Jethro Tull’s frontman Ian Anderson discussed why Tony Iommi didn’t join the band in an interview with Ultimate Guitar.
“When our original guitar player [Mick Abrahams] left the band, I asked Tony to come down and spend a day or two with us, just to see if there was some future in us working together,” Anderson said.
“But that was not really going to happen, because I’d already written some songs for the what was going to be the second Jethro Tull album, ‘Stand Up,’ and some of that was quite difficult for Tony to play, because of his injuries to his hands, sustained in an industrial accident, meant that he played in his style as a matter of having to do it that way,” he explained. “Rather like Django Reinhardt had to learn to play with only essentially two fingers and a partial third.”
“Tony doesn’t have quite that impediment, but some chord shapes are difficult for Tony to play because he has [prosthetic] tips on a couple of fingers, which means it’s quite hard for him to play in a conventional way,” Anderson continued. “So it wasn’t going to really be very easy for him to play some of the music that I was writing.”
“And if I had then tried to rewrite things within the within the scope of Tony’s musical style, I think it would have changed the band very much. And from my perspective, probably not for the better, because I liked to play more complex chords and use more complex harmonies,” he added. “So, I don’t think Tony’s presence would have been right. But it was nice to work with him for a few days. And I remain friends with Tony Iommi all this time.”
This brief collaboration between Anderson and Iommi represents a significant moment in rock history that shaped both musicians’ futures.
Far Out Magazine documented Iommi’s time with Jethro Tull in September 1968. His original band Earth (later Black Sabbath) remained active in a different form during this period.
The collaboration culminated in a notable performance. Blabbermouth reported that Iommi appeared with Jethro Tull during The Rolling Stones’ ‘Rock and Roll Circus’ filming in December 1968. He mimed guitar parts while Anderson performed live to a pre-recorded backing track.
Iommi returned to Earth by November 1968. He found Jethro Tull’s structured approach too formal for his taste. The experience proved valuable. He later applied the rehearsal discipline he learned from Jethro Tull to his own band.
Both bands achieved remarkable success in their respective musical directions after this brief intersection. Jethro Tull continued with guitarist Martin Barre, creating iconic albums like ‘Aqualung.’ Iommi’s band transformed into Black Sabbath in 1969, launching their legendary heavy metal career.
