Iron Man: My Journey through Heaven and Hell with Black Sabbath

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Iron Man: My Journey through Heaven and Hell with Black Sabbath (eBook) Pub. Date: 11/1/2011 Publisher: Da Capo Press
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Iron Man: My Journey through Heaven and Hell with Black Sabbath Pub. Date: 11/1/2011 Publisher: Da Capo Press

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Overview

Iron Man chronicles the story of both pioneering guitarist Tony Iommi and legendary band Black Sabbath, dubbed “The Beatles of heavy metal” by Rolling Stone. Iron Man reveals the man behind the icon yet still captures Iommi’s humor, intelligence, and warmth. He speaks honestly and unflinchingly about his rough-and-tumble childhood, the accident that almost ended his career, his failed marriages, personal tragedies, battles with addiction, band mates, famous friends, newfound daughter, and the ups and downs of his life as an artist.

Everything associated with hard rock happened to Black Sabbath first: the drugs, the debauchery, the drinking, the dungeons, the pressure, the pain, the conquests, the company men, the contracts, the combustible drummer, the critics, the comebacks, the singers, the Stonehenge set, the music, the money, the madness, the metal.

Editorial Reviews

From Barnes & Noble

Tommy Iommi is the living legend lead guitarist of Black Sabbath, but that's only part of what makes his autobiography so gripping. Iommi offers a unashamedly naked account of his life; from his youth in a rough Birmingham, England neighborhood; his workplace injury that deprived him of two fingertips and the extraordinary readjustments he made because of his handicap; and, far from least, his career and relations with Black Sabbath, including Ozzy Osbourne and their huge extended family. Every page of Iron Man has the ring of truth: "A couple nights afterward, we played the Fillmore East, which was absolutely fantastic. That, for us, was a great gig. We had never used a PA system, never used a monitor, never even knowing what a monitor was. You could actually hear each other onstage properly. It was incredible!" A front row seat to an extremely rowdy performance.

Publishers Weekly

While there are other books that offer more detail about the band, lead guitarist and songwriter Iommi’s chronicle is an important addition to the Black Sabbath story. Even early Sabbath detractors recognized that Iommi’s pummeling riffs in songs like “Iron Man” and “War Pigs”—powerfully delivered by lead singer Ozzy Osborne—defined the Sabbath sound. Iommi’s autobiography is as direct as his music, beginning with his description of losing the two middle fingers on his left hand in an industrial press accident as a teenager in the early days of the band, which, he notes, some people credit with creating “the deeper, down-tuned sound” of the band—“I had to reinvent my style of playing to accommodate the pain.” The book’s main virtue is its straightforward, year-by-year account of the band’s history, from early struggles (“When we recorded Paranoid I still lived at home”) through the band’s breakup with Ozzy in 1979 (“There were so many drugs flying around, coke and Quaaludes and Mandrax, and there was booze and late nights and women and everything else”) to Iommi’s post-Ozzy versions of Sabbath and various solo projects. (Nov.)

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Library Journal

Surprisingly, the man who invented the heavy-metal riff didn't do it out of creative inspiration but out of prosthetic necessity. Detailing the gruesome accident that resulted in the severing of two fingers on his left hand, Iommi opens his memoir with both graphic description and honesty. It was this event that shaped his style of guitar playing and the sound that was to define Black Sabbath. While much of his memoir details the trials and tribulations of Black Sabbath, Iommi paints an intimate portrait of his own life from childhood to his most recent musical effort in Heaven & Hell. Aided by journalist Lammers, Iommi's narrative voice is evident in each vignette. Unfortunately for Iommi, the book ends in the same way it begins: with another accident, this one involving his right hand. Still, even with two damaged hands, Iommi reminds us that he is one of the greatest guitar legends alive today. VERDICT Another rock 'n' roll memoir rife with addiction and celebrity. Readers who enjoyed Joel McIver's Sabbath Bloody Sabbath will be drawn to Iommi's insider perspective.—Joshua Finnell, Denison Univ. Lib., Granville, OH

Kirkus Reviews

Black Sabbath's founding guitarist recounts the British metal band's chaotic history. Iommi's as-told-to book, co-authored by T.J. Lammers, offers a rote look at his foundational group's story, which practically ended before it began. At 17, the aspiring axe man sliced off two fingertips while operating a machine press. Inspired by the example of gypsy virtuoso Django Reinhardt, who performed brilliantly after his hand was severely burned, Iommi continued to play, with self-fabricated "thimbles" extending his digits. He soon hooked up with three other Birmingham, England, lads--singer Ozzy Osbourne, bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward--to form Black Sabbath, whose churning, down-tuned music drew the metal road map. Iommi, the band's resident riff-master and studio obsessive, unimaginatively recalls the band's story album by album and tour by tour, without explicating the group's unique sound, internal chemistry or propensity for provoking public outrage. He's most entertaining when describing the Sabbath's incessant, hazardous prank-playing; much of the "fun" came at the expense of Ward, who was nearly suffocated by a coat of gold spray paint and almost fatally incinerated after Iommi doused him with tape-machine head cleaner and set him ablaze. The guitarist is not wholly unaware of the oft-ludicrous nature of his enterprise: One of the best chapters recalls the building of a massive, misbegotten Stonehenge stage set, which inspired a choice gag in This is Spinal Tap. But he is unable to shed light on the band mates' fraught relationships (exacerbated by drug and alcohol abuse), Sabbath's hellish business affairs or his own chronic cocaine use and failed marriages. Excepting a rich passage about a once-unthinkable 2002 command performance before Queen Elizabeth II, the late going devolves into an unenlightening recap of the band's revolving-door post-Osbourne years, when it was fronted by singers Ronnie James Dio, Ian Gillan and others, and its latter-day reunion gigs. However, readers do learn that Michael Bolton unsuccessfully auditioned for the position of lead vocalist. As rock bios go, this just isn't heavy enough.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780306819551
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Publication date: 11/1/2011
Pages: 416
Sales rank: 24,009
Product dimensions: 6.30 (w) x 9.10 (h) x 1.50 (d)

Meet the Author

Tony Iommi

Tony Iommi is a cofounding member and lead guitarist of Black Sabbath and is among the most influential guitarists of all time. Born in 1948, he lives in Birmingham, England.

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Jeffrey_Barstone

Posted October 1, 2011

He's been thru heaven and hell.

This is a GREAT read. Ninety chapters in 366 pages means Iommi writes kind of like he plays; riff-based. And he riffs great. Short, punchy, page-turning awesomeness. You won't want to put this down if you are at all a fan. There's a thorough history of the genesis of the band from the earliest days when Iommi was in a blues band, his reluctance to join up with Ozzy at first, the story of how Iommi lost his fingertips in an industrial accident on the last day of his factory job. His inspiration to push thru the difficulty of having to relearn the guitar from being introduced to the story and music of Django Reinhardt. There's plenty of stories of coke-and-booze fueled rehearsal and recording sessions, Ozzy madness such as the time he caught a shark from their hotel window and put it in the tub. There's endless practical jokes, mostly played on Bill Ward. Iommi takes you thru all the albums and all the personnel changes both in the band and management as well as those in his personal life. Biggest surprise? Michael Bolton could've ended up in Black Sabbath. This book is packed with amusing and sometimes heartbreaking tales. I was lucky enough to get an early review copy through my job, and this was a thoroughly entertaining read. When this book hits the shelves, RUN, do not walk, to pick up a copy.

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