The story of how Tony Iommi got his first left-handed guitar
Tony Iommi is a legend of the game, and popular culture would be very different without his contributions in what is a clear testament to just how game-changing his work has proven to be. The only constant member in Birmingham’s finest export, the metal pioneers Black Sabbath, Iommi took his cues from visceral guitarists such as Jimi Hendrix and created a sound unlike anything else on the market.
Ominous, powerful and at points droning, Iommi was the lifeblood of Black Sabbath, and despite just how esteemed the other members of the band’s classic lineup were – Ozzy Osbourne, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward – if Iommi was taken out of the fold it is likely we’d not be talking about with such reverence today.
A creative driving force, Iommi is a total iconoclast when it comes to the guitar, and a clear indication of his brilliance is that early on in the band’s career, he nearly left them for good when he was invited to play in one of the era’s most exciting prospects, Jethro Tull. However, before too long, he left Ian Anderson’s outfit, realising that it wasn’t for him and that nothing compared to being in a rehearsal space with his wisecracking Brummie counterparts.
From doom to black metal, each of the genre’s offshoots can be traced directly back to Tony Iommi, indicating just how important he’s been for the form and proliferation of the expansive mass we know as popular culture.
Whilst there are many notable aspects about Iommi and his playing style, one of the most famous is that just like his hero Jimi Hendrix, he’s also a left-handed player. In an interview with Gibson about his use of the legendary SG, he recalled the moment he got his first left-handed Gibson guitar. Iommi said: “I bought an SG off of somebody and it was a right-handed one. ‘Cause I couldn’t – in England, it was hard to get a left-handed guitar, and certainly, a Gibson was hard to get. So, I used to play it upside-down. And then I heard of this chap who was right-handed and played a left-handed guitar upside-down.”
Iommi concluded: “I don’t know how that happened, but I contacted him and we decided to meet in a car park and swap guitars so he’d then have a right-handed guitar and I’d have a left-handed one. And that’s how I got it. A really strange story, but that’s how it did happen. For me, I like it because I like the weight of them and it’s a comfortable guitar to play, I think. You know, I’ve been so used to the SGs all these years and it’s been great”.