The Conversation: Tony Iommi & Richie Faulkner

[Music] I've been a huge fan obviously growing up you know everyone everyone grew up with Sabbath and you know you guys spawned a music genre along with priests you know priests came along a little bit after and which then spawned in turn millions of other genres from that you know I don't mean another word yeah where you came from what was being spawned that you latched onto to then take it on in that kind of metal family tree well it's quite different where I've come from I come from the my sort of music with the shadows so it was almost a mental really because in in them days there was rock and roll and I wanted something I could get that I could play guitar turd and so the shadows were probably the only instrumental band around and that were that were a good band and to copy really because you can learn the songs and whatever else they change yeah so that's sort of where I started from and then I got into more jazzy things as time went on and blues but it was the shadows and cliff really this started all cuz that's the sort of thing I was playing Nexus or thing which was pop do at the time brilliant we actually mean glimmers two shadows concert like a recent one yeah and this it's not easy stuff you know there's a lot that goes into the clarity of the nose oh yeah you know really a clean yeah Chris Perry had a unique sort of sound didn't even know you've done it with the ac30 and whatever else so when did you like go from that you know in-between that sound and the Sabbath sound in your sound what was the sort of journey how did you kind of find your own voice and develop that after the the shadow sort of thing I got in a band with Bill Ward and we moved up to Carlisle and we joined a band up there called mythology and it was a bass player from I don't remember Peter and Gordon years ago anyway we formed this band with them and moved up there and we were playing sort of bluesy sort of things and then you had to play pops stuff because that's what they wanted but we throw these odd alright sort of John Mayall type things in you know got yeah and we really like doing that that sort of music and it sort of got a grip and I think us as things materialized you obviously know about my topping the fingers off after that I got into tell me to play a different style and trying to learn the guitar again in a different way and using thimbles and all the rest of the stuff and trying to make the sound as as big as I could for what we got cause we were like guitar bass and drums basically and then of course Ozzy so it should have come from that really trying to make the sound as big as I could but you had basic equipment then you had no overdrive amps and stuff there were just log and AM so you had to make your sound you had to sort of come up with a an idea to over overload the input to make it sort of distort and this bloke came up to me when when we lived in Carlisle and I said I had this treble booster and he said I can I can make that sound better for you photographer no okay and is it can I take it with me tonight and I'll bring it back tomorrow I don't know who I trusted him I drove up walk down there anyway it was it was from a band up there that became spooky tooth uh okay they were called the VIPs then and there was the same band but they had a different name so he took it away and brought it back the next day and I started playing with I thought bloody obviously it's great it was it got you know nice distortion and it basically went from there trying to make the sound bigger and make it fuller and then I'm working with geezer to make the sound bigger because he'd been the screen was a bit and make it so much why do you know and I'd play more sort of open notes to mate to let the a string ring there's I'm playing some just a tie and wideness and and any sort of materialize into what we did so he sounded like a conscious thing to make something that was over driven and heavy and big and also sounds like a combination of that and the amps at a time and what was available at a time you're going hand-in-hand to create something no but it was a conscious thing from you guys to make something do well it was I mean we liked the idea of doing that the Blues things and that sort of just went from that into a into this sort of more being able to write our own stuff as soon as you started writing our own stuff then the sound developed more because it we were writing for those particular songs that we were doing and you know wicked world and Black Sabbath were the first songs we'd ever done and but that was the benchmark of where we were gonna go once we had done those that was it it was off into its own little world you know and from from a guitar player point of view how important was it for you to develop your own voice as well as the band voice because I mean if you're you created something now unique at that time I guess some people would say well this is what we're doing we're sticking with it but there seemed to be like a drive to keep within that framework but do something different and evolve you know so how important is it for you as a guitar player back then and now to push and challenge your own always always was and it was always a I always found a challenge and I liked that big - because it doesn't drive your honor you know the challenge for me at first was me fingers and then the next thing was to break through with what we got because at the time the sort of music we were playing wasn't accepted at all it was all up soul and right in all right so there was there was very few places you could play it and we played it a few blues clubs and we play a blues then we throw these two new songs in Black Sabbath and Wiki we orden and people come on rock what's that song you know they liked it and we knew it we were onto something but then we had to convince the rest of the world when I ran which was pretty dope though eventually yeah but it was tough because there would no TVs no you know internet you didn't have all that sort of stuff so it is word-of-mouth really and actually getting out there playing and and trying to prove it but it if the drive has always been in me to sort of improve things and try and push it one step further whether it did or not I don't know but that was always there gotcha and I you know obviously being in priests and being closely related you know with Sabbath yeah there was definitely something going on in the Midlands with you guys and you think you know what that is I mean Rob said that he thinks it might have a shank to do what the steelworks yeah you know that hammering I think so I think it's very the the the factory side of it because I mean I worked in a factory as most a lot of people did then I think I think that the depression of the Midlands and how creamy it was and you know there was some where we lived in it wasn't exactly a nicer area so there's all our gangs and God knows where else and I think all that's an impression on what you're writing and the music and the lyrics and so I think that at a big part towards it yeah maybe from the drive point of view as well I know Glenn says that he works in the factories as well and he was saying that that kind of environment made him feel driven to get out of it to do Saeng better absolutely absolutely you know working in fact I could never see myself keep doing that and always wanting to get out and and that my get out was the day I've done this I was joining and a band to go to Germany and I packed my tote or given my notice in WoW and I to work the last day and that's when it happened and that funny happens it's really weird airy area all happen because it it sort of flew them my whole life around you know pop from not having a job didn't have a band or anything then so I had to really go back to the drawing board and start again if I'd have known what I know now I'd have tried to plant the other the other way all right because they'd already been plane a couple of years so it seemed a long time then yeah you know when you're going to need you know two years ago I think is a long time but now of course it don't and you've always been synonymous with the SG or SG style guitars you know yeah I mean I'm alright anything with the first SG was it was a backup for another guitar when it originally first year yeah because I used to have the strat and and again I worked on it myself to try and get it right for me to apply because I couldn't just pick up a guitar like you'd be able to pick up and play and I to you I couldn't use heavy strings anymore I couldn't use I just got to change everything changed the fret in and over the frets lower and strings lower because I was using thimbles you know I couldn't you just can't feel what you're touching so that this the strap was the one I had but I did have a backup guitar which was the SG I had a right-handed SG upside down nice to chew it you know got it strong that the other way around we used to get all the knob marks on her arm yeah I know to this bloke they've got he got a left-handed guitar and he was right underneath like that upside down really peculiar so I got in touch with him and arranged to meet him in a car park it was a bit dodgy yeah my Nick T I don't know but anyway I did and he just what he swapped him and we swapped he wanted some cash where sis no no anyway no I mean so we swapped and then he had the right and did I had the left-handed and that was that was it so I had that Tommy as a second guitar for anything you know so I'd used this platinum and we went in to do the first album I recorded wicked world with the Scrat and then the pickup went yeah in the session I know and so I ended up I picked off and I've got to use the other guitar so I used that was the first time I'd ever really played it hadn't played it and Here I am doing an album beat are never played before really on you know live once you're done now I stoped I never went back I stuck with the you know the SG ever since then what was it that made you stick to it instead of going back to the other one was it you know the other one as far as I won it was buggered because in them days you couldn't just go and buy a pickup you know as ro and I really thought about it I could have took the front pickup and put it but I never thought of that got your hair now as soon as I started using the SG and that then that was on the album I think that's it and I hear and and I actually swapped my strat for a sax oh really well this mad idea - trying to play the sax which I drove everybody up a war with and then I eventually got rid of it but I think yes accent engage the saw the strike you know in a pawn shop anyway they said I'm gonna it he was planning I'm going to buy it for me on the afternoon bite back but somebody bought it how long but yeah but I've always stuck with the estuary since then brilliant I remember you guys were playing I think it was you know you've done a whole obviously the Sabbath career and then when you guys got together with Ronnie again for the Heaven and Hell thing yeah we were out in a band oz with before priests and you know all the bands usually are backstage doing this thing and Heaven and Hell were there and all of a sudden everyone cleared out at the backstage and it was like a mass exodus everyone moved out to the fields to watch you guys and it was just all that you know whatever interviews anyone added whatever thing anyone was doing they dropped it to go and see you guys and it was like it was like Mecca you know the mean it could no no no she wasn't going home just amazing to see everyone that was in the industry in some capacity go out and watch you guys do what you did and I remember you had the white SG but then I fit was yes yet it might have been me it was an ST I think yeah and it was just one of those I mean you're all iconic anyway iconic music and iconic people and it was just one of those things that I think everyone grown up with see you it's like Blackmore with a strap or you know Hendrix or yourself it's just that kind of image that goes along with the music and the sound you know there must be an incredible feeling to have created something that well iconic really is no other word for it you know and you know the SG now I mean you are a part of the SG you know meaning s T's part of you and he knew on its like priests you know they're always talking about the legacy and what they leave behind and that's kind of what you know the music and the guitars and the moments yeah you gave everyone you know and at the time you would create music and you were you know that's what you were doing but it kind of changed the world you know I mean in our our clarity thank you for that I know everyone else would as well yeah partly the reason why I'm here my dad he put on I think it was um what was it I think it was mutters oh really and it was a combination of Sabbath and he showed me Hendrix and Blackmore you know and if it wants the same you know you hear that stuff for the first time it changes you will yeah when people say you know what's the what's the reason you play guitar it's you it's Blackmore it's Hendrix it's you know all those guys and you know it's you know I'm saying that I do as I say it's it's the same as we go when I say the shadows are stuffing shadows nothing like but it's something big start off with it you it starts you off like in the guitar to play the guitar and it's funny and I wouldn't use that young and you know the same if you're that young you don't quite know what it is it's something that's you don't know what a guitar is you don't know what a band is there's something in it that trips a switch you knew somewhere yeah you know I mean it's yeah thing well I used to have when I was young they serve these dreams have been onstage I mean I never played them and it was well before but I used to do contact sports boxing and you know karate and stuff like there I used to have these images have been on stage thinking it would with that right and it's really weird because once I took up music all that went aside and I'm I used to go there you know five times a week and then it went down to four and then - right right and then I stopped and the music took over and then eventually when one start I saw this thing that I was seeing in my dream where we're on stage like you know you'd be on stage Gladio this is that dream of guavian ever secured yeah yeah well Rob I'd see you spoke to rob the other day and I said I'm seeing Tony in a couple of days I'm super excited I said do you want to ask him anything and and I thought you'd ask about something like an old memory you guys there because you was it um coming what year it was when he done two shows on you guys yeah he did he did the show when I was it was written with supposedly retire him yeah and we don't a couple of couple of nights and Rob Rob sang well actually he sang with us as well another time we've done the a has been two separate things of this there's some footage out there online and you know apparently you told him that quite near to the key because it was something that happened quite near to the gig and he somehow pulled it together you know well what happened was the the two major come to me and I said well we've got a bit of a problem I'll go on what is it Artie don't did the show tonight um and we're you know so the people were already in and what do you think about Rob singing they're sick I said well if you asked Rob they went no but we thought we'd ask you first and well I said great if you know but as long as somebody goes out and tells them that Ozzy's not gonna be there because not fair on Rob you know and that's sort of how that started and any done it we've done a great job and when he did he was it's really good good stuff well he asked me to ask you and I was surprised by this because again I thought you'd ask you something based on you know the history or saying a story that you'd have you know that would remind you about but he asked me about how many times have you changed guitar gauge on the strings gauges throughout the throughout your career which is I don't know if Rob's getting into guitar the secret guitar better watch meself I know Rob shows up singing and playing guitar and finishing now you said if you changed guitar gauges through your career or is it you know because a tuning thing when I after I looked at my accident to making my own sets up because I couldn't you couldn't buy like gauge strings then and I couldn't play the heavy you know I still can't can't bend the strings got to it they hurt so I came up with making a light set of strings using banjo strings as the firsts and then dropping them down so I'd end up with the fifth string of beer sixth and and made up a light gauge set and then approaching different companies that said I've gone mad you know that will never work no it doesn't work I use it no no we're not interested there wouldn't be interested then eventually one company while said peccato will do will make a light gauge set before you make your own sets and of course they did and they worked and then a while afterwards they started everybody started making bloody like gauge strings so that was the first initial one and I had I did use every year ones on depending on what songs we put in the set because if it was tuned down because we tuned in I want to use the heavier set then on the tune down but it is still have to be flexible enough for me to be able to bend them because of you know if it weren't a lot before right before I could do it and then I can't if you know what I mean you can't start to bend them and you have to be careful with the tips because either they don't damage them rip them off effect so every it was amazes me you know you're saying the stuff wasn't available but you couldn't grab a pickup for a guitar well you know or the strings weren't available so there was you know with amps and guitars there weren't that many options but all you guys sounded different whereas today there's so many different options with amps guitars and pickups but everyone sounds endless now very similar yeah I mean well in then fenders you had to make you sound because they weren't the gadgets it was a basic and an even down for me guitars I couldn't get guitar left-handed guitars were long a rarity yeah it certainly in England and to find the left-handed fender or Gibson was really difficult and same with amps you had them you had Marshall who have been around for a long time and and then there weren't a lot to choose from but it was still the basic amp there was no kind of preamps or anything you didn't have the only pedals that existed it was probably a wah-wah Rand and then course then things start and what more and more coming out choruses and phases and and he went mad but but yeah you had to you had to make your own sound something to be said for that I think you know from that almost like a limitation that's where these strengths you find your strengths and you create something know where everything is readily available doesn't seem to be that same sort of experimentation and drive to get your own thing out of it you know no because everybody else is they go all these companies now that's coming up with all the the things for you and there goes the new one this new and that's new so you don't have thing to invent anything where do you go with this I remember when with Lanie's went delaying the amps and then I told you about I had this trouble booster that I had I went to lanius and said you know can we can we build something like it's in the am want to do that for so he told D store oh you don't need distorting you want a clean sandwich now now I want it distorts it no no that's no no no goodness cell-fate went on for a year or so and then a couple of years and in there came to me so now that idea building here and they did and I eventually built it but you know it was hard going because you had to prove it and prove it prove it before anybody sort of get a grip and say oh yeah that's a good idea well then I start cryin earing spirit and it really like Eddie Van Halen when he put the humbucker in the in the in a single call yes it wasn't giving him what you'd like to strap but he wanted to you know and you didn't make it so he stuck it in there himself and that you know I guess some people would say oh they don't do it so I want you know that's where it ends right and other people say well they don't do it so I'm going to make my own thing and then as you said later on down the road that becomes the standard for so that's the thing with Eddie's really it was innovative there's some of the stuff he's come up with and always have been because they toured with us for eight months when they first started it was really different you know I did him he's bloody good you know and he developed the Technic and went on and on and on with it doing his the way he does it and he was always fiddling about with his guitar and changing this and changing that and he still does or you know it still does come up with ideas for the guitar and yeah I mean it you need people like that but as I say also then you've got the companies that's got the money in them put in and to develop just stuff to put out to sell really that was it also with Eddie and that kind of next generation I mean you guys you know I've been out kind of about ten years you know prior to you know in the Metallica's of the world and when that kind of I mean it's it's strikingly obvious you know you're influence on part of the Metallica sound so when that kind of new wave of heavy metal not new wave of heavy metal but you know that new way that heavy music came about did you guys think or bloody ell we'd better get on this sort of train or did you guys say we hear the influence we're sticking true to what we are because that's where we came from no I've always believed in sticking to what what we do and what we we know about what we do to follow that track cause if you start coming off that going oh we'll start doing what they're doing there because that's what happened I noticed that particularly in the 80s and I was living over here then always remember when you've got what sort of lot with the hair bands and all that stuff and then that's what a music come out poison and all that sort of bad so no there was a got load of em you know yes so many all sounding the same and flying me what's happened dear it just went because everybody's like there it became more of a posing thing than the actual music you know and so I saw you go off track then which you know was can't say it's bad but they had done their own thing which was great but there was the glut of these bands suddenly come up by overnight and then when that starts phasing out that certain bands would move on to someone else sure yeah which I couldn't ever say that I believe in following what you believe in and and sticking to that you know if you like it that's it and then if you can influence other people to like it and I've always had that thing in me where you know we've got to like it first and then if people like it right and the people who don't don't listen to it and like listening to stuff you just I mean I think Michael Schenker said once he creates more than he consumes so he doesn't listen to a lot of stuff when you know I don't know elves can ask you if you listen to staff or I try not to listen to too much because I think what can end up Lena River oh yeah and that's somebody else's you know I really get conscious of that and when I start putting ideas and I'm saying you know got hundreds of riffs or thousands of riffs and I don't even know what they are cuz I put them down and then go away and come back and put someone else down and then when I do listen to them although eventually soon probably go ice creeeeam but you know my wife you think your favorite one you've ever created your favorite riff favorite riff well I've been 33 god I don't know what because I think everyone you do when you're doing them is your issue like this or I am man or I likes you know Black Sabbath was the first one we done and that was different and and in a like Iron Man and we were into that other phase at with into Sabbath bloody Sabbath which was a different one again different took her started taking a slightly different route up until when we had Ronnie them then that took a completely different route with heaven and hell and the way we were writing then because Ronnie as opposed to singing on riffs would sing on chords really and we we sort of tried to get him into both so he'd sing on the riffs as well and and it worked in a way because it when he first first come in we're done this song called die young it's Damon away near Sony commits comes to this quadrant cuts in half and to a copy and when he goes oh he can't do that you can we've been doing it for fun you know this is what we do with a change tempo drastically like that and then go back into someone else because he didn't know he hadn't done that and any realized it does work and and then he got into that vein and then we started writing you know differently with him so the difference from Ozzy to run he was whereas he'd sing on might follow the riff from lock in the Iron Man which would work you know Ronnie would do it another way in singing in there I gotta watch that all that I mean so he you didn't influence him and show him a different way yeah be influenced you as well absolutely what is it something you've always wanted to do musically on the guitar or otherwise and have never done you'd like to do in the future I've got a thing about playing with them some of the heavy riffs using string sections and stuff like that which we have done I suppose in some of stuff a lot of sort of like that trying to create that vibe really evil really sort of the things you can get from string sections yeah you can't get from the guitar yeah and the combination of doing that you ever do like a soundtrack or anything I have a like a big evil you know orchestrated sort of soundtrack that a and well started um one now would you oh yeah yeah that's what I'd like to sort of do something I'm trying I've done it a couple of things for of soundtracks but I'd like to do that I'd like to make something a bit more sort of you know powerful like more or less likely when we first started Sabbath the idea was because quizon myself years ago and watched the midnight movie you know the month their horror movies and all that sort of stuff and that's sort of what started it wanted to create that vibe within music that you get that wow you know and when you look at it now and he's crap when you're watching on the offer but then it was oh god you know yeah and so with the idea was to try and create that II music and and and that's I'd like to do that on the next another step whatever that is great like if you looking for inspiration you maybe wouldn't go to like heavy metal song would you get inspiration from something like that Moreland yeah I think more so when I used to listen to I made a point of putting on some certain classical things just to get my head round so the way that they express stuff and and the drama rays and stuff like that's that was a link to time to do it in mute in with the guitar you know to try and get some kind of atmosphere going in it hence the Black Sabbath one and dropping down to the quiet bitten and then building up to the lab it at the end was to try and get those dramatic parts going on any you know and and various other songs we've done to try and give it some kind of movement so yeah we did a show on the Redeemer of souls tour and we drove up a comment where it was but we drove up to the venue and they were there were people outside with with the picket you know with the signs and everything yes and you know I remember it from videos back in the day you know in the 80s whether that was going on as well and it was the first time I'd experienced it and I'd imagine that you and Sabbath had experienced all that sort of thing as well really did well because when we've done the first album you can imagine oh yeah it kind of burns out opened you know if people was especially the church really had a go at us and saying we were satanic and and then they got the evangelists over is going this holding up the album this band you know oh you're not and so yeah we had all that I'm used to have although everybody outside with the banners and stuff you know which was a bit frightening really in the early days because you don't know you know you get some some Nutter come up and show didn't know I remember one time in in Germany actually we tries to be playing a show in this town and and they the church complained about that much it become headlines and big petitions come up anyway they banned the show so they canceled the show and the next day the church burns hair oh really yeah it was such a waste anybody else yeah I dare say we got the blame but you know it's funny what sort of things do happen and you guys have always been slightly linked to that side of things like you know the occult with the lyrics and everything and those coincidences that happen like the church planting that yeah yeah well we've had and when we had in interests or certainly Guzman myself had an interest in in you know acts of bodies experiences and and and Satanism and stuff like we had as an as an interest not to practice it but um I'm going to fit I'm a bit uncomfortable long let's change her in a minute and so and this thing built up through reputation people thinking that you had more and more and and also at one point we were stopped doing interviews with other management we had at that so on stopped us doing interviews because we weren't it was it was worse doing interviews than not you know the amount of write-ups we again that's what's up do you know which caused again more sure oh and there's someone wrong there those guys you can't get to him and all that business oh you because with more of this built up of of us being satanic and that went on for quite a while you know and we had all sorts of strange things happening which he's coming to the shows and also called witches and one particular time we had a we were we went back to the hotel after the gig and we went up to the floor there was all these people along the floor in black cloaks with the candles chanting like this and as we come up Christ so we climbed over him and got into each individual rooms you know and they're still going outside it's light outside and so we found each other okay what we'll do we'll we'll go out and all go at the same time blow the candles out and sing happy birthday to them which really pissed them off they left so you know funny things aren't that really but it can be funny but could also be dangerous as well because you don't know what cause you know what you're in itself in fall early I mean you know these days you know the image and the you know the branding of a band is really important as well but back then it wasn't something you guys were doing but I suppose in the long run in a bigger picture it probably worked for you it you know you think sort of mysteriously absolutely but we were also talking earlier about sort of the early albums like we're after the Black Sabbath album we had paranoid now the album cover and paranoid it's nothing to do with paranoid it was going to be called war pigs so he had bloke with the shield and which remotely made sense on it more so than paranoid but they've been the they couldn't use that as a title in them days because we imagine that happen in know who the way people are balancing yeah but it was so awkward for us to sort of move forward with things because you know they're getting we're not playing you or you can't you're not playing in this issue or whatever else you know of course it's different now but then it was it was tough you had to break those barriers yeah I guess being so unique at that time you broke through he broke through yeah eventually yeah eventually we did but it was it was tough but we but that's back to again believing in what you do and just stick him with it and I've always if anybody always says have you got any advice that's always what my advice is it's believe in what you're doing and enjoy what you're doing believe in it and don't get persuaded to do something else if that's what you believe in and just take that path and you know since so many people over the years jump jump off and start doing something else and then when it's something else they'll jump onto that and it's like oh now it's you've got it you can't be believing in they're just trying to get on and make some money or whatever it might be I don't know suppose it's easy to chase your tau if you're always chasing what the next thing is I mean it's not you yeah you're always gonna be chasing something chasing a trend or yeah so Tony thanks again for giving us the opportunity giving me the opportunity to get some insight into where you come from as a player and there's a is a Nikon and yeah I just like to say thanks again you know thanks to everyone for tuning in and hopefully you've all learned something from the great man and yeah we'll be seeing you soon thanks Mike [Music]

Channel: Gibson TV

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Keywords: Gibson, Gibson Guitars, Gibson Guitars 2020, Gibson 2020, Gibson TV, Gibson TV 2020, Tony Iommi, Black Sabbath, Black Sabath 2020, Tony Iommi 2020, Richie Faulkner, Richie Faulkner 2020, Judas Priest, Judas Priest 2020, Gibson The Conversation, Gibson TV The Conversation, Ozzy Osbourner, Rob Halford, Painkiller, The Mob Rules, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath

Id: zBoLMFl0jLY

Length: 34min 49sec (2089 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 26 2020