn’t have that luxury.”

Singer also played on the initial sessions 1987 for Eternal Idol.

Terry Chimes (1987)

The Clash’s original drummer Terry Chimes joined up with Tony Iommi’s touring Black Sabbath in 1987 (an Ozzy and Geezer-less line-up with Tony Martin on vocals).

A messy time for producer and line-up changes saw ELO’s Bev Bevan replace Eric Singer to finish Eternal Idol, but refuse to do shows promoting the album. So Chimes was brought in for live duties.

Chimes told Rhythm: “My manager said Black Sabbath needed a drummer and I said I’d love to do that, I really like that band, and being a drummer in a heavy metal band you get to do massive solos, massive drum kits, gongs, all sorts of things. So he phoned them up and they said, ‘Tell him to learn two or three songs.’ Well I actually got the live album and the other albums and i learned all of them, all the songs on the live album because I think that’s what you have to do. It’s very competitive, it’s very tough so you’ve got to work harder than everyone else, you’ve got to be better than anyone else. They’d been through drugs and drink and women and god knows what else and they said, ‘We aren’t going to be drinking or anything like that, we’re gonna go on stage and play our set and be on time.’ and I thought thank god, I’ve never had that before; a band that actually turns up on time and plays sober.”

Cozy Powell (1988-1991, 1994-1995)

The Rainbow and ‘Dance With The Devil’ rock drumming maestro had a couple of stints with Sabbath, mainly as touring drummer. He had begun to work on Sabbath’s 1990 album Dehumanizer with Geezer, Tommy and Ronnie James Dio, but suffered a hip injury in a horse riding accident, so Vinny Appice was brought in to record much to Cozy’s chagrin: “I was kicked out of the band because a horse fell on top of me,” he said. “I was disappointed [Tony Iommi] didn’t wait for me to recover.” Nevertheless he would return to Sabbath for touring duties in 1994.

Mike Bordin (1997)

Faith No More’s dreadlocked groove monster spent a couple of decades as Ozzy’s go-to guy, and once stepped in to help Sabbath out on some live dates in the ’90s. On working with Black Sabbath’s bat-eating genius, Puffy told Rhythm:

“A few years back, in Berlin, we were playing ‘Flying High Again’. Ozzy turned to me with a devilish look in his eyes and said, ‘I’m gonna get you!’ He started singing out of time just to fuck me up – and he got me! On the last run of dates, Ozzy sprayed the monitor desk with a foam gun! The tech decided to turn off the stage monitors so they wouldn’t blow. We couldn’t hear each other and we were totally off.”

Brad Wilk (2013)

Brad had the very real honour of playing on Black Sabbath’s 2013 album, 13, when contractual wranglings between Ward and the other Sabs resulted in the band’s founding drummer being left out of their reunion.

If anyone had to replace Bill, the band made a good choice as the Rage Against The Machine and Audioslave man has been majorly influenced by Ward. Of his hard rock wallop and tendency to play a little behind the beat, Wilk told Rhythm, “"To me, the backbeat is everything. I spent years listening to players who play on the backbeat. Bonham is absolutely one of my biggest influences. Even Bill Ward, when he played verse, he played on the back end of things. A lot of that whole backbeat thing has to do with where you put the grace note from the same drum that comes just before the 'one'. I really believe that that's something that is more felt than heard."

Tommy Clufetos (2012-present)

Sabbath’s current touring drummer and Rhythm cover star is the obvious choice for the hallowed drum seat, having played with Ozzy Osbourne since replacing Mike Bordin in 2010.

“I couldn’t ask for more,” he says in the March 2014 issue of Rhythm. “To play with Ozzy and then to play with Geezer and Tony, I just can’t ask for more than that. It’s been the pinnacle of my life so far. I’m learning and think I’ve gotten way better as a drummer. The only way to get better as a musician, a drummer or whatever is to do what you do with people that are better than you. So this is the ultimate in that and it has pushed me and that is the greatest gift.”

Read more of our great interview with Tommy, and find out just what it takes to be Black Sabbath’s sticksman in the new issue of Rhythm.

Guitarist Tony Iommi has issued a statement thanking his fans for their messages of support following his recent cancer diagnosis.

The 'Sabbath legend seems to be remaining upbeat and in his short announcement even jokes that "it's not what I wanted for Christmas, that's for sure."

Read the full statement below.

Tony Iommi's statement to fans

My fans, friends & colleagues - I just want to say how overwhelmed I am with all your messages of support, thank you so much.
Well it's not what I wanted for Christmas, that's for sure, but now I can't wait for the test results to come in and get going with the treatment. It's really good that the guys are coming over so that we can continue working on the album as things are going great in the studio. Well, not much else to say at this time, so thanks again.
Bless you all, Tony

In related news, rumours have been circulating that Black Sabbath had to cancel a planned (but unannounced) appearance at US festival Coachella due to Iommi's health.

It's still not clear what impact the guitarist's treatment will have on the scheduled Black Sabbath reunion dates, including June's Download festival.

A statement posted on the Black Sabbath Facebook page has revealed that Tony Iommi has been diagnosed with lymphoma - a cancer which affects certain immune system cells.

Image: © TERJE BENDIKSBY/epa/Corbis

The guitarist's illness was revealed on the official fan page at about 2pm today in a statement that read:

"With the news that Black Sabbath's Tony Iommi has been diagnosed with the early stages of lymphoma, his bandmates would like everyone to send positive vibes to the guitarist at this time. Iommi is currently working with his doctors to establish the best treatment plan - the "IRON MAN" of Rock & Roll remains upbeat and determined to make a full and successful recovery."

It's not yet known how Iommi's illness will impact on 'Sabbath's reunion plans, including their set at this summer's Download festival.

Please join TG in wishing Uncle Tony all the best - fight the good fight Iron Man!

It’s obvious that Tony Iommi is a rare and prodigious guitar talent, but did you also know that he’s a respected wise man of rock? A sage without compare, here are eight nuggets of wisdom from Uncle Tony.

From Geezer’s bass skills and coping with (onstage) disaster, to inventing light gauge strings and being the one constant throughout Sabbath’s long and winding career, Iommi's had one hell of a ride.

Click through the gallery to find out the guitarist's thoughts on life, the universe and everything, plus a few amusing anecdotes thrown in for good measure.

Total Guitar issue 223 (on sale 28 December to 27 January) features a full tab of Black Sabbath classic ‘Children Of The Grave’, as well a backing tracking, a guide to nailing the tones and the story behind the song.

Buy Total Guitar for iPad, iPhone and iPod

Buy a digital copy of Total Guitar magazine
(US readers click here)

“He started on guitar to begin with. I really like his style, Geez, and the way he improved and improved over the years. On that first album he was playing a lot of stuff that was really different. Instead of copying just what I was playing. The bass was usually just 'boom, boom, boom'. But he was like Jack Bruce was – they’d play harmonies, melodies or follow the riff, bend the strings. Bass players didn’t do that.”

Total Guitar issue 223 (on sale 28 December to 27 January) features a full tab of Black Sabbath classic ‘Children Of The Grave’, as well a backing tracking, a guide to nailing the tones and the story behind the song.

Buy Total Guitar for iPad, iPhone and iPod

Buy a digital copy of Total Guitar magazine
(US readers click here)

“Some producers didn’t understand the sound about Sabbath as a band full stop. Because if you play as a band and you separate each individual instrument, it probably sounds awful. Which it did.

"When we worked with a producer in later years we’d put a track down individually and they’d say, ‘Ooh the guitar sounds a bit ragged. The bass is really distorted.’ I’d say, ‘Yeah – that’s the sound and you’ve got to listen to it as a whole.’ They could never quite see that.

“I’d walk in the control room sometimes after we’d been out in the studio playing and they’d have me separated, or Geezer or Bill; whoever it was and I’d say, ‘Listen to it as a band, how it’s coming out as a whole– don’t analyse it...

"They tried to make the guitar cleaner. ‘Can you turn the guitar down a bit? Turn the amp down a bit?’ ‘No.’ We don’t do that – they just didn’t get it.”

Total Guitar issue 223 (on sale 28 December to 27 January) features a full tab of Black Sabbath classic ‘Children Of The Grave’, as well a backing tracking, a guide to nailing the tones and the story behind the song.

Buy Total Guitar for iPad, iPhone and iPod

Buy a digital copy of Total Guitar magazine
(US readers click here)

“Somebody came to stab me one night on the ‘Vol. 4’ tour, which wasn’t very good. I’ve had some embarrassing moments onstage too – we’ve had a lot of things blow up onstage.

"One of them wasn’t that long ago with the original lineup. We were doing this show in Los Angeles and we were special guests, surprise guests I should say. It was 100-odd thousand people and a revolving stage. We were at the back waiting to come on – they weren’t going to announce us or anything. We were going to come round and start playing, which we did then… nothing.

“As the gear had turned round it had ripped all the leads out of the amplifiers and it blew everything. It was being filmed by television as well. So embarrassing. My guitar tech nearly had a fit – he didn’t know what the hell was going on either.

"I was saying: ‘What’s happening - what shall we do?!’ We walked off and had to borrow Zakk Wylde’s gear. We were supposed to have another one of these shows in New York, but said forget it – it really put me off after that.”

Total Guitar issue 223 (on sale 28 December to 27 January) features a full tab of Black Sabbath classic ‘Children Of The Grave’, as well a backing tracking, a guide to nailing the tones and the story behind the song.

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(US readers click here)

“I used banjo strings in the early days because they didn’t make light strings. That was the lightest string I could get, banjo. And everybody said, ‘Banjo strings? You can’t use them.’ ‘Well I do.’

"I went to companies to try and get them to make some light gauge strings. They said, ‘Can’t do that’. But you could because I’d made my own sets up. They said they’d never sell.

"Then I went to Picato strings in Wales and they said they’d like to have a go at it, so they made some sets up and that was it – the birth of light gauge strings.”

Total Guitar issue 223 (on sale 28 December to 27 January) features a full tab of Black Sabbath classic ‘Children Of The Grave’, as well a backing tracking, a guide to nailing the tones and the story behind the song.

Buy Total Guitar for iPad, iPhone and iPod

Buy a digital copy of Total Guitar magazine
(US readers click here)

“[There have been] lots. I had a really old three-pickup rare Gibson with a tremolo arm that you operated with your little finger, a 1940-something. I used it on ‘Paranoid’ when we did Top Of The Pops and then somebody stole it. Gibson made me another one, a newer version, and then somebody stole that as well from the bloody airport! So I didn’t have much luck with that.

“I’ve lost another four or five – taken from storage or wherever. Leslie West gave me a guitar that was later stolen, there were three that I had at a storage company and they claimed they were owed money by my old management so they took the guitars and sold them. But I do know this guitar collector who has got a couple of them and said if I ever want them back… but I don’t need them now.”

Total Guitar issue 223 (on sale 28 December to 27 January) features a full tab of Black Sabbath classic ‘Children Of The Grave’, as well a backing tracking, a guide to nailing the tones and the story behind the song.

Buy Total Guitar for iPad, iPhone and iPod

Buy a digital copy of Total Guitar magazine
(US readers click here)

“We wrote that album in LA – right in the Beverly Hills valley. We had a house there and in the basement part we set up our gear. But the thing was, the house was on a big hillside on a big dip so at night it was horrendously loud. We never even thought about it, but the neighbours all around must have been thinking, ‘What the hell is going on?’ Because you could hear a pin drop at night, but we used to be playing away and we wrote all the stuff there and recorded it.”

Total Guitar issue 223 (on sale 28 December to 27 January) features a full tab of Black Sabbath classic ‘Children Of The Grave’, as well a backing tracking, a guide to nailing the tones and the story behind the song.

Buy Total Guitar for iPad, iPhone and iPod

Buy a digital copy of Total Guitar magazine
(US readers click here)

“One thing Ronnie did to me – and he really did get me – was when we were recording the ‘Dehumanizer’ album in Rockfield Studios in Wales.

"I’d just bought a new Range Rover and I came down in that. I went outside one day and Ronnie said, ‘Tone, there’s a load of oil underneath your car.’ ‘I said – you’re kidding, it’s brand new!’ And what they’d done is they’d gone out and bought a gallon of oil and tipped it all under the car.

"So I saw this oil and thought, ‘Bloody hell!’ They never let on straight away that it was a joke and I was a really pissed off. I went to the Range Rover and I thought, 'I can’t start it in case it’s the gear box and it’s going to blow up'. They kept me going on about it – the buggers. And eventually they told me it was a joke. I’d bollocked everybody!”

Total Guitar issue 223 (on sale 28 December to 27 January) features a full tab of Black Sabbath classic ‘Children Of The Grave’, as well a backing tracking, a guide to nailing the tones and the story behind the song.

Buy Total Guitar for iPad, iPhone and iPod

Buy a digital copy of Total Guitar magazine
(US readers click here)

“The toughest times were when everybody had left. I, like I am, would try to continue and will continue. I brought other people in to ween them into playing the way…it’s hard to get someone new in to play and make the sound the same.

"That’s very difficult because there’s only four people that played the same so whoever you’re going to bring in it’s never going to be the same. But you just continue because I’ve never wanted to say, ‘That’s it now’.

“I’ve never left – I’ve always been there. So people have come and gone. It’s a funny story with Sabbath because the amount of people who have left and come back and left and come back is amazing. I’ve played with a lot of them twice now – Ozzy came back, Ronnie left and came back, Tony Martin came back. Ian Gillan has come back in a sense with me [for the WhoCares charity single this year]. Cozy Powell was in and out, Neil Murray too.

"It’s really weird. I was glad I could still continue but there were hard times for me because I had to finance the whole thing. It was a lot of heartache trying to push through [at times].”

Total Guitar issue 223 (on sale 28 December to 27 January) features a full tab of Black Sabbath classic ‘Children Of The Grave’, as well a backing tracking, a guide to nailing the tones and the story behind the song.

More Tony Iommi posts

More TG gallery features

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The long-awaited, much-speculated Black Sabbath reunion looks closer than ever after the band posted the above image on their home page, suggesting an announcement on 11 November.

Last month, Iommi came closer than ever to confirming another reunion, telling Planet Rock that the band had met up and played together, but were still treading carefully. The above teaser looks more than likely to be the official confirmation fans have been holding out for.

Not that we're getting our hopes up, but we cannot wait. Sound the horns! Bring on the trumpets! Wax the virgins!

The original line-up of Black Sabbath have already rehearsed together at an undisclosed location, though remain cautious about deeming it a full reunion, according to Tony Iommi.

The legendary guitarist recently took part in an interview with digital radio station Planet Rock, telling them:

"There's no definite decision on anything at the moment, but at least it's going… We're all talking to each other. We've met up, had a play, and it was great."

Iommi also added that the band are being careful not to make promises they can't keep, as he told the radio station:

"We're taking it steady, because these things have a tendency to backfire. 'Oh, you said you were getting back together, but you haven't.' …It would be nice to think we could, and I think we would all like to do it, but it's a bit more involved than that."

The news follows a long string of rumours about a Black Sabbath reunion, but a concrete 'official' announcement is yet to come.

TG is interviewing Tony Iommi next week and we're giving you the chance to ask him a question about his career playing with THAT band.

To celebrate his forthcoming autobiography 'Iron Man', we're looking for guitar-related questions on Tony Iommi's time so far with 'Sabbath - so if there's a question about the godfathers of metal never seen answered anywhere else, now is your chance to ask it.

To submit a question, just get in touch via the Total Guitar Twitter or Facebook pages.

You might want to know about the making of a classic album like 'Paranoid' or 'Volume IV', his riff writing tips or even a guitar in his collection. Remember we're a guitar mag, so although we may slip in a few general ones, if you ask a question that isn't answered extensively elsewhere about their guitar playing or songwriting, you're much more likely to get it answered.

If we pick your question, you'll win a set of D'Adarrio guitar strings and feature in our November issue (TG220, on sale 3 to 30 October).

Over 68,000 of you voted and the results of our Greatest Metal Guitarist Ever Poll are now in. There are a few surprises in here to say the least, but the public have spoken and, in this case at least, the public gets what the public wants!

• Embrace the heavy with our guide to the best metal guitars

Fredrik Thordendal (Meshuggah)

Proportion of vote: 0.48%

Essential listening: 'Bleed'

Next: Gus G (Ozzy Osbourne, Firewind) >>

For those of you not in the know, in celebration of our forthcoming new-look magazine, TG asked our readers and MusicRadar visitors to vote for their favourite player from a shortlist of 20 metal guitarists. It was a closely fought battle… click through to see the final order and hear them in action.

The new-look Total Guitar magazine goes on sale 18 March and with an extra 32 pages it’s our biggest ever issue! The first issue is a thrash special, celebrating 1986 – the year that thrash broke – featuring Metallica’s ‘Master Of Puppets’, Slayer’s ‘Reign In Blood’ and Megadeth’s ‘Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying?’

Gus G (Ozzy Osbourne, Firewind)

Proportion of vote: 0.51%

Essential listening: 'Let Me Hear You Scream'

>

For those of you not in the know, in celebration of our forthcoming new-look magazine, TG asked our readers and MusicRadar visitors to vote for their favourite player from a shortlist of 20 metal guitarists. It was a closely fought battle… click through to see the final order and hear them in action.

The new-look Total Guitar magazine goes on sale 18 March and with an extra 32 pages it’s our biggest ever issue! The first issue is a thrash special, celebrating 1986 – the year that thrash broke – featuring Metallica’s ‘Master Of Puppets’, Slayer’s ‘Reign In Blood’ and Megadeth’s ‘Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying?’

Kerry King (Slayer)

Proportion of vote: 0.66%

Essential listening: 'Raining Blood'

>

For those of you not in the know, in celebration of our forthcoming new-look magazine, TG asked our readers and MusicRadar visitors to vote for their favourite player from a shortlist of 20 metal guitarists. It was a closely fought battle… click through to see the final order and hear them in action.

The new-look Total Guitar magazine goes on sale 18 March and with an extra 32 pages it’s our biggest ever issue! The first issue is a thrash special, celebrating 1986 – the year that thrash broke – featuring Metallica’s ‘Master Of Puppets’, Slayer’s ‘Reign In Blood’ and Megadeth’s ‘Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying?’

Marty Friedman (Megadeth)

Proportion of vote: 1.41%

Essential listening: 'Hangar 18'

>

For those of you not in the know, in celebration of our forthcoming new-look magazine, TG asked our readers and MusicRadar visitors to vote for their favourite player from a shortlist of 20 metal guitarists. It was a closely fought battle… click through to see the final order and hear them in action.

The new-look Total Guitar magazine goes on sale 18 March and with an extra 32 pages it’s our biggest ever issue! The first issue is a thrash special, celebrating 1986 – the year that thrash broke – featuring Metallica’s ‘Master Of Puppets’, Slayer’s ‘Reign In Blood’ and Megadeth’s ‘Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying?’

Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine)

Proportion of vote: 1.44%

Essential listening: 'Killing In The Name'

>

For those of you not in the know, in celebration of our forthcoming new-look magazine, TG asked our readers and MusicRadar visitors to vote for their favourite player from a shortlist of 20 metal guitarists. It was a closely fought battle… click through to see the final order and hear them in action.

The new-look Total Guitar magazine goes on sale 18 March and with an extra 32 pages it’s our biggest ever issue! The first issue is a thrash special, celebrating 1986 – the year that thrash broke – featuring Metallica’s ‘Master Of Puppets’, Slayer’s ‘Reign In Blood’ and Megadeth’s ‘Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying?’

Michael Amott (Arch Enemy, Carcass)

Proportion of vote: 1.52%

Essential listening: 'Nemesis'

>

For those of you not in the know, in celebration of our forthcoming new-look magazine, TG asked our readers and MusicRadar visitors to vote for their favourite player from a shortlist of 20 metal guitarists. It was a closely fought battle… click through to see the final order and hear them in action.

The new-look Total Guitar magazine goes on sale 18 March and with an extra 32 pages it’s our biggest ever issue! The first issue is a thrash special, celebrating 1986 – the year that thrash broke – featuring Metallica’s ‘Master Of Puppets’, Slayer’s ‘Reign In Blood’ and Megadeth’s ‘Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying?’

Yngwie Malmsteen

Proportion of vote: 1.81%

Essential listening: 'Far Beyond The Sun'

>

For those of you not in the know, in celebration of our forthcoming new-look magazine, TG asked our readers and MusicRadar visitors to vote for their favourite player from a shortlist of 20 metal guitarists. It was a closely fought battle… click through to see the final order and hear them in action.

The new-look Total Guitar magazine goes on sale 18 March and with an extra 32 pages it’s our biggest ever issue! The first issue is a thrash special, celebrating 1986 – the year that thrash broke – featuring Metallica’s ‘Master Of Puppets’, Slayer’s ‘Reign In Blood’ and Megadeth’s ‘Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying?’

Zakk Wylde (Black Label Society, Ozzy Osbourne)

Proportion of vote: 2.14%

Essential listening: 'Miracle Man'

>

For those of you not in the know, in celebration of our forthcoming new-look magazine, TG asked our readers and MusicRadar visitors to vote for their favourite player from a shortlist of 20 metal guitarists. It was a closely fought battle… click through to see the final order and hear them in action.

The new-look Total Guitar magazine goes on sale 18 March and with an extra 32 pages it’s our biggest ever issue! The first issue is a thrash special, celebrating 1986 – the year that thrash broke – featuring Metallica’s ‘Master Of Puppets’, Slayer’s ‘Reign In Blood’ and Megadeth’s ‘Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying?’

Dave Murray (Iron Maiden)

Proportion of vote: 2.26%

Essential listening: 'The Trooper'

>

For those of you not in the know, in celebration of our forthcoming new-look magazine, TG asked our readers and MusicRadar visitors to vote for their favourite player from a shortlist of 20 metal guitarists. It was a closely fought battle… click through to see the final order and hear them in action.

The new-look Total Guitar magazine goes on sale 18 March and with an extra 32 pages it’s our biggest ever issue! The first issue is a thrash special, celebrating 1986 – the year that thrash broke – featuring Metallica’s ‘Master Of Puppets’, Slayer’s ‘Reign In Blood’ and Megadeth’s ‘Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying?’

Daron Malakian (System Of A Down)

Proportion of vote: 2.43%

Essential listening: 'Toxicity'

>

For those of you not in the know, in celebration of our forthcoming new-look magazine, TG asked our readers and MusicRadar visitors to vote for their favourite player from a shortlist of 20 metal guitarists. It was a closely fought battle… click through to see the final order and hear them in action.

The new-look Total Guitar magazine goes on sale 18 March and with an extra 32 pages it’s our biggest ever issue! The first issue is a thrash special, celebrating 1986 – the year that thrash broke – featuring Metallica’s ‘Master Of Puppets’, Slayer’s ‘Reign In Blood’ and Megadeth’s ‘Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying?’

Randy Rhoads (Ozzy Osbourne)

Proportion of vote: 2.77%

Essential listening: 'Crazy Train'

>

For those of you not in the know, in celebration of our forthcoming new-look magazine, TG asked our readers and MusicRadar visitors to vote for their favourite player from a shortlist of 20 metal guitarists. It was a closely fought battle… click through to see the final order and hear them in action.

The new-look Total Guitar magazine goes on sale 18 March and with an extra 32 pages it’s our biggest ever issue! The first issue is a thrash special, celebrating 1986 – the year that thrash broke – featuring Metallica’s ‘Master Of Puppets’, Slayer’s ‘Reign In Blood’ and Megadeth’s ‘Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying?’

Glenn Tipton (Judas Priest)

Proportion of vote: 3.77%

Essential listening: 'Painkiller'

>

For those of you not in the know, in celebration of our forthcoming new-look magazine, TG asked our readers and MusicRadar visitors to vote for their favourite player from a shortlist of 20 metal guitarists. It was a closely fought battle… click through to see the final order and hear them in action.

The new-look Total Guitar magazine goes on sale 18 March and with an extra 32 pages it’s our biggest ever issue! The first issue is a thrash special, celebrating 1986 – the year that thrash broke – featuring Metallica’s ‘Master Of Puppets’, Slayer’s ‘Reign In Blood’ and Megadeth’s ‘Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying?’

Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath)

Proportion of vote: 4.13%

Essential listening: 'Iron Man', 'War Pigs', 'Paranoid'... We could go on...

>

For those of you not in the know, in celebration of our forthcoming new-look magazine, TG asked our readers and MusicRadar visitors to vote for their favourite player from a shortlist of 20 metal guitarists. It was a closely fought battle… click through to see the final order and hear them in action.

The new-look Total Guitar magazine goes on sale 18 March and with an extra 32 pages it’s our biggest ever issue! The first issue is a thrash special, celebrating 1986 – the year that thrash broke – featuring Metallica’s ‘Master Of Puppets’, Slayer’s ‘Reign In Blood’ and Megadeth’s ‘Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying?’

James Hetfield (Metallica)

Proportion of vote: 4.16%

Essential listening: 'Enter Sandman'

>

For those of you not in the know, in celebration of our forthcoming new-look magazine, TG asked our readers and MusicRadar visitors to vote for their favourite player from a shortlist of 20 metal guitarists. It was a closely fought battle… click through to see the final order and hear them in action.

The new-look Total Guitar magazine goes on sale 18 March and with an extra 32 pages it’s our biggest ever issue! The first issue is a thrash special, celebrating 1986 – the year that thrash broke – featuring Metallica’s ‘Master Of Puppets’, Slayer’s ‘Reign In Blood’ and Megadeth’s ‘Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying?’

Mikael Åkerfeldt (Opeth)

Proportion of vote: 4.59%

Essential listening: 'Porcelain Heart'

For those of you not in the know, in celebration of our forthcoming new-look magazine, TG asked our readers and MusicRadar visitors to vote for their favourite player from a shortlist of 20 metal guitarists. It was a closely fought battle… click through to see the final order and hear them in action.

The new-look Total Guitar magazine goes on sale 18 March and with an extra 32 pages it’s our biggest ever issue! The first issue is a thrash special, celebrating 1986 – the year that thrash broke – featuring Metallica’s ‘Master Of Puppets’, Slayer’s ‘Reign In Blood’ and Megadeth’s ‘Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying?’

Dimebag Darrell (Pantera)

Proportion of vote: 5.90%Link

Essential listening: 'Walk'

>

For those of you not in the know, in celebration of our forthcoming new-look magazine, TG asked our readers and MusicRadar visitors to vote for their favourite player from a shortlist of 20 metal guitarists. It was a closely fought battle… click through to see the final order and hear them in action.

The new-look Total Guitar magazine goes on sale 18 March and with an extra 32 pages it’s our biggest ever issue! The first issue is a thrash special, celebrating 1986 – the year that thrash broke – featuring Metallica’s ‘Master Of Puppets’, Slayer’s ‘Reign In Blood’ and Megadeth’s ‘Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying?’

Mark Tremonti (Alter Bridge)

Proportion of vote: 7.26%

Essential listening: 'Blackbird'

>

For those of you not in the know, in celebration of our forthcoming new-look magazine, TG asked our readers and MusicRadar visitors to vote for their favourite player from a shortlist of 20 metal guitarists. It was a closely fought battle… click through to see the final order and hear them in action.

The new-look Total Guitar magazine goes on sale 18 March and with an extra 32 pages it’s our biggest ever issue! The first issue is a thrash special, celebrating 1986 – the year that thrash broke – featuring Metallica’s ‘Master Of Puppets’, Slayer’s ‘Reign In Blood’ and Megadeth’s ‘Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying?’

Mick Thomson (Slipknot)

Proportion of vote: 10.11%

Essential listening: 'Spit It Out'

>

For those of you not in the know, in celebration of our forthcoming new-look magazine, TG asked our readers and MusicRadar visitors to vote for their favourite player from a shortlist of 20 metal guitarists. It was a closely fought battle… click through to see the final order and hear them in action.

The new-look Total Guitar magazine goes on sale 18 March and with an extra 32 pages it’s our biggest ever issue! The first issue is a thrash special, celebrating 1986 – the year that thrash broke – featuring Metallica’s ‘Master Of Puppets’, Slayer’s ‘Reign In Blood’ and Megadeth’s ‘Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying?’

John Petrucci (Dream Theater)

Proportion of vote: 20.94%

Essential listening: 'Pull Me Under'

>

For those of you not in the know, in celebration of our forthcoming new-look magazine, TG asked our readers and MusicRadar visitors to vote for their favourite player from a shortlist of 20 metal guitarists. It was a closely fought battle… click through to see the final order and hear them in action.

The new-look Total Guitar magazine goes on sale 18 March and with an extra 32 pages it’s our biggest ever issue! The first issue is a thrash special, celebrating 1986 – the year that thrash broke – featuring Metallica’s ‘Master Of Puppets’, Slayer’s ‘Reign In Blood’ and Megadeth’s ‘Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying?’

Alexi Laiho (Children Of Bodom)

Proportion of vote: 21.73%

Essential listening: 'Needled 24/7'

For those of you not in the know, in celebration of our forthcoming new-look magazine, TG asked our readers and MusicRadar visitors to vote for their favourite player from a shortlist of 20 metal guitarists. It was a closely fought battle… click through to see the final order and hear them in action.

The new-look Total Guitar magazine goes on sale 18 March and with an extra 32 pages it’s our biggest ever issue! The first issue is a thrash special, celebrating 1986 – the year that thrash broke – featuring Metallica’s ‘Master Of Puppets’, Slayer’s ‘Reign In Blood’ and Megadeth’s ‘Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying?’

Image: © TERJE BENDIKSBY/epa/Corbis

Total Guitar issue 210 (originally on sale 24 December - 20 January) cover-star Tony Iommi's tone is almost as recognisable as his riffs, here we dissect three of his most recognisable tones and give you some tips on how to nail them with your own gear.

Early Sabbath fuzz

Tony's monstrously thick fuzz-laden sounds on early Sabbath tracks such as 'N.I.B.' were not from a fuzz pedal, but a Dallas Rangemaster treble booster through his Laney stack. To recreate these sounds without the vintage price tag, you need a guitar with a neck humbucker and some of the treble rolled off. A fuzz pedal such as the Electro-Harmonix Big Muff will actually get you closer than a common distortion pedal, but if you don't have one, try boosting the bass and mid frequencies on your own pedal and roll off the treble.

Abrasive distortion

The distortion sound made famous on classic track 'Paranoid' came from Tony rolling all the bass off his Laney rig but maxing out the middle, treble and presence. Doing this with your setup accentuates the upper mid and the treble frequencies, which can sound great on 'root and 5th' powerchords. Use plenty of rich overdrive, ideally from your amp rather than a separate pedal. Make sure you select your guitar's bridge humbucker.

Half-cocked wah

This 'half-cocked' wah effect can work equally well if you just leave the pedal in one position, because the wah cancels out certain high end frequencies really well. In this example, the wah is rocked in a very shallow motion near to the 'up' position, creating a honky/nasal sound that is focused in the mid range frequencies. It tends to work best with single notes. You can use either a bridge or a neck humbucker; they produce slightly different results but both sound great.

Total Guitar issue 210 (originally on sale 24 December - 20 January) featured Tony Iommi on the cover and contained 11-pages of Iommi coverage, including an in-depth interview and a complete tab of 'Planet Caravan'.