Tony Iommi Claims Black Sabbath Was Disbanded Because Of Him: “It Was Emotional”

Tony Iommi Claims Black Sabbath Was Disbanded Because Of Him: "It Was Emotional"

The 73-year-old guitarist Tony Iommi has discussed his band Black Sabbath‘s possible future shows and shared his honest opinion about the issue, also explaining his critical health issues that led to stopping the tour and claiming the band’s decision to disband.

Tony Iommi is the British guitarist that came to world prominence as a member of his heavy metal band Black Sabbath. He was the primary composer and co-founder of the band throughout its career. Appearing in every one of Black Sabbath albums, Iommi was the leader of the band.

Firstly activated from 1968 to 2006 and then from 2011 to 2017 secondly, Black Sabbath was a band that features some of the music legends in its line-up. Making several line-up changes, they made famous artists such as the singer Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi himself, the drummer Bill Ward, the bassist Geezer Butler, and more. Throughout its career, Black Sabbath has released 19 studio albums for its fans.

After Black Sabbath reunited in 2011, they made Black Sabbath Reunion Tour from 2012 to 2014 and The End Tour from 2016 to 2017. During the band’s final tour, Iommi was dealing with some health issues that were forcing him to retire from touring. At the time, when he talked with his doctors, they had told Iommi that he shouldn’t really be doing touring to that extent because he had blood cancer.

However, during a new appearance on My Planet Rocks, the legendary guitarist discussed his band’s possible reunion for touring and the experience of long and tough tours. At first, the musician had commented on his band’s The End tour and said the band was disbanded because of him.

“It was emotional, the last year, because we’d done it so long together, and it just felt pretty weird, really,” Iommi says. “It was basically my fault to end it because of the touring.

“The problem is in a band of this size, you can’t just go and go a week of gigs; you’ve gotta do a world tour of 18 months. And when you do that, you have to take that on.

“When you first mention it, about going out on tour, ‘Yeah. Brilliant. 18-month tour. Fantastic.’ But when you get into a year of it, you get tired. But you have to take it on that long ’cause you’ve got all the crew to keep alive.

“Everybody’s got a job, so you can’t do one week and then have a month off and do another week, ’cause you won’t get the crew; they wanna have a job. So we’ve done it for that long — we’ve done a world tour and a world tour again.”

Tony Iommi Claims His Health Issues Led To Stop Black Sabbath Touring

Tony Iommi then mentioned his blood cancer and health struggles. Revealing the doctors’ remarkable explanations about his health state, Iommi admitted that world tours were starting to tire him. Concluding, he admitted that he doesn’t say that they wouldn’t do any one-off stuff.

“And then it was getting sort of tiring,” Iommi continues. “Even though we had our own plane and we [stayed] in the best hotels — everything was perfect — but you still get tired.

“We’d have a base in New York when we play in that area, so we’d have the plane there fly in.

“So you get in at three o’clock in the morning and then try to get to bed and sleep. So it was a regular thing like this. We tried to make it as comfortable as possible. It couldn’t get any easier or [more] comfortable, but it still was tiring. And the late nights and stuff.

“So, when I was talking to my doctors, they said, ‘You shouldn’t really be doing it to that extent, flying,’ ’cause I’ve got blood cancer. It wasn’t good for me to be doing that much flying. I talked to the guys and I said, ‘It’s probably the time to call it a day now, sort of thing, for now’ of that extensive touring.

“So that’s really what we did. But the stipulation was we had to end up in Birmingham ’cause that’s where we started.

“We haven’t stopped it,” he said. “It’s just the major touring that has come to a stop; I wouldn’t wanna do 18-month tours again. But that doesn’t say we wouldn’t do any one-off stuff.”

Back in the past month, Tony Iommi had sent praising words for Brian May by touching the guitarist’s band Queen. According to him, he thought that Queen was a really good band when he heard the band’s debut record.

“His sort of sound and style really stood out to me when I heard the first Queen album, really,” Iommi revealed. “When I heard that album, [I thought], ‘This is a really good band.’

“And a guitar player is always into other guitar players, and he had a sort of unique sound and the way that he played, I just liked it.

“It was appealing. He’s just got a certain character that you didn’t really hear from anybody else – he’s got something very ‘him.’ And as soon as you hear Brian now, anybody can pick him out.”

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