Iron Man chronicles the story of both pioneering guitarist Tony Iommi and legendary band Black Sabbath, dubbed "The Beatles of heavy metal" by Rolling Stone. Iron Man reveals the man behind the icon yet still captures Iommi's humor, intelligence, and warmth. He speaks honestly and unflinchingly about his rough-and-tumble childhood, the accident that almost ended his career, his failed marriages, personal tragedies, battles with addiction, bandmates, famous friends, newfound daughter, and the ups and downs of his life as an artist.
Everything associated with hard rock happened to Black Sabbath first: the drugs, the debauchery, the drinking, the dungeons, the pressure, the pain, the conquests, the company men, the contracts, the combustible drummer, the critics, the comebacks, the singers, the Stonehenge set, the music, the money, the madness, the metal.
©2011 Tony Iommi (P)2012 Tony Iommi
"The complete life of heavy metal's true father"
I would recommend this to any fan of Black Sabbath or of heavy metal in general. Tony Iommi's riffs and songwriting are the backbone of heavy metal itself. It's great to hear the back stories about each CD and chapter in the entire Black Sabbath history.
I loved the detail, examining each album and its recording, tour, etc. I also like how candid Tony is about his cancer (lymphoma), and the detail he goes into about the treatment, how it as affected him, etc.
I liked the fact that Bev, who is a friend of Tony's and also played in Black Sabbath, read this book. He knows Tony well, and it's easy to imagine that it is Tony himself reading the book. Bev, I'm sure, knows many of these stories, and his familiarity, I believe, helps his credibility as a narrator.
It's surprisingly funny! The pranks they used to play on each other (especially on drummer Bill Ward) are laugh-out-loud funny.
An audio book loving Aucklander.
"The story: interesting; The narration-terrible."
I am a HUGE Black Sabbath fan, and this book did deliver some excellent behind the scenes stuff for me, however I found it a tad guarded, compared to some other rock bios. I also think Tony's sense of humour was lacking, perhaps it was just the way the story was written (or the ghost writer's work), so it was a bit dry. Although I've read other Black Sabbath books, this gave me a different take on the rise of the band, also the band members diverse personalities and contributions etc. So I enjoyed that a great deal. The narration was terrible though, I didn't appreciate hearing the narrator swallow and shuffle in his seat constantly. Perhaps it needs to be performed again with a better narrator to make it more enjoyable to listen to?