The metal world as a whole is riding high following last weekend’s “Back To The Beginning” concert marking the final performances of both Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne. Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi appeared earlier this week on SiriusXM with Eddie Trunk to recap the experience.
Iommi was asked what he thought of the performances of both Ozzy and drummer Bill Ward. “Well, I’m really a bit of a perfectionist, but they can only do what they can do, and you can’t expect anything else,” Iommi admitted. “We’re in our seventies and late seventies, so you can only do so much. And to expect perfection from everybody is just impossible at the moment. But they did what they could do, and everybody was fine about it. And I think the audience would know that and accepted that. They weren’t expecting us to go on and be absolutely just brilliant players. We played as we played and as we are now.”
Trunk said he was impressed that Ward took his shirt off for the performance.
“Oh my God. I’ll tell you what, one funny story,” Iommi replied. “When we had a break on one of the rehearsals, we went in to eat at the studio, and Bill got his shirt off, and Geezer was just about to have a sandwich. He went, ‘Oh, Bill put your shirt on. You’re putting me off the sandwich.’ (Laughs) But it’s typical Bill. He is always taking his shirt off every time. I mean, in the old days, he’d always take his shirt off. I said to Bill, ‘Blimey, Bill, you look like Gollum.’ And I don’t think he knew who Gollum was. He’s always always been the same, Bill. He just doesn’t care. He goes on and does what he wants, which is great. That’s always been Bill. And immediately, of course, all the jokes started again as soon as we were together, having a go at each other. It was really fun, actually. It was great. The communication carried on from years ago.”
