BLACK SABBATH guitarist and rock icon Tony Iommi has received an honorary degree from Coventry University.
According to BBCNews, the founding member of the Birmingham heavy metal band was awarded an Honorary Doctorate Of Arts by the institution.
He said it was a “great honour” to receive the doctorate and thanked the university for his nomination.
The honorary degree was “in recognition of his contribution to the world of popular music”, the university said. It recognised “his role as one of the founding fathers of heavy metal music and his status as one of the industry’s most influential figures”.
Iommi said: “It’s brilliant. I couldn’t believe it.”
As previously reported, former BLACK SABBATH drummer Bill Ward recently suffered a perforated diverticulitis and underwent surgery in California. The procedure was successful, and Ward is expected to make a full recovery over the next several weeks.
Ward’s former bandmate Tony Iommi has passed along the following well-wishes: “Sorry to hear you’ve been unwell hope you make a speedy recovery.”
Subsequently, Bill Ward’s artist reception on October 26 at the Annapolis Collection Gallery in Maryland has been postponed.
“I am truly sorry that I have to postpone the Absence Of Corners gallery reception (scheduled for October 26th),” said Ward. “The feedback I have received from everyone about this project has been astounding, and I was so looking forward to this event. I want to thank the Annapolis Collection Gallery for everything they are doing. I am honored that they are exhibiting my art, and I hope to get there to celebrate this collection with you all very soon.”
The gallery and Bill Ward have agreed to find another date in the future which will allow him time for a complete recovery.
Created over the last year, Ward’s collection Absence Of Corners is a highly limited release of fine art of epic size and conceptual. The collection, in its entirety is now available, along with audio commentary on each piece by Ward. Each piece can be reserved at BillWardDrumArt.com.
BLACK SABBATH guitar legend Tony Iommi is featured in a new interview with Matt Blackett at Guitar Player magazine. An excerpt is available below:
GW: I read an interview where you said that after the accident either you thought about playing right-handed, or maybe you should have thought about it. I have to say, I think it would have changed the entire music business had you flipped your guitar over and played righty.
Iommi: “I think you’re probably right, because that accident made me develop a style—one that I could play—and by doing that, it created a different sort of sound. I had to make the sound bigger and work on it a bit. I couldn’t just pick up anybody’s guitar and play. I mean, the whole thing really was against me. But that sort of thing makes you work. It makes you develop something, because I really wanted to play, and I wanted to make the sound big. I had to come up with a new way of playing to make it big.”
GW: You guys have always had tempo and groove changes in your tunes, and ‘God Is Dead?’ is a great example of that tradition. What is it that you like about doing that?
Iommi: “I just think it gets to a point in the song where it needs something—either picking the tempo up or slowing it down. If it’s a fast song, maybe a bit that slows down in it, like we did with Ronnie on ‘Die Young.’ It was an up-tempo thing, but then we used a quiet part in it to come down. Again, it’s just down to creating some kind of different mood in the song, and I’ve always liked that.”
Black Sabbath fans who didn’t see the band live on their recent tour will now have the chance to experience them via a new DVD, Black Sabbath: Live…Gathered In Their Masses (Vertigo/Republic).
Due out November 26th, the DVD was recorded in April 29th and May 1st, 2013 in Melbourne, Australia (additional details TBA), when the band – OZZY OSBOURNE (vocals), TONY IOMMI (guitar) and GEEZER BUTLER (bass) – kicked off their world tour in support of their 13 album, which entered the charts at #1 in 13 countries (including their first #1 in the US).
Check out a teaser video below:
Meanwhile, Black Sabbath will head to South America and Mexico in October for a headlining stadium tour (where they’re expected to play to more than 300,000 fans) and then onto Europe in November and December.
Find Black Sabbath’s live itinerary at this location.
The clip below features fan-filmed video of Black Sabbath’s entire August 28th show in Irvine, CA at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre:
The band’s setlist on the night was as follows:
‘War Pigs’
‘Into the Void’
‘Under the Sun’/Every Day Comes and Goes’
‘Snowblind’
‘Age of Reason’
‘Black Sabbath’
‘Behind the Wall of Sleep’
‘N.I.B.’
‘End of the Beginning’
‘Fairies Wear Boots’
‘Methademic’
‘Symptom of the Universe’
‘Rat Salad’
‘Iron Man’
‘God Is Dead?’
‘Children of the Grave’
Black Sabbath will be immortalized in an all-original, terrifying 3D maze, Black Sabbath: 13 3D at Universal Studios Hollywood’s premier Halloween Horror Nights event, beginning September 20th. Check out newly-released back-stage footage from the upcoming event below:
The new maze, based on the darkest lyrics from Black Sabbath’s biggest hit songs and the only attraction at the horror event to incorporate 3D video, will also include scenes inspired by the legendary band’s recently released Billboard #1 album, 13. A nightmarish landscape of doom will engulf guests as they enter Black Sabbath: 13 3D and traverse through horrifying graveyards, disturbing madhouses and bone-chilling battlefields.
“We were all really excited when Universal Studios Hollywood approached us about doing a 3D ‘Halloween Horror Nights’ maze based on our music,” said Black Sabbath’s OZZY OSBOURNE. “I’ve seen the drawings of what it will look like when it’s finished and it looks amazing. I can’t wait to walk through it on opening night in September.”
Guests will come face to face with a heart-stopping Lucifer and his bride, blood-soaked dead bodies and bubbling pools of “radioactive water” while song’s inspired by ‘Luke’s Wall’, ‘Iron Man’, ‘Paranoid’, ‘War Pigs’, ‘Electric Funeral’ and – of course – ‘Black Sabbath’ violently penetrate the confines of the maze at high volume.
“Very few bands can claim to have defined a genre of music but Black Sabbaths’ remarkable influence in the evolution of heavy metal will go down in history,” said John Murdy, Creative Director for Universal Studios Hollywood. “Tony Iommi’s dark, iconic riffs, Ozzy Osbourne’s haunting vocals and Geezer Butler’s foreboding lyrics provide the perfect soundtrack for ‘Halloween Horror Nights’ and endless inspiration for our new haunted attraction Black Sabbath 13 3D.”
Halloween Horror Nights 2013 at Universal Studios Hollywood brings together the sickest minds in horror to immerse guests in the living, breathing, three-dimensional world of the most notorious and terrifying creatures and features a slate of unrivaled film production quality mazes, terror-filled Scare Zones and a fully re-imagined Terror Tram experience, uniquely themed to today’s most definitive horror properties. This year’s haunted attractions will include The Walking Dead: No Safe Haven, based on AMC’s Golden Globe-nominated, Emmy Award-winning show, and Evil Dead: Book of the Dead, inspired by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment’s chilling remake of the cult classic.
Source: Bravewords.com BLACK SABBATH guitar legend Tony Iommi is featured in a new interview conducted by Glenn BurnSilver for the Phoenix New Times. An excerpt from the discussion is available below:
Q: How is playing together–recording together–after so many years of tension and not being in the studio? The last album with the original lineup was in 1978… Ozzy was booted out in 1979…
Iommi: “Tensions? The tensions over the years have mainly been about business. It’s not been personal at all. We always got on well on a personal level. It’s been going really good.
It’s just a different attitude now. When we got back together to record this album everybody had a different attitude toward what we were doing this time. We wanted to make an album together. We all really appreciated each other and respected each other. That’s really the only way to go into it–a full band commitment–and everybody was ready to put everything into it.
We did try back 12 years ago, and nobody could settle on it then. It wasn’t the right time, there were to many things going on. Ozzy was doing MTV, so it just didn’t work then. We weren’t going to do it until everybody was fully committed, and that was this time. Rubin was interested in doing the album (in 2001). We played him some tracks but that’s as far as we got with it. We pulled the plug on it. We never got into the studio. We’d just played him some tracks.”
Black Sabbath hit Toronto’s Air Canada Centre on Wednesday, August 14th in support of the band’s #1 album, 13.
Bassist Geezer Butler posted the following message: “At the Toronto gig last night, we were presented with a double gold disc award for sales of the latest album, 13. Then we were presented with official Toronto Maple Leafs jerseys, plus it was an absolutely fantastic show. Thank you Toronto, thank you Canada.”
Black Sabbath’s live itinerary can be found at this location. Geezer uploaded the following photos at his Facebook page:
According to Blabbermouth.net, Nathan Carson of Willamette Week recently spoke to BLACK SABBATH guitarist Tony Iommi about the making of the band’s new album, “13” — the first in 35 years to feature Tony, singer Ozzy Osbourne and bassist Geezer Butler.
Asked about how SABBATH decided to recruit RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE‘s Brad Wilk to play on “13” following the decision by original SABBATH drummer Bill Ward to bow out of the band’s reunion, Iommi said: “[Producer] Rick [Rubin] suggested Ginger Baker, which we put a stop on. We didn’t think Ginger Baker would have been… We didn’t want to go in the studio and have, um, problems. And we did try some big-name drummers, some very big-name drummers. And they were great. But Rick particularly suggested Brad Wilk. And it was great because Brad had no idea what we were gonna be doing. We wouldn’t let him hear the tracks with drums. We just wanted to see what he was gonna put to it. And Brad was a really nice guy. He did work hard, you know, because he was thrown in the deep end so much, and he was very nervous. And then he got used to us. He got used to our jokes, the way we prank around.”
Iommi also spoke about his health status more than a year a half after he was diagnosed with lymphoma.
“Ronnie [James Dio, who fronted the BLACK SABBATH offshoot band HEAVEN & HELL on its 2009 tour and died in 2010] was getting stomach pains, and he was telling me before we were going onstage some nights, ‘Oh, my stomach’s really playing up,’ and he’d ask me if I’ve got any Tums or anything. And I said, ‘You should get it checked, you know, Ronnie.’ Of course, he did, but it was too late. And that’s the problem. It’s easy to overlook these things. I mean, I’m probably more over the top than I ever have been now. I check everything every day. You just don’t know. A lump pops up and you’ve gotta get it sorted.”
Regarding whether there is a chance BLACK SABBATH will follow up “13” with another studio album, Iommi said: “It all depends on my health, really. But I don’t think it would be hard to do another album, because we work so well together once we start cracking. And I’ve got plenty of ideas and stuff. But we’ll have to see what happens at the end of the year, after tour. I mean, for me, this is a whole new venture, because it’s the first time I’ve been out on tour since I’ve been ill for the last two years. And I have to treat things very differently to how I did five years ago. I’ve always put the band first, but now, of course, I have to put my health first.”
Blabbermouth.net posted: Jim Harrington of the San Jose Mercury News recently conducted an interview with the legendary BLACK SABBATH guitarist Tony Iommi. A few excerpts from the chat follow below.
On BLACK SABBATH‘s comeback album, “13”, reaching No. 1 album on the U.S. chart earlier this year:
Iommi: “We are very pleased. It’s just quite a shock to have our first No. 1 record (in the U.S.) after being around for 45 years.”
On why BLACK SABBATH‘s 2001 attempt at a new studio album was unsuccessful:
Iommi: “It just wasn’t right. Nobody was on the right page. So, we abandoned the whole idea. But I always thought — or, at least, really hoped — we would do another album.”
On the Ronnie James Dio-fronted version of BLACK SABBATH recording and touring under the name HEAVEN & HELL:
Iommi: “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 & HELL because we weren’t playing any of the Ozzy [Osbourne] 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.”
On drummer Bill Ward‘s absence from the “13” recording sessions:
Iommi: “It would’ve been nice to have had Bill involved. But we waited long enough for Bill, and what can we do? We can’t make him do it. It was his decision. It was sad.”
On how “13” stacks up to BLACK SABBATH‘s classic albums:
Iommi: “We haven’t done this album just to do one, because we didn’t need to do one. We wanted to do one for ourselves. I think it holds up. We love all the stuff we’ve done (on the album). That’s the only way we could do it. Everybody had to be 100 percent into it and really want to do this album. Everybody had to be on the same page.”
On touring despite being diagnosed with lymphoma in January 2012:
Iommi: “To be honest, I was wondering whether I could do (the tour) as well. 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.”
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Kimmo Kuusniemi’s SARCOFAGUS return with a Historic 2010 Concert Video Premiere on YouTube! Click image to watch the video
