Black Sabbath lead guitarist Tony Iommi shared some exclusive details about his friendship with Queen icon Brian May in his latest interview with BBC Radio. Iommi also remembered the first time he met with May by defining him as his ‘rock god.’
Brian May and Tony Iommi have been pursuing a great friendship for a very long time and they always liked to jam and create things together. In one of their jam sessions, May played the guitar for some tracks from the Black Sabbath guitarist’s debut solo studio album entitled ‘Iommi’ which was released on October 17, 2000. May’s guitar performance in ‘Goodbye Lament’ and ‘Flame On’ was very appreciated by their fans.
In addition, both Black Sabbath and Queen fans wanted to listen to two legendary guitarists, Iommi and May’s playing different songs together. Therefore, they kept asking whether they would collaborate with each other for a new solo album and the guitarists responded to these questions saying that they were looking forward to composing, writing, and recording again in an upcoming project.
During a recent interview, Tony Iommi stated that he and Brian May have been great friends since the first time they met and they enjoyed playing together on the stage and working on the records at the studio. He also recalled he first met with Brian May in the early 70s but he couldn’t remember the exact place and occasion. Iommi added May has a unique talent as a guitarist, and apparently, he found his rock god, Brian May, when he first listened to Queen’s self-titled debut album.
Iommi said in his interview that:
“His sort of sound and style really stood out to me when I heard the first Queen album really. When I heard that album, I thought, ‘This is a really good band.’ A guitar player is always into other guitar players, and he had a sort of unique sound and the way that he played, I just liked it.
It was appealing. He’s just got a certain character that you didn’t really hear from anybody else – he’s got something very ‘him.’ And as soon as you hear Brian now, anybody can pick him out. It was in the early ’70s we first met. I don’t know if it was in the studio. I actually can’t remember. Does he know where we first met? We had a very fast connection and we used to talk to each other at all hours of the night in the early days.”
He added:
“Now I’m in bed, but in the days, if he knew I was in the studio in London, he’d come over. We’ve jammed a few times. He’s come up on stage and played with me and we’ve done some album stuff together on different people’s albums. He played on my solo album a couple of times.
We had a jam session once. He came down to one of our rehearsals when we were rehearsing in London, and we started playing with the band and the band gradually left, and Brian and myself were just left playing there. All the gear had gone except for our gear, and we were still playing.
Yeah, so we’ve had a great friendship over the years but the thing is with him, he loves his guitar – he’s always got his guitar with him and he’s playing. When he comes to my house, I’ve always got a guitar there for him so we can have a little play.”
You can listen to the songs below.
