Blabbermouth.net is a website dedicated to heavy metal and hard rock news, as well as album and music DVD reviews. Blabbermouth.net was founded and is run by Borivoj Krgin. The first version of the website was officially launched in March 2001. In October 2001, the website's design was completely changed and the record label Roadrunner Records began hosting it.

Users can post comments to selected news articles and album reviews, either in response to other user comments or in response to the article itself. Blabbermouth.net, described by the London Free Press as a "reliable industry and fan site",^[1] has been widely cited as a source on heavy metal and hard rock.

History[link]

Founder Borivoj Krgin came up with the concept of Blabbermouth in January 2000. Robert Kampf, a friend of Krgin who runs Century Media Records, was staying with Krgin in New York and set up a meeting with Gunter Ford of World Management. During the meeting, Ford suggested an idea for a "heavy metal portal," a site which would offer news, merchandise, and CD reviews to get record labels to sell their products through the site. Ford wanted Kampf to be involved. Krgin disliked the idea and wished for a site that offered around-the-clock news, as he thought that no good news sites existed.^[2]

Krgin began researching how to develop and host his own website two months after the meeting. After a year Krgin felt comfortable going "live." The initial "primitive" version of the site was launched on March 3, 2001. In October of the same year Monte Conner, a friend of Krgin, and a Roadrunner Records artist and repertoire approached Krgin with the idea of having the site hosted on the Roadrunner servers. This way, Krgin could focus on Blabbermouth.net's content rather than the technical aspects involved in running a site.^[2]

In February 2011, the website added a 'Shop' link to the site, clicking on the link takes you to a page that says "Coming Soon".

Sources[link]

According to his own words, Krgin spends most of his time operating the site, supposedly missing out on sleep and other life essentials.^[2] When finding information relating to bands Krgin claims to search bands official websites (including social networking sites ), which are usually reported on immediately, and band message boards where members of the band post. However, Krgin relies on the contacts he has made over the years ranging from band members, metal journalists, managers and other people in the music industry, stating this is where the "best" information comes from.^[2]

Krgin supposedly sends e-mails and makes telephone calls daily to obtain new information. Blabbermouth.net has a 'submit news' feature which has proved to be helpful to Krgin. When receiving a rumor he deems worthy of posting, Krgin will first research and contact people related to the band and question them about the rumour. It's claimed that 90% of the information posted is either found online or is submitted directly to the website by bands, managers, labels or associated persons.^[2]

Criticism[link]

Blabbermouth.net has been criticized by musicians and music industry persons for internet trolls (users that make derogatory comments) and news posts that are unrelated to heavy metal or hard rock.^[2] Krgin said he posts these articles to attract humorous comments from users, and as relief from the constant monotony of album news.^[2]

In September 2006, Krgin claims to have performed a cleanup of Blabbermouth.net's comments and to have adopted a policy whereby users can report offensive comments in order to have them deleted from the site. Prior to this, in his own words, "countless abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic and threatening comments" had been posted on the site since the "comments" feature was implemented in early 2002.^[3]

Traffic[link]

Blabbermouth.net is visited by more than 1.2 million unique users each month, and it has an average of 80,000 unique visitors per day, according to Google Analytics (as of August 2011). The busiest day so far was 298,000 unique visitors in a single 24-hour period, which occurred on the day of Ronnie James Dio's passing (May 16, 2010). The second-busiest day was more than 200,000 unique visitors in a single 24-hour period, which happened the day after the death of Type O Negative frontman Peter Steele -- April 15, 2010.

Busiest days in Blabbermouth.net's history—as measured in "Absolute Unique Visitors" (Google Analytics):

• Sunday, May 16, 2010: 298,378 (the day Ronnie James Dio died)
• Thursday, April 15, 2010: 206,183 (the day after Peter Steele died)
• Monday, May 17, 2010: 170,905 (the day after Ronnie James Dio died)
• Monday, May 24, 2010: 154,969 (the day Paul Gray was found dead)
• Thursday, December 9, 2004: 154,000 (the day after "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott was murdered)

Each of the figures above represents the number of "Absolute Unique Visitors" (Google Analytics) that visited Blabbermouth.net in a single 24-hour period. The figures were provided by Google Analytics except for the December 9, 2004 number of unique visitors, which came from WebTrends.

Blabbermouth.net's busiest month so far was May 2010, with 1,675,645 "Absolute Unique Visitors," according to Google Analytics -- primarily driven by extra traffic caused by the deaths of Ronnie James Dio and Slipknot bassist Paul Gray.

Blabbermouth.net is ranked as the 29,897 most trafficked Web sites according to Alexa.^[4] However, this number is misleading as it only covers the visits to www.blabbermouth.net, which is a small portion of the web site's traffic (since the actual web site hosted by Roadrunner Records and is located at www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net, which is not included separately in the Alexa rankings).

Blabbermouth.net has more 101,000 registered users (users who are registered to post comments on the site) as of August 2011.

Recognition[link]

Blabbermouth.net, described by the London Free Press as a "reliable industry and fan site",^[1] is widely recognized as an authority on heavy metal and hard rock. It has been cited as a source by the London Free Press,^[1] New Musical Express,^[5][6] MTV.com,^[7][8] the Toronto Sun,^[9][10] the Baltic News Service,^[11] the St. Petersburg Times,^[12] News.com.au,^[13] and OC Weekly.^[14]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Blabbermouth.net

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (October 2010)

Anil Kapoor
Anil Kapoor at the San Diego Comic Con in San Diego, California (24 July 2009)
Born	(1959-12-24) 24 December 1959 (age 52)[1] Chembur Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Occupation	Actor, Producer
Years active	1979–present
Spouse	Sunita Kapoor (1984–present)
Children	Sonam Kapoor, Rhea Kapoor, Harshvardhan
Parents	Surinder Kapoor (father) Nirmal (mother)
Relatives	Boney Kapoor (brother) Sanjay Kapoor (brother)

Anil Kapoor (Hindi: अनिल कपूर; Punjabi: ਅਨਿਲ ਕਪੂਰ; born 24 December 1959)^[1] is an Indian actor, producer and director who has appeared in many Bollywood films and more recently international films.

He won his first Filmfare Award, in the Best Supporting Actor category, for his role in Yash Chopra's Mashaal (1984). Kapoor earned his first Filmfare Best Actor Award for his performance in N. Chandra's Tezaab (1988) and later again for his perfornance in Indra Kumar's Beta (1992). He also starred in many other critically and commercially successful films, including Woh Saat Din (1983), Meri Jung (1985), Janbaaz (1986), Karma (1986), Mr. India (1987), Virasat (1997) for which he won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor, Biwi No.1 (1999), Taal (1999) for which he won his second Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award, Pukar (2000) for which he won his first National Film Award for Best Actor, No Entry (2005), and Welcome (2007).^[2]

Kapoor's first role in an international film was in Danny Boyle's 2008 Academy Award-winning film Slumdog Millionaire, for which he shared the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. His performance in the eighth season of the action series 24 generated rave reviews from the American press.^[3][4] Globally, Anil Kapoor is one of the most recognised Indian actors.^[5] He has also appeared in the 2011 film Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol.

Personal life and education[link]

Anil Kapoor was born to film producer Surinder Kapoor and his wife Nirmal. He attended Our Lady of Perpetual Succour High School - Chembur, in the Chembur suburb of Mumbai, and then St. Xavier's College, Mumbai.^[6] Kapoor's elder brother, Boney Kapoor, is a film producer, while younger brother, Sanjay Kapoor, is also an actor.

In 1984, he married Sunita Kapoor (née Bhambhani). He has two daughters and a son, Harshvardhan. Kapoor's elder daughter is actress Sonam Kapoor. Rhea Kapoor attended school in New York and is now a producer in Mumbai. He is a practicing and devout Hindu. He is a distant relative of Raj Kapoor. He grew up in Raj Kapoor's house with former Bollywood actor Rajiv Kapoor.^{[citation needed]}

Career[link]

As an actor[link]

1980s[link]

Kapoor made his Bollywood debut with Umesh Mehra's Hamare Tumhare (1979) in a supporting role. After a few minor roles in films such as Hum Paanch (1980) and Shakti (1982), he got his first leading role in the 1983 Hindi film, Woh Saat Din. Kapoor later tried acting in Tollywood and Sandalwood, and appeared in Bapu (artist)'s Telugu film Vamsa Vriksham and Mani Ratnam's Kannada debut film Pallavi Anu Pallavi released in 1983.

Next, he appeared in Yash Chopra's drama Mashaal (1984) as a tapori, for which he won his first Filmfare Award in the Best Supporting Actor category. His tapori persona and stubble look was considered unconventional at the time, but would later become more fashionable in India many years later.^[7] Kapoor's 1985 releases included Yudh and Saaheb.

Going on to deliver huge commercial success with films like Meri Jung (1985), a career-defining role of an angry young lawyer fighting for justice, which eventually established Kapoor's credential as a mature actor and both audience and critics gave their thumbs up to his performance. Kapoor played a comic tapori in Karma (1986), the biggest hit of the year.^[8] Also in 1986, Kapoor played the role of a care free playboy in the hit Janbaaz, costarring Feroz Khan.^[9][10] Kapoor's other release of 1986 Insaaf Ki Awaaz was a box office hit.^[11] In the same year Basu Chatterjee directed Chameli Ki Shaadi and he displayed his crackling flare in comedy.^[12]

Kapoor generated wide applause from audience of all walks of life for his title role in Shekhar Kapur's sci-fi film Mr. India (1987), the biggest hit of the year.^[13] The film became one of his biggest box office hits and shot him to superstar status.^[14] Anil kapoor was equally impressive in Mahesh Bhatt directed film Thikana.^[15] In 1988, he was rewarded with his first Filmfare Best Actor Award for his rivetting performance in the hit film, Tezaab, the biggest blockbuster of 1988.^[16] Anil proved to be the only saving grace even in flops like Ram-Avtar.^[17] The following year he delivered more mega commercial and critical successes with Ram Lakhan (which became the second highest box office earner of 1989)^[18] and the audience went berserk with the song One Two Ka Four. In the highly acclaimed film Parinda, Kapoor played his role with conviction, and his biggest achievement was displaying the vulnerability of his character so perfectly.^[19] In Rakhwala, Kapoor played a tapori again and the film was declared a success.^[14][20] Kapoor excelled in his eccentric portrayal of an autistic person in the 1989 hit, Eeshwar and this film proved his versatility as an actor.^[21]

1990s[link]

The year 1990 saw him play a dual role, as twin brothers in the highly successful Kishen Kanhaiya and in the same year he further attained reasonable box office success with Ghar Ho To Aisa.^[22] Kapoor came up with a critically acclaimed performance in Awaargi. Many critics called that his best performance ever.^[23] This was followed by a restrained yet striking performance as a middle age man in Yash Chopra's romantic drama Lamhe, a landmark film of Indian cinema and Yash Chopra's best work to date. It was the first film in which he appeared without a moustache. Although the film was a box office failure in India, it proved to be a success overseas. Kapoor's 1991 release, Benaam Badshaah was accorded above average status at the ticket window.^[24]

In 1992, Kapoor received his second Filmfare Best Actor Award for his hard-hitting performance in Indra Kumar's Beta — the biggest blockbuster of the year — opposite Madhuri Dixit.^[25] Kapoor was highly impressive with his comic act in Khel and his comic timing was one of the highlights of the film.^[26] In 1993, Boney Kapoor's much delayed mega-budget, Roop Ki Rani Choron Ka Raja was a disaster at the box office and damaged Kapoor's reputation as the industry's biggest star at the time. The only major success in these years was Laadla with Sridevi, a film produced by Nitin Manmohan.^[27] Kapoor gave a splendid performance as a simpleton lover in the hit musical 1942: A Love Story. His 1995 release, Trimurti (film) was a box office disaster, though Kapoor's performance was creditable.^[28] Kapoor came up with a decent performance in the average performer Gharwali Bharwali.^[29]

After a few box office failures, he had box office success with films like Loafer (1996),.^[30] In Judaai, Kapoor's depiction of a loving husband twisted between his two wives was appreciated and this film fared well at the box office.^[31] Deewana Mastana (1997), Biwi No.1 (1999) and Hum Aapke Dil Mein Rehte Hain (1999) were box office hits.^[32] Kapoor’s unusual characterization of a zealous, crooked musical superstar in Taal (1999) shocked both audience and critics alike.^[33] He also won rave reviews for his superb performance in Virasat, a remake of the Tamil film, Thevar Magan (1992), in which Kamal Hassan had played Kapoor's role. He also starred in the unsuccessful Jhooth Bole Kauwa Kaate, which was legendary filmmaker Hrishikesh Mukherji's last commercial release, along with Juhi Chawla. He shaved his moustache once again for the film, in the second half, where he played actor Sajid Khan's wife and his delightful comic timing was a real treat to watch.

2000s[link]

Kapoor's first release of 2000 was Bulandi (2000 film), in which he played a double role, showing restraint and maturity as the elder Thakur.^[34] He won his first National Film Award in the Best Actor category for his role in Rajkumar Santoshi's critically acclaimed Pukar in 2000. Kapoor again tasted critical and commercial success with Hamara Dil Aapke Paas Hai in 2000.^[35][36] Kapoor stole the show as Rajeev in the much delayed, Karobaar, a film directed by Rakesh Roshan, where Kapoor’s dialogue delivery was appreciated.^[37] He delivered a powerhouse performance in Shanker's Nayak which is considered to be his best performance by many.^{[38][39][40][41]}

In 2002, Kapoor gave an excellent performance in the role of a fat man in Badhaai Ho Badhaai, a takeoff from the Hollywood hit, Nutty Professor.^[42][43] He notched up yet another glorious performance in the Indra Kumar directed film Rishtey.^[44][45] In Om Jai Jagadish, he gave an amazing performance.^[46] Kapoor shared the screen with Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan for the first time in Armaan, and underplayed his character of a neurosurgeon superbly.^[47][48]

In his 2003 release, Calcutta Mail, he delivered one of his best performances. His character was defined with ample scope to perform in this screenplay-driven performance and in spite of the strong supporting cast, this really came out as Kapoor's one-man show.^[49][50] He ignited the silver screen with an authoritative performance in Musafir.^[51][52] Kapoor gave an incredibly restrained performance as the stricken husband in the thriller My Wife's Murder, which he also produced.^{[53][54][55][56]} Anees Bazmee's super-hit comedy No Entry (2005), followed for Kapoor that year. The film went on to become the highest grossing film of the year.^[57] He was also in the film Bewafaa, playing a rich businessman who is forced to marry the sister of his wife after she passes away in childbirth.

Kapoor played a grey character with finesse in the 2005 thriller, Chocolate.^[58][59] Anil's first release of 2007 Salaam-e-Ishq: A Tribute to Love was a box office hit in overseas though a flop in India.^[60] Anees Bazmee's Welcome, which released on 21 December 2007 and was declared the biggest success of the year.^[61] Kapoor's understated performance in Subhash Ghai's Black and White was highly lauded.^[62][63][64] His first release in 2008, Abbas Mustan's thriller, Race became a box office hit. Vijay Krishna Acharya's, Tashan marked Anil's comeback to Yash Raj Films but failed to do well at the box office.

His most recent films were his first English-language film, Slumdog Millionaire, which was released on 12 November 2008, and Yuvvraaj, which was released on 21 November 2008. Yuvvraaj, with Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif in the lead roles, failed to do well at the box office. On the other hand, Slumdog Millionaire has won a number of international awards and received rave reviews from critics, costing only US $15 million to produce, but pulling in more than $352 million worldwide. In January 2009, he attended the 66th Golden Globe Awards ceremony along with the team of Slumdog Millionaire, which won four Golden Globe Awards. Kapoor demonstrated his well-known enthusiasm after Slumdog won the Academy Award for Best Picture (one of eight awards). also received a nomination for Best Ensemble at the Black Reel Awards of 2008 and has won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.

2010s[link]

In 2010, Kapoor starred in the eighth season of the American television series 24, portraying Omar Hassan, President of the fictional Islamic Republic of Kamistan. In October of that year he was cast to play a villain in both Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (released in December 2011) and Power.^[65] Power was to be directed by Rajkumar Santoshi but was shelved due to unknown reasons. Other projects that he currently has in the pipeline include Cities (a Hollywood project co-starring Clive Owen and Orlando Bloom), Mr. India 2, the sequel to No Entry, Priyadarshan's Tezz with Ajay Devgn, Race 2 and Sanjay Gupta's Shootout at Wadala. He has also signed Khiladi 786, that is scheduled to release during Diwali.^[66]

As producer[link]

In 2002, Kapoor produced his first film, the comedy Badhaai Ho Badhaai, in which he also starred in. It was followed by My Wife's Murder (2005), and Gandhi, My Father (2007). Gandhi, My Father focuses on the relationship between Mahatma Gandhi and his son Harilal Gandhi (2007) and was awarded the National Film Award - Special Jury Award / Special Mention (Feature Film). He produced the movie Shortkut: The con is on starring Akshaye Khanna and Arshad Warsi. In 2010, he produced the movie Aisha, starring his daughter Sonam Kapoor and Abhay Deol in the lead roles. The film performed moderately at the box office, grossing Rs. 15.50 crore in its theatrical run.^[67] He has acquired the remake rights for the American TV success, 24, reportedly for an amount of INR 100 cr. It took him about 1.5 years to license the rights to create an Indian rendition of the popular TV show.^[68] Kapoor will be stepping in the protagonist's (Jack Bauer) role as well. Kapoor played the role of President Hassan in the 8th season of the original series aired on Fox Network.

As singer[link]

Anil Kapoor has on rare occasions contributed to the soundtracks of his movies, as a singer. One of his first playback songs was the title track of the 1986 Bollywood comedy Chameli Ki Shaadi. The song was comedic in nature and depicted the love story of the titular Chameli and her lover Charandas, played by Kapoor. Chameli was portrayed by Amrita Singh. In the same decade, he was credited on the song "Tere Bina Main Nahin Mere Bina Tu Nahin" for the film Woh Saat Din. He is also credited on the song "I Love You" from Hamara Dil Aapke Paas Hai. In 2008, Kapoor provided a rhyme-like-dialogue to introduce his character in Yashraj's Tashan. His theme was titled "Bhaiyaji ka Tashan". Interestingly, his co-stars in the movie also had their introductions incorporated in the soundtrack, which was composed by Vishal-Shekhar. Akshay Kumar 's theme was titled "Bachchan Pandey ka Tashan". Kareena Kapoor 's was "Pooja ka Tashan". Saif Ali Khan was credited for "Jimmy ka Tashan". he had one full album"WELCOME" as a co-singer with SALMA AGHA in 1986.the album was scored by BHAPPI LAHIRI.it is rollicking album which exemplifies his singing prowess.

Awards and nominations[link]

Filmography[link]

Actor[link]

Producer[link]

• 2002: Badhaai Ho Badhaai
• 2005: My Wife's Murder
• 2007: Gandhi, My Father
• 2009: Short Kut: The Con is On
• 2010: Aisha
• 2010: No Problem

Director[link]

• 2010: Aisha

References[link]

External links[link]

• Anil Kapoor at the Internet Movie Database

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Anil Kapoor

• The Anil Kapoor Fan Club on Facebook

This article may be written from a fan's point of view, rather than a neutral point of view. Please clean it up to conform to a higher standard of quality, and to make it neutral in tone. (February 2012)

Tony Iommi
Background information
Birth name	Anthony Frank Iommi
Born	(1948-02-19) 19 February 1948 (age 64) Birmingham, United Kingdom
Genres	Heavy metal, blues rock, hard rock
Occupations	Musician, songwriter, producer
Instruments	Guitar
Years active	1964–present
Labels	Warner Bros., I.R.S., Rhino
Associated acts	Mythology, Velvett Fogg, Black Sabbath, Jethro Tull, Glenn Hughes, Heaven & Hell
Website	Official website
Notable instruments
Tony Iommi Signature SG

Anthony Frank "Tony" Iommi^[1][2] (born 19 February 1948, Heathfield Road Hospital, Handsworth, Birmingham, England, United Kingdom) is an English guitarist and songwriter, best known as the founding member of pioneering heavy metal band Black Sabbath, its main composer and sole continual member through multiple personnel changes. Iommi is widely recognised as one of the most important and influential guitarists in heavy metal music. According to Allmusic, "Iommi is one of only two guitarists (the other being Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page) that can take full credit for pioneering the mammoth riffs of heavy metal."^[3]

In 2004, Iommi was ranked number one on Guitar World's "100 Greatest Metal Guitarists of All Time",^[4] and in 2011, ranked 25th in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".^[5] On 13 October (Europe) and 1 November (United States) 2011 Iommi's autobiography was published, entitled Iron Man: My Journey Through Heaven and Hell with Black Sabbath.^[6] On 9 January 2012, it was announced that Iommi had been diagnosed with early stage lymphoma.^[7]

Career[link]

Early history[link]

The son of first generation British Italians, Tony Iommi originally wanted to play the drums, but due to the noise they produce he picked up the guitar as a teenager, after being inspired by the likes of Hank Marvin and The Shadows.^[8] He plays guitar left-handed. In an industrial accident at the age of 17 on his last day of work in a sheet metal factory, he lost the tips of the middle and ring finger of his right hand.^[9]

After the injury Iommi contemplated abandoning the guitar. However, his manager encouraged Iommi to pursue music by playing a recording of famed jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt. As Iommi would later write:^[10]

My friend said, "Listen to this guy play," and I went, "No way! Listening to someone play the guitar is the very last thing I want to do right now!" But he kept insisting and he ended up playing the record for me. I told him I thought it was really good and then he said, "You know, the guy's only playing with two fingers on his fretboard hand because of an injury he sustained in a terrible fire." I was totally knocked back by this revelation and was so impressed by what I had just heard that I suddenly became inspired to start trying to play again.

To compensate for his injury Iommi attempted to learn to play right-handed,^[11] but eventually returned to left-handed playing and strung his guitars with lighter strings and made thimbles to extend his fingers.^[12]

Pre-Black Sabbath[link]

Iommi had played in several blues/rock bands, the earliest of which was The Rockin' Chevrolets from 1964 to 1965. The band had regular bookings and when they were offered work in Germany, Iommi decided to leave his factory job to take up the opportunity. From 1966 to 1967 Iommi played in a band named The Rest. This was the first time Iommi played with future Black Sabbath drummer Bill Ward.

From January 1968 until July 1968 Iommi was guitarist in Mythology, with Ward joining a month later in mid-February. In May 1968 police raided the group's practice flat and found cannabis resin, which resulted in a £15 fine and a two-year conditional discharge for Iommi, Ward, Smith and Marshall. Mythology split up after a gig in Silloth on 13 July 1968.

In August 1968 at the same time as the breakup of Mythology, a band called Rare Breed also broke up. Rare Breed vocalist John "Ozzy" Osbourne and rhythm guitarist Terry "Geezer" Butler joined with Iommi and Ward from Mythology and also slide guitarist Jimmy Phillips and saxophonist Alan "Aker" Clarke. The six-piece band, now with Butler as bassist, were named the Polka Tulk Blues Company. After just two gigs (the last of which was at the Banklands Youth Club in Workington), Phillips and Clarke were dismissed from the band, which soon after shortened its name to Polka Tulk.

Earth and Jethro Tull[link]

Iommi, Butler, Ward and Osbourne renamed the band Earth in September 1968. They carried on under this moniker until December 1968 when Iommi briefly departed to join Jethro Tull. However after only one performance (an appearance on "The Rolling Stones Rock & Roll Circus" in which the band mimed "A Song for Jeffrey", which Ian Anderson sang live), Iommi was back with Earth once more.

Iommi on his brief working relationship with Jethro Tull vocalist Ian Anderson:

I learned quite a lot from him, I must say. I learned that you have got to work at it. You have to rehearse. When I came back and I got the band (Earth) back together, I made sure that everybody was up early in the morning and rehearsing. I used to go and pick them up. I was the only one at the time that could drive. I used to have to drive the bloody van and get them up at quarter to nine every morning; which was, believe me, early for us then. I said to them, "This is how we have got to do it because this is how Jethro Tull did it." They had a schedule and they knew that they were going to work from this time till that time. I tried that with our band and we got into doing it. It worked. Instead of just strolling in at any hour, it made it more like we were saying, "Let’s do it!"

Black Sabbath[link]

Black Sabbath: Iommi (left) with Ozzy Osbourne in 1973

In August 1969, following the confusion with another group named Earth (who had minor success in England), the group renamed themselves Black Sabbath. His aforementioned factory accident affected the Black Sabbath sound later on, as Iommi detuned his guitar from E to C# (a minor third down), in order to ease the tension on his fingers; Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler did the same to match Iommi. Sabbath were among the first bands to detune, and the technique became a mainstay of heavy metal music. The first two Black Sabbath albums are actually in E tuning, however, as Iommi didn't start tuning down to C# until 1971's Master of Reality. Iommi combined blues-like guitar solos and dark, minor-key riffing with a revolutionary high-gain, heavily distorted tone with his use of a modified treble-boosting effect-pedal and a Gibson SG, as well as plugging his guitar into his amp's bass input.

By the mid-1970s, incessant drug usage, managerial problems and constant touring had taken its toll on the band and Ozzy Osbourne was fired in 1979 by Iommi. Osbourne was replaced with Ronnie James Dio, the former vocalist for Rainbow (a band formed by former Deep Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore). With Dio Black Sabbath produced Heaven and Hell, prior to replacing Bill Ward with Vinny Appice. With Iommi and Geezer Butler the only original members, this line-up produced Mob Rules. During the '80s and '90s Iommi rebuilt the band with many lineup changes with vocalists including Ian Gillan (formerly of Deep Purple), Glenn Hughes, Tony Martin and Ray Gillen. After Ian Gillan departed the band in 1984 Iommi recorded his first solo album, entitled Seventh Star. The album featured Glenn Hughes (formerly of Deep Purple) on vocals, but due to label pressures, it was billed as a release by "Black Sabbath featuring Tony Iommi."

In 1992 Iommi appeared at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, playing four songs with the remaining members of Queen and other guest artists. In the following year Iommi teamed up with fellow Black Country band Diamond Head and co-wrote the song "Starcrossed (Lovers in the Night)" for their 1993 Death and Progress album. At Ozzy's "farewell" concert at Costa Mesa in 1992, Dio refused to perform and abruptly left the band. As a result Rob Halford was recruited to perform as the vocalist for two gigs (Halford also sang at one of the dates on the 2004 Ozzfest tour, when Ozzy couldn't perform due to bronchitis). Following Osbourne's solo set, the show concluded with Ozzy bringing out the other members of the original Black Sabbath line-up for a 4-song reunion.

Black Sabbath went on to record two further albums with Tony Martin before the original line-up reunited as a touring band in 1997. While Bill Ward played at the two initial reunion shows at Birmingham NEC in December 1997, he was not present for the following two reunion tours, his second absence due to a heart attack. Ward was replaced by Mike Bordin and then Vinny Appice.

Rob Halford, vocalist for Judas Priest, when filling in for Ozzy Osbourne during an August 2004 concert in Philadelphia, introduced Tony Iommi to the audience as "The man who invented the heavy metal riff".

On 11/11/11, the original band members announced that they were reuniting and recording a new album.^[13] The band are scheduled to play at Download Festival in 2012, followed by a world tour.^[14]

Solo career[link]

In 2000 Iommi released his first legitimate solo album, titled Iommi. The album featured several guest vocalists including Ian Astbury, Henry Rollins, Serj Tankian, Dave Grohl, Billy Corgan, Phil Anselmo, Peter Steele and Ozzy Osbourne. Also in the vocal mix was Skin (of Skunk Anansie). In late 2004 Iommi's second solo album was released, entitled The 1996 DEP Sessions. This album was originally recorded in 1996 but was never officially released. However, a copy with a drum track by Dave Holland was available as a bootleg called Eighth Star. Glenn Hughes performed vocals on the album and he furthered his collaboration with Hughes with the release of his third solo album, Fused. Released on 12 July 2005, John Mellencamp drummer Kenny Aronoff completed the trio on the album.