Tony Iommy

Guitar World magazine recently spoke to BLACK SABBATH guitarist Tony Iommi about the making of the band's new album, "13" — the first in 35 years to feature Tony, singer Ozzy Osbourne and bassist Geezer Butler. Asked what it was like working with legendary producer Rick Rubin, who is notorious for being very "in and out" of the studio while records are being made, Iommi said: Honestly, I didn't quite know what to make of him at first. His whole idea [of pre-production] was, 'Write the song. Call me when you think it's ready.' So I would. Actually, I'd email him, because I couldn't phone him ... nobody phones him. So I'd email him: 'Do you want to come down tonight?' And he'd pop in, have a listen, go, 'Yeah, I like that,' or, 'I don't like it.' We wanted him to be more involved, like, 'Well, what about changing that, or putting that bit there, or go to the A,' or whatever. But he was this elusive guy that we never really saw. But when we started recording, he was there all the time... lying on the bed with the microphone. [laughs] Blimey, what a strange guy. [laughs] His way of working was he'd have us playing it live in the studio like we did on the first album. We'd play the song a couple times, then Rick would say, 'Can you do it again?' After we'd finish, Geezer would be sitting next to me, and I'd say, 'That sounded all right didn't it?' And he'd say, 'It was a good one.' And Rick would go, 'Do another one.' [laughs] So we'd do another one, and another one, and then Rick would go, 'I think we've got it, but do you want to try another one to see if you can better it?' Ozzy would be sitting in the booth going, 'Fucking hell, we got to do it again?' [laughs]Rick definitely pushed us." Iommi also spoke about how when BLACK SABBATH first met with Rick, the producer sat the guys in the band down and played them the firstSABBATH record. "I understood the point he was trying to make," Iommisaid. "He didn't want an exact copy of that album, but he wanted the vibe of that album. Like, what if this album was the follow-up to 'Black Sabbath'? What would we have done? It's hard to wipe out 40-odd years and forget all the things we've learned. But I understood what he meant as far as creating the same vibe that the first album had, which was quite raw and natural."