(Credits: Tony Iommi)
Sun 7 September 2025 0:00, UK
More so than any other instrument, Tony Iommi’s guitar sounded the death knell of the 1960s.
However, it wasn’t as deathly a knell as some might make out. The guitarist’s inspiration was never to rise up like some fiery demon of dastardly heaviness, but simply to be as singular and recognisable as all of his heroes that had come before.
Those he had admired had simply been honest, and that showed in their idiosyncratic sounds. He sought to do the same. So, the songs he selected as his seven favourites for BBC West Midlands might be peculiar on the surface, but when you delve into their impact on Iommi as an artist, it becomes a little clearer why he adores them.
Take, for instance, his love for The Shadows’ classic ‘Apache’. It’s far from a hell-raising anthem, but when it was released in 1960, the boon of the rock ‘n’ roll revolution was just getting swinging, and Hank Marvin was just trying to deliver a cool new sound. Iommi might not have borrowed its Western influence when Black Sabbath came to light, but he did attempt to replicate the idea of riffs marrying with a perfect, pioneering tone.
Tone is one thing, but atmosphere is another. And few songs in the classic rock canon can be said to be more atmospheric than ‘All Along the Watchtower’. Whether it’s Bob Dylan’s original or Jimi Hendrix’s version, the anthemic piece is poised on the precipice of doom and mystery, solemnity and salvation. It’s easy to see why Iommi opts for the Hendrix incarnation among his favourite songs, as the otherworldly wonder is something Sabbath seized upon as a central tenet.
But where did the doom, demonism, and darker than black leather jackets enter the mix? Well, circumstance played a potent hand on that front. If ‘All Along the Watchtower’ fittingly perched on a precipice in the 1960s, when the 1970s arrived, the zeitgeist had tumbled over the edge and into an abyss.
(Credits: Far Out / TIDAL)
That was particularly apparent to Iommi in the industrious city of Birmingham. A rough and tumble life of long hours in a literal heavy metal factory awaited him. While playing guitar offered salvation, it certainly didn’t seem like it would offer a brighter future. In fact, the happy-clappy songs of the era seemed rather alien to him.
Then, even that salvation was sorely stripped away when he lost the tips of his fingers in a tragic accident at the factory. He thought he would never play guitar again until his old foreman told him about Django Reinhardt. The famed Belgian musician’s fingers were severely damaged in a fire, but he went on to be one of the greatest jazz guitarists of all time.
Iommi took hope from this story, fashioned his own homemade finger caps out of melted plastic bottles, and then when he returned to playing his guitar, his own, strange sound was born. A heavy metal accident had quite literally resulted in the accident of heavy metal. So, it’s little wonder that Reinhardt’s classic composition ‘Stardust’ still stands out to Iommi as a firm favourite, even if it sounds a bit sweet for the Sabbath man on the surface.
But beyond sound, atmosphere, originality and accidental Promethean feats, Sabbath rose to a lofty position thanks to accessible hooks too. The pop in Iommi’s songwriting might be hidden under the weight of it, but disrobe the songs of their figurative leather jackets, and you can see why he also admires ‘We’ve Only Just Begun’ by The Carpenters, ‘Move Over, Darling’ by Doris Day, and ‘Summer Wind’ by Frank Sinatra.
The last ingredient of the Iommi songwriting mix is pure fun. After a tough start in life, it’s easy to see why the guitarist and his Brummy bandmates wanted to raise hell. Few tracks capture that frenetic sense of musical escapism quite like the party-starter ‘25 or 6 to 4’ by Chicago, another of Iommi’s favourites.
So, while there might be a notable absence of Led Zeppelin, The Beatles’ more bruising outings, or, indeed, any of the bands he, in turn, helped to inspire, you can see these strange favourites reflected in his own songwriting. That songwriting changed his life, so it’s the secret sentimental side of Iommi that we uncover in the undercurrent of the quirky list above all else.
Tony Iommi’s favourite songs of all timeThe Carpenters – ‘We’ve Only Just Begun’The Shadows – ‘Apache’Django Reinhardt – ‘Stardust’Doris Day – ‘Move Over, Darling’Chicago – ’25 or 6 to 4′Jimi Hendrix – ‘All Along The Watchtower’Frank Sinatra – ‘Summer Wind’
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