Tony Iommi
Pro-Chancellor, Lord Mayor, distinguished friends, colleagues, graduands and guests.
Tony Iommi is synonymous with heavy rock; his innovative, de-tuned, dark guitar riffs are considered to be the blueprint not only for the hundreds of bands that have followed him, but also for the global genre of Heavy Metal. Born in Birmingham in 1948, left-handed Tony picked up the guitar after being inspired as a teenager by the likes of Hank Marvin and the Shadows. By 1967, he had played with several blues-based rock bands, eventually forming the group, Earth, with three old acquaintances from his school days — bassist Terry "Geezer" Butler, drummer Bill Ward, and singer John "Ozzy" Osbourne. However, Tony’s musical career was nearly prematurely cut short when he suffered a traumatic accident at a sheet metal factory, loosing two fingertips on his right hand.
At the time he believed his guitar-playing career to be over, however a friend suggested he listen to Django Reinhardt, a master guitarist who had suffered a similar hand injury. Inspired by Reinhardt’s playing, Tony continued with the guitar, using soft plastic tips attached to the ends of his fingers. Shortly thereafter, Tony received a tempting offer to join the band Jethro Tull in 1968, which he reluctantly accepted. After only a single performance, Tony left Tull and returned back to continue working with Earth. With another English band already using the name Earth, Tony and fellow bandmates were forced to change their name, taking "Black Sabbath" from the American title of the classic Italian horror movie I Tre Volti Della Paura. With this change of name came a change in musical direction — the band would explore dark, lyrical subjects, while the music would be repetitive and heavy.
In so doing, Sabbath created the blueprint for heavy metal with such influential and important releases as their 1969 self-titled debut, 1971's Paranoid and Master of Reality, 1972's Vol. 4, and 1973's Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. In the process Black Sabbath became one of the world's top hard rock bands. Tony’s guitar playing propelled such metal standards as Black Sabbath, N.I.B., Paranoid, Iron Man, and War Pigs, which boast some of the most recognizable guitar riffs in rock history. But by the late 1970s constant touring and drug abuse began to fracture the band, leading to Osbourne’s exit in 1979, shortly to be followed by Butler and Ward. This left Tony as the only consistent member of Black Sabbath throughout its history. After keeping the Sabbath name alive with several inspired releases, Tony then shifted the band’s focus to Europe and recorded a number of albums including Headless Cross, and undertook groundbreaking tours to Russia and all parts East. In 1985 the original Sabbath line-up returned for a memorable appearance at Live Aid, Philadelphia. In the late 1990s, Sabbath reunited once again for a number of highly successful tours, creating a new generation of Sabbath fans out of people too young to have heard the band in their 1970s heyday. A Grammy Award followed the Reunion tour when the track Iron Man won in the Best Metal Performance category in 1999.
Other accolades and acknowledgements of Tony’s achievements soon followed. In June 2002, Tony joined Ozzy Osbourne to perform Paranoid on the lawn of Buckingham Palace at a concert to celebrate the Queen’s Golden Jubilee. As one of the writers of the song Changes, Tony received his first Ivor Novello nomination following the release of the 2003 cover version by Ozzy and Kelly Osbourne. In 2005 and 2006 Black Sabbath were respectively inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in New York. In 2008, Tony was also recognized by his home city by being awarded a star in the pavement at Birmingham’s Broad Street. In October 2009 the Armenian government honoured Tony for his work with the “Rock Aid Armenia” charity that had taken place some 25 years earlier. Whilst in Armenia to receive the Medal of Honour he was taken to some of the areas that had been rebuilt. He was upset to find that a music school was the one institution still operating in temporary tin huts and he decided to get the facility re-built. A single Out of My Mind, with Ian Gillan, followed which both raised funds and the profile of the project. Tony and Gillan subsequently released a full album of rare recordings entitled WhoCares, which furthered the cause. In October 2011 after feeling unwell while undertaking promotion for his autobiography Iron Man, Tony was diagnosed with lymphoma. Despite undergoing both chemo- and radio-therapy, writing for the new Sabbath album continued at his home studio as Ozzy Osbourne and Geezer Butler came to the UK for an extended period.
The album, entitled 13, was released in June 2013, reaching number 1 in the UK and US and most countries around the world.
Tony is currently on a world tour with Black Sabbath.
In recognition of his contribution to the world of popular music; in particular being recognised as one of the founders of heavy metal music and one of the greatest and most influential musicians of all time, Coventry University, by decision of the Academic Board, has the privilege of conferring the Degree of Doctor of Arts, honoris causa, on Tony Iommi.