Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi spoke with Jim Harrington of the San Jose Mercury News. Sections from the article appear below.
Discussing why after reuniting with Ronnie James in 2006, they decided to call themselves Heaven & Hell as opposed to Black Sabbath:
“I didn’t want to live on the Black Sabbath name with that lineup, because it stood for itself. And, of course, we went out as Heaven and Hell because we weren’t playing any of the Ozzy stuff. All the stuff we were doing was with Ronnie. Ronnie was a superb singer-one of the best. It’s a sad ending. But Ronnie did give it his all, right to the end.”
Discussing his health issues:
To be honest, I was wondering whether I could do (the tour). I have to treat life very differently now. This, for me, has been a big challenge. So far, it’s been OK. The medical thing is still going on. It’ll be ongoing, really, for life. It’s not going to go away. I just have to try to treat it. So I go back to England every seven to eight weeks for a treatment. Then it takes 10 days, two weeks, to start feeling normal again. Then we go back out on the road.
My whole life has changed. My attitude has changed toward everything. Life becomes a lot more precious. I appreciate when we’ve got the opportunity to get together and be onstage and play and do what I like to do.
I think my illness, in one way, has helped everybody, because it’s brought the reality of you really don’t know how long this is going to last. It was easy to take things for granted before. I think everyone now appreciates what we’ve got and what we get to do.
Read more at the San Jose Mercury News.
source: mercurynews.com
13 Responses
…am I the only person on here wondering how I can get my hands on that signed SG with all the goods taped on it? Shit damn–is that not a great prize package.