What can you say about Tony Iommi? The man has defined an entire genre of music, practically reinvented electric guitar, and remains a pillar of strength, passion and fire in world of rock n' roll. With Black Sabbath he drafted the blueprint for heavy metal, the doom, the gloom, the guitar sound, the theatrics, the riffs, the power. His skills on the six-string are up there with Hendrix, Beck, Page, and Van Halen as the very foundations of electric guitar playing. To this day, he is the main co-conspirator, partner in crime and creative collaborator of Ozzy Osbourne, easily the most famous, respected and influential man in hard rock - ever. He is Tony Iommi and he is a God.

After forming Black Sabbath in from Aston, near Birmingham, England in 1968 or so (originally calling themselves Earth), Iommi briefly played with Jethro Tull before reuniting with Sabbath to reinvent their sound into the evil sonic sludge fest we have all worship. With the release of their self-titled debut album in 1970, the stage was set for world domination. Slowly but surely, Iommi, Osbourne, drummer Bill Ward, and bassist Geezer Butler, clawed their was to the top with a string of highly successful albums and by the late '70s were among the biggest bands in the world. Landmark albums such as Paranoid, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, Sabotage, and Master Of Reality set that standard for all heaviness and scared the wits out of parents throughout the "Me" generation and "Feel Good" nation. Between Ozzy's on and offstage antics and Iommi's maelstrom of blitzkrieg guitars histrionics, the band was unstoppable.

Like many rock opera though, the Sabbath story is full of much drama, highs, lows, entrances and exits. In 1977, infamous lead singer Ozzy Osbourne left the band to launch a successful solo career, leaving Iommi to forge ahead with an array of lead singers throughout the '80s and early '90s to varied success. The Ronnie James Dio era yielded a slew of hits, such as Mob Rules and Heaven And Hell, and is considered by many to be the best post-Ozzy line-up. Other singers came and went, including Ian Gillan, Ray Gillen, Glenn Hughes, Tony Martin and Dave Donato (who never recorded with the band). Rob Halford from Judas Priest even stepped in for a last minute gig in Irvine, CA at one point. A Sabbath reunion at Live Aid in 1985 gave fans hope for a reunion but it would be more than a decade before the original line-up would reconvene for a full-fledged reunion.

And then there was Ozzfest…

In 1997, while Iommi was in between Sabbath line-ups, Ozzy and wife/manger Sharon began launched a Lollapalooza-style package tour combining established heavy hitters in the field with up and coming young bucks, with Ozzy serving as the headliner/presiding king/court jester. The tour was an immediate success and became an annual event, getting bigger every year and helping to usher in the resurgence of heavy music both on the charts and in concert arenas. Ozzy was as popular as ever and the Sabbath name was hotter than hell.

On December 1997, Ozzy reunited with Iommi, Ward and Butler as Black Sabbath and kicked off their official reunion with a concert in their hometown of Birmingham, England. The show was recorded for a two-CD set called Reunion which was released in October 1998 and won a Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance. The album was a killer live testament to the band and was garnished by two blazing new studio cuts. The response to the reunion was overwhelming and so the original line-up of Sabbath began it's comeback attack. The band toured through the end of 1999, including a jaunt on Ozzfest, concluding their reunion tour on December 22, 1999, back in Birmingham. In the fall of 2000, they were nominated for inclusion in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for the fourth consecutive year. They also found time to release a live DVD/home video and collaborated with hip hop superstars the Wu Tang Clan. By the turn of the Century, Black Sabbath was once again at the forefront of the music scene and ruling the world. Heavy metal was back and Ozzy and Iommi were leading the charge.

After a flurry of Sabbath activity, Iommi, who had gone from dating Lita Ford in the '80s to his current flame in Drain STH, took some time off and began to construct the idea of a solo album, one that would team him up with some of rock n' rolls greatest vocalists for a collection of collaborations that would both satisfy his salivating long-time fans and, hopefully, win over some younger converts. The result is his powerhouse self-titled debut CD, a crushing masterwork that finds the legendary axe-man both reinventing himself and reaffirming his capabilities as a genre defining/defying leader o the pack. Quite simply, Iommi, is a triumph. From the pulverizing mind bomb of "Laughing Man In The Devil Mask" with Henry Rollins, to the bombastic sludge of "Time Is Mine" with Pantera's Phil Anselmo, to the ultra-hooky techno-pop crunch of "Goodbye Lament" with Foo Fighter Dave Grohl, Iommi is as solid of album as it gets and is an amazingly consistent piece of work considering that every song was written with a different artist.

Mr. Iommi stopped by the KNAC.COM studios and sat down to chat about the new album, the future of Black Sabbath, and his early days in rock n' roll. He was tanned and fit, and looked lean, mean, and healthy as a horse. In the words of famed producer (and KNAC.COM impresario) Bob Ezrin, who happened to in the office when Tony stopped by, "Look at 'cha! You haven't aged a day in 20 years!" Upbeat, invigorated, and excited to be stepping out on his own for the first time since the beginning of his career over 30 years ago, Tony smiled and glowed as he spoke about his journey from Birmingham blues scholar to iconoclastic rock icon and guitar hero to many a generation (my words, not his).

Ladies and gentleman, Tony Iommi.

KNAC: Who were you early influences as a guitar player?

IOMMI: My early influences were the Shadows, who were an English instrumental band. They basically got me into playing and later on I got into blues and jazz players. I liked Clapton when he was with John Mayall. I really liked that period. I went through a period when I started off playing all jazz and blues. I actually left (Sabbath) for a point and went with Jethro Tull. I didn't stay with them that long though. I did the (Rolling Stones) film Rock n' Roll Circus and then we got back together again. I wanted to get together with the Sabbath boys and I came back with a totally different approach altogether and I thought we should get down to something different.

KNAC.COM: Do you have any stories from the Rock n' Roll Circus shoot? (The 1968 film was a notoriously decadent and over the top concert the Stones held in a circus tent in London. It was an all-star line-up of bands but the Stones were in the height of their tailspin with drugged out Brian Jones and were unhappy with their performance. They decided to never air the program and it remained a hard to find bootleg until it's recent re-release on CD and DVD)

IOMMI: It was done over a period of a couple of weeks, and it was certainly different. Especially for someone like me, coming from not knowing anybody to flying in and meeting John Lennon and people like that. But it was a great experience and of course Clapton was there and it was good fun.

KNAC: What about the one-off supergroup Dirty Mac, featuring John Lennon, Keith Richards, Clapton, Yoko Ono and Hendrix drummer Mitch Mitchell?

IOMMI: It was pretty much thrown together. We went through the rehearsals for that as well. But the whole thing, from day one, was a bit of a shamble really. They started with this press reception at the hotel and the Stones were playing at it and then they started arguing at their own reception. While they were playing, they stopped and started arguing. So, it was a bit of an up and down thing altogether, but it good. It was good to do. It certainly opened my eyes.

The Who were actually very good live. That was actually the first time I had heard them live. We were actually sharing a dressing room with them. So that was the first time I got to meet them. They were great.

KNAC.COM: So once you re-joined Sabbath, how did you guys come up with the classic Sabbath sound?

IOMMI: We found in a lot of blues clubs that everybody's talking away so they're drowning you out. So we'd just turn up. We basically turned it up louder and louder and came up with this sort've Sabbath thing. It just sort of happened. I mean, it's one of those things were you think it must've been something planned, but it wasn't...really, it just came about. It was just one of those things that we liked. It was a nice feeling to turn it up and start coming up with these demonic sort've ideas.

KNAC: Tuning real low…

IOMMI: The whole thing was totally against the book, the tuning, using black guys strings. Just everything was so different than what it should've been, which we liked. Because anytime someone says you can't do that, it makes you want to do it more.

KNAC: What is your favorite post-Ozzy Sabbath line-up?

IOMMI: I think that the Dio period was good for us in the '80s. We had pretty good albums with that and they've done well. And after that we did an album with Ian Gillan, which was a bit off the wall, that one. But probably the Dio period was the most successful, I think

KNAC: So after the recent reunion run of Black Sabbath, why do a solo record? Why not continue on with Ozzy is some fashion?

IOMMI: Well, I think it's kind of good to step out of the Sabbath banner, you know, and not go under the name of Black Sabbath or whatever, even though, yes, it was me involved throughout the whole time. But to be able to go and work with so many different people at one time as opposed to a set unit of one singer and a band...I've used a lot of different people on this album and it's been great for me. It's helped me see a lot of other things by using these different people. You know, I've learned a lot from it and it's been great fun.

KNAC: Does writing with other artists give you a certain freedom in songwriting?

IOMMI: What we did was started writing ideas and just see what would come up, whatever we liked, which is more or less we had done with Sabbath in a lot of ways. But, if we liked it, we used it. So it's very much the same idea, but using different singers and a more up-to-date approach. Also working with Bob Marlette, a producer through it all, which I never normally have before.

KNAC: Were the songs actual collaborations in the sense that you wrote the song from scratch with the artist?

IOMMI: Yeah, yeah, some of them we were. Not all of them. But, some of them we were. A particular one was Billy Corgan. When we started that track, which was like an 8 minute track, we met in the studio in the morning and the drummer, I didn't even know. It was Kenny Aranoff. I mean, I know him, but I had never met him before. And it was great because we sort've walked in and suddenly (snaps fingers) it was happening. We had to come up with an initial riff and then from there it set the pace of that song. And there are a lot of changes in that song. And it kept you alert because there are so many different things going on. And the drummer was particularly good because he kept on top with all that. So while we were playing we would go, "no," and we changed this bit and go back to this bit. But it really worked. It was really great fun. It kept me on my toes for sure.

KNAC: How did you pick the singers?

IOMMI: Well, some of them have been fans of Sabbath or of me and they are good singers. And I like their unique style. They've each got their own style and you can tell who it is when you hear the voice. That's a big part of it. And I liked what they were doing. As soon as you hear Billy Corgan you know it's him or David Grohl or whatever. So, initially, that was the approach. We liked what they did.

KNAC: Was the songwriting process different with each singer?

IOMMI: It was very much the same sort of thing but by just seeing the other people, how they work, you can just adjust things accordingly. If someone wants an extra long verse, or chorus, or sees a different part as a chorus, you know. So you just work it as it's going on. And I think it worked very well.

KNAC: Will there be tour?

IOMMI: Well, we're looking at some dates.

KNAC: How would you work it with the all the different singers?

IOMMI: That's the next thing. (laughs) Hopefully, it's not as difficult as putting the album together, but...um…

KNAC: Would you just bring one singer or…

IOMMI: Well, we'd like to put a few singers together and do a selected amount of dates. Just make it a special thing as opposed to doing a tour everywhere. Just do a certain amount of dates in particular places with a select amount of singers.

KNAC: It seems that each decade brings in a brand new wave of metal bands influenced by Sabbath that take it in new direction. Now there's a new scene of alt/neo metal bands and rap-metal bands that have a big Sabbath influence. What's your take on new metal? Is it less band-oriented and more producer/pro tools driven?

IOMMI: Yeah, it does seem to have gone that way. But, if it works, great. And it does in a lot of cases. I mean, I've done some of my stuff like that. Which is new for me, I mean certainly, I knew nothing of pro-tools until I met Bob Marlette and he sort've got me into knowing a bit more about it...even though I still don't know much about it. But, working that way is certainly sometimes good for working out a song. Like the tracks on this album, the Billy Corgan one for instance, that was done purely straight away live. And that was hard because there are so many different changes in it. And to do it like that when it's an 8-minute song. Whereas, if you could do it on pro-tools you can stop and do bits and cut bits out or make bits longer.

KNAC: Does that take away the soul of the band?

Tony; I think it does sometimes, yeah. I like to feel that you can go out and play it live. But it does work (for some).

KNAC: So after you promote your solo record, are there any plans to get Sabbath back together again?

IOMMI: No, there's nothing planned. We've tended to put this Sabbath on hold for a while and whatever happens happens. If we decide to do something, we'll probably call each other up and say either, "yes, we'll do it" or "no, we won't," and that's more or less how we work the Sabbath thing. Because we find that when you try to plan anything, it never seems to work, you know. We sort've play it by ear.

I mean, if its a Sabbath thing and someone says do you want to do a dozen shows, or something, we'd get together, rehearse and click it together pretty quick. But it has to be done right, we can't put Sabbath out now and not do it right.