The Shadows were the only band that really appealed to me [in the early 60s - according with ultimate-guitar and the interview released to radarmusic
"There was rock 'n' roll but I liked the idea of an instrumental band and they had a real sort of demonic sound in some ways - 'Frightened City' and stuff like that had an eerie feeling to it. I really liked what they were doing and they had a nice guitar sound for what they did.
"So I really tried to get that and I did to a point. Bill [Ward] and myself, when we got together we were playing Shadows songs in the early band we were in, with Cliff Richard stuff and rock 'n' roll. We wanted this more raw, basic sound, so I got into playing blues and jazz. And from that it went into what we are playing now.
"I never ever classed us as heavy metal in the early days. It's just that I gave up in the end. Everyone said, 'You're heavy metal.' 'Okay, we're heavy metal, call us what you want.' It was always heavy rock to me."
Here's Mr. Iommi rocking some Shadows live in concert, on one of the few occasions he did not rock a Gibson SG.
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Iommi also talked about how that urge to experiment with instrumental stuff was always present on Sabbath records, saying:
"I did like to experiment a bit and I've always been one to try and do something different from what we'd already done. Even from the early days of doing an instrumental when we did 'Laguna Sunrise' [from 'Vol 4']. Then 'Supertzsar' [from 1975's 'Sabotage'] was another one.
"At first somebody said, 'You can't put 'Laguna Sunrise' on the album with all the heavy stuff.' Why? And it was the same with 'Supertzsar.' And I'd done it at home. I had a harp and I couldn't play the harp but I could play a couple of notes on it. So I put this riff down and thought, 'I'll try that harp on this.'"
During the rest of the chat, Tony sang praises of Geezer Butler, branding him an integral part of the Sabbath fold:
"Geezer is irreplaceable... very important, because he would follow me and know what I was going to play. I never had any doubt at all that Geezer would play the right thing. Those kind of players don't exist so much. I got a bit annoyed, certainly through the '80s period, that it became more about the posse of bands coming out. Having the bass down here and just hitting one note. Not players to me.
"Geezer would come up with a melodic part and he was the ideal bass player for us. I think we brought out the best in each other. Because none of us were brilliant musicians but as a band it worked. We weren't technically great but we played and we enjoyed what we did. We created a sound, and we created basic riffs that people liked. Well, we liked them anyway!
"I've played with other people who have been technical and I learned through the period of being on my own and bringing in drummers and bass players that however good you are, it doesn't mean to say you can play what we played.
"And it proved a point because some of these musicians were great players but you'd say, 'Can you play 'War Pigs' or Black Sabbath?' and they couldn't get it. No feel. And the amount of times I'd have drummers come in to play and they'd say, 'We know all of Sabbath's stuff' and they'd play. 'Stop! It's nothing like it. The feel's not there.' But technically they're great. That really did open my eyes. It's simple... but it's not."
