An interview with Tony Iommi: Ozzfest impressions (weather), new Black Sabbath album (maybe), Gibson Custom and Epiphone signature models (loves them), and more
Tuesday, September 07, 2004  

By Walter Carter

Just a few hours before Black Sabbath’s Ozzfest show in Tampa (Sept. 2), guitarist Tony Iommi’s thoughts were on the weather – and it wasn’t just because hurricane Frances had caused their scheduled tour finale in Miami to be cancelled. Weather had made the entire Ozzfest tour a different experience for him. “It’s been going very, very well, much the same as all the others, really,” he said. “The only thing slightly different is the weather. We’ve had a few iffy days. It’s amazing how the fans will all stand out there when it’s raining like nothing was happening.”

黑色安息日的Ozzfest 巡演在Tampa开始前几个小时，吉他大师TONY IOMMI一直在关心天气，这不仅是因为飓风”Frances “取消了他们在Miami 的巡演计划，糟糕的天气也给TONY带来了不一样的经历，TONY说到”一切都很好，就是天气有些不一样，我们的行程也有些琢磨不定，但是歌迷那种风雨无阻的精神到是给我带来了极大的震撼！“

As always, Tony Iommi on Ozzfest means that a new generation of heavy metal fans gets to hear some of the all-time great metal guitar riffs right from the source. “That’s another fantastic thing,” he said, “to see the younger kids come in. But I think on these type of gigs, it’s very difficult… Our original fans would like to come to a more sedate show, indoors. These things tend to get a bit wild out of doors. It tends to keep the older fans away. It’s a shame.”

和以往一样，TONY 在Ozzfest 的表演使得新一代重金属乐迷有机会聆听最原始的RIFF，但是TONY认为，对于这些年轻人来说，很难让他们真正喜欢这种原汁原味的金属，黑色安息日最初的乐迷都是成人了，他们更喜欢在家里看表演，对他们来说，到露天看演出多少有些野蛮，对此，TONY也感到十分羞愧。

Black Sabbath’s reunion on Ozzfest prompts the obvious question: Will there be a new Black Sabbath album? “We would hope so,” Tony said. “I’m hoping we will do another one. One of the major problems, of course, is Ozzy’s been doing a lot of other stuff with his MTV stuff. Hopefully within the next year we’ll be able to do something. I’m wrapped up at the minute doing my solo stuff and still writing, but I’ve got some stuff in hand if we do do another Sabbath album.”

黑色安息日的重组给大家带来了一个明显的信息：他们要出新专集？，TONY说”他很希望这么做，但是OZZY现在的表演计划安排的太满了，这是个问题，我希望在来年能有所改善，我自己无时无刻不在整理自己的吉他SOLO，只要我们能有机会出专集，我手头有不少的音乐素材“

Tony uses two guitars primarily onstage – a custom SG-style guitar tuned one step down and a 1997 Gibson Custom Shop SG tuned three steps down. The Gibson is the prototype (along with a second 1997 Custom Shop SG) for Tony’s Custom Shop signature model. “I’ve been playing the Custom one,” he said. “I’ve gotten used to it now. Love it. Love it. It’s fantastic.”
TONY在舞台上主要使用两个款式的吉他,一把custom SG-style guitar tuned one step down和一把1997 Gibson Custom Shop SG tuned three steps down,这种GIBSON SG的款式也是后来TONY签名款的原型,TONY自己表示,他现在非常喜欢用这款CUSTOM的吉他,他觉得这款琴具有一种神奇的魔力.

Epiphone has also just introduced an Iommi signature model. Tony has barely had a chance to try it out, but he likes what he hears. “I only got it while I was out on this tour,” he explained. “On these things, you don’t really get a sound check, and it’s hard to try things out, but I did go down one early morning and told Mike (Clement) who works for me, who does my guitar work for me, I wanted to try it. And yes, it’s really good. It’s great. I really like it.”
EPIPHONE也同样生产出了TONY的签名款式,TONY虽然很少有机会使用,但是他喜欢这个琴出来的声音,TONY说他也是在近期的巡演中才得到这款EPIP TONY，同样TONY强调说“对于EPIP的这款琴，没有必要用什么去检测其声音是否和GIBSON的一样，这样做也很难。直到有一天我自己亲自试EPIP TONY G400的时候，才发现，这琴的确很棒，我很喜欢她。

Both the Custom and Epi models have a 24-fret fingerboard and signature pickups – features that Tony had already incorporated into his personal SG when he and Gibson USA got together in 1998 for his first signature model. “I actually bought a guitar company in England,” he explained. “That’s when I started working on these pickups. The company’s called Jaydee, John Diggins, he used to work for me, working on my guitar, and he went into making them and I financed him. In the early days you couldn’t get people to make you things so I decided to try it myself, to try my ideas. So I tried the 24 fret thing and tried the pickup.
GIBSON和EPIP的这两款琴都是采用24品指板和TONY签名的拾音器.这种拾音器在GIBSON 1998年为TONY制作的第一把SG上就开始使用了,TONY回忆到"我曾经自己在英国有个公司(名字叫做Jaydee)来生产这些拾音器,我给John Diggins提供资金,他专门给我制造我所需要的东西,在当时,没有别人帮助我自己,只有我来决定该制造怎样的东西,最终我完成了我的24品吉他和这种拾音器.

“Then when I came to Gibson, I came over to Nashville. They tested the ones I had and they’d wind one and I’d try it, they’d wind another and I’d try it, until we got it.” And the pole-less pickup covers? “I like the look of that.”

后来我到了GIBSON，他们将两个拾音器装在琴上测试，测试通过后，我又在拾音器上按上盖子，因为我喜欢那样。

Although Tony has set the standard for dark, loud, heavy music for over three decades, it wasn’t always that way. “My father used to play accordion and harmonica, not professionally, and I started on an accordion,” he revealed. “I didn’t particularly want to, but there wasn’t a lot of choice in them days. Then after accordion the first thing I wanted to play was drums, but of course I couldn’t have any drums because they wouldn’t let me play drums in the house.”

Inspired by the guitar instrumental records of the Shadows (the British equivalent of the Ventures), he took up the guitar. “It was the right thing,” he said. “Everybody said it was loud, but it wasn’t really.”

His first guitar was a Watkins, a popular, inexpensive British copy of a Fender Stratocaster. As he moved on to a Burns (another British brand) and then to a real Strat, his choices were limited by his left-handed playing style. “In England you never saw left-handed Gibsons, or Strats either,” he said. ‘I was just lucky enough to find the Strat. My first Gibson, I actually played it upside down, much like Hendrix really, because you couldn’t get a left-handed Gibson. So eventually a strange thing happened to me. I bumped into a guy who played right-handed, but he had a left-handed guitar and played it upside down. I said, ‘I play upside down, too. Do you want to swap?’ It was me old SG that we used on the second album, and the third and the fourth. I’ve retired it now and just sold it to the Hard Rock.”