Tony Iommi diagnosed with cancer

[nfe]

Sad times. Aside from being someone I imagine many of us think is a musical legend, I've had the good fortune to meet Tony a couple times and he's an absolutely top bloke too.

With the news that Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi has been diagnosed with the early stages of lymphoma, his bandmates would like everyone to send positive vibes to the guitarist at this time. Iommi is currently working with his doctors to establish the best treatment plan--the “IRON MAN” of Rock & Roll remains upbeat and determined to make a full and successful recovery.

This comes as Black Sabbath--Ozzy Osbourne (vocals), Tony Iommi (guitar), Geezer Butler (bass) and Bill Ward (drums)--are writing and recording their first album in 33 years in Los Angeles (still set for release this fall) with producer Rick Rubin. They will now go to the UK to continue to work with Tony. Further information will be released as it becomes available.

[Sancho]

What a way to start off the year... :(
Directly and indirectly, Iommi is probably my biggest influence.

[Kiichi]

Damn this is hard to hear...before I could even walk I rocked out to Iron Man.
After having to see Dio go this really scares me.
I´ll just hope for the best and try to keep a positive mindset...and play a few riffs right now^^

[JacksonRR]

This is not good at all, but treatments are still available. One of the two owners of the company that I do the bulk of my work with was diagnosed with non-Hodgekin's lymphoma last year. She went through the rounds of chemo last year, went into remission and is now undergoing stem cell treatment for a final cure. Last week, she had zero white blood cells and that was the major worry. My girlfriend and I have gone in several times to donate our platelets for her process of recovery. My best to Tony and his family. Hope he comes through like a champ.

[djl]

Hope he's OK. There are lots of subtypes of lymphoma, some very amenable to treatment and in fact some that do not need treatment at all.

Hope he does well whatever.

[Elliot]

I hope all goes well with his treatment – although I don't like metal per se, Sabbath have always been one of my favourite bands and I find myself slipping into Iommisms when I am mucking around on the guitar.  As has been said, Tony is a legend and for good reason

[Ratrod]

Bad news.

I sure hope his treatment will work.

[dave_mc]

ah that sucks :(

hopefully the treatment works

[Tellboy]

My older brother was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma about 6 years ago. For the first couple of years they just did regular checks to see how  it was progressing. Unfortunately 18 months ago he was also diagnosed with prostate cancer and had surgery to have his prostate removed (plus they decided to remove a few lymph glands at the same time). Although this was successful the lymphoma reached the stage where treatment became necessary. He has now completed a fairly intense chemotherapy program which seems to have been very successful and he looks/feels better than he has for some time - fingers crossed for him and Tony.

[Roobubba]

Whatever form of lymphoma he has (and there are a few, with varying degrees of effective treatments...), I wish him all the best of luck in his treatment.

I saw Ozzy in Leeds Town Hall when I was about 14 (I actually went to see Fear Factory supporting them, that was the demanufacture tour, my mate and his parents were huge Ozzy fans), and that was about the first time I'd really come into contact with any Sabbath material. I'm still completely in the dark about most of their stuff, but the bits I've heard have been decent, and they have very clearly made a big influence to metal not just here in the UK, but the world over. Certainly will be interesting to see what they produce this year.

Was it Iommi who played with really flabby strings after some nasty hand incident? Forgive my insane ignorance!

Roo

[Kiichi]

Was it Iommi who played with really flabby strings after some nasty hand incident? Forgive my insane ignorance!

Roo

Yes, if I recall correctly he had an accident and the tips of the fingers on his right hand got cut of or something. He ended up having platic fingertips on his right hand....he is a left hand player mind you.
So he used something like 8s or 7s even I think.

I honestly have no idea how he made that work, but when I saw him live on the last Heaven and Hell tour, damn he could still pull it all off.

[HTH AMPS]

All my metal vibes are going out to Tony, he's the godfather of this whole genre - would be very sad indeed to see him go so early, hopefully he'll have many more years bothering people's eardrums.

I've been playing N.I.B. in my band for the past six months or so, but we'll be sending out our best wishes when we play it this weekend.

[Shag101]

Total bummer...

Sabbath was the band that got me into the rock scene back when I was a young buck.  I remember hearing Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath playing off my fathers cassette deck one day and never looking back...Iommi was the reason I sold almost everything I owned to pickup an SG and play.

Hope all works out....

[gordiji]

good vibes in tony's direction. he cut his fingers just before their first tour and initially thought it was finished. he did
detune to make things more comfortable on his fingers.i think he plays left or right handed also.
sabbath was my first proper gig, symptom of the universe opening the show with a strobe light, awesome.
 
http://youtu.be/9a1Q__1Ew8Q

[Matt77]

Nice guy by all accounts.
Back in the 90s after a gig in Manchester he took a gang of backstage autograph hunters to McDonalds.
i wasn't there but my friends said he was really level headed.