The guitarist who made Tony Iommi fall in love with rock ‘n’ roll: “I really enjoyed the thought of having a guitar”
Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi is a titan of heavy metal. Alongside the band’s classic lineup of frontman Ozzy Osbourne, bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward, Iommi laid the foundations for the genre and all of heavy rock’s offshoots, thanks to the ominous nature of their music, which was, by their own admission, something of a response to the weightless flower power of the counterculture.
The Brummie quartet might have looked like longhairs, but their music couldn’t have been more different from that of their day’s most popular bands. With a sense of rock rebellion striped through everything they ever put out, Iommi and his band would become figureheads for a new movement.
Aesthetically, it might have been distinct, but at the heart of Black Sabbath’s music was something that all rock bands of their era had: the blues. Like their most commercially successful and influential peers, such as Led Zeppelin or The Rolling Stones, Black Sabbath were galvanised by the blues sound. It was the forebear of all these acts’ music and had been packaged into the form known as rock and roll by the great pioneers of the 1950s, such as Chuck Berry, Little Richard and Elvis Presley.
Chuck Berry had such a consequential impact on the development of rock music that he is known as the ‘Father of Rock and Roll’. Berry augmented the classic rhythm and blues formula, creating the blueprint for the rock ‘n’ roll sound with songs such as ‘Maybellene’, ‘Roll Over Beethoven’, ‘Rock and Roll Music’ and his most well-known number, ‘Johnny B. Goode’. Berry achieved this shift by penning lyrics focusing on consumerism and teenage life and crafting a style that included uptempo music, guitar solos and a concentration on showmanship.
As one of the ultimate rock ‘n’ roll guitarists, Chuck Berry influenced almost everyone from the classic rock period, including The Beatles and AC/DC guitar hero Angus Young. He also had a defining impact on Tony Iommi, to the extent that the Black Sabbath axeman credits him with making him fall in love with rock ‘n’ roll.
Speaking to Liz Barnes in 2021, Iommi recalled Berry’s tremendous influence on him: “I really wanted to be a drummer, initially,” he said. “But of course, the house I lived in was very tiny. There was no way my parents would buy me a kit of drums. I would have nowhere to put them for a start. I sort of took to the guitar and I really enjoyed the thought of having a guitar. So I could just sit in the bedroom, practice and play. I sort of got into rock and roll listening to Chuck Berry and all the old rockers.”
This was not the first time Iommi had described the impact of Chuck Berry and other pioneering rock ‘n’ rollers. Outlining the timeline of his musical development, Iommi told Guitarist Magazine in 2020: “Me and Brian May both loved Hank. We’re not widdly diddlies. Brian and I have done a few things, played together on albums. We were in the studio together once and we started playing Shadows stuff. So it was mainly Hank, then Chuck Berry and a bit of Buddy Holly. I liked Clapton. I liked John Mayall. That lineup was really appealing. When he went with Cream I wasn’t so enthusiastic, but then I got used to Cream. I loved his style and his sound.”
Berry started out like so many artists, and much like Iommi. He started playing music at an early age, making his live debut at Sumner High School, the first high school for African-American students west of the Mississippi River in the United States. However, in 1880, it changed locations after parents complained that their children were walking past the gallows on their way to school.
Where would we be without Chuck Berry? No Beatles, no Rolling Stones, no Led Zeppelin: the rock ‘n’ roll guitarist was an inspiration to so many important artists, catalysing an explosion of rock ‘n’ roll music in the late 1950s and ’60s.
Born into a middle-class family in St Louis, Berry started playing music at an early age, making his live debut at Sumner High School, the first high school for African-American students west of the Mississippi River in the United States. However, in 1880, it changed locations after parents complained that their children were walking past the gallows on their way to school.
By the time Berry arrived, Sumner High was one of the most prestigious schools in the state – an ill fit for a teenager with a taste for criminality. In 1944, he was convicted of armed robbery and sent to a reformatory, where he stayed until 1947. After his release, it seemed he would live a perfectly docile life. He settled into marriage and started a stable job at an automobile assembly plant. Then, in 1953, music came calling.
Inspired by the showmanship of T-Bone Walker, Berry joined the Jonnie Johnson trio and started performing as their guitarist. Over the next few years, he would hone his skills, taking lessons from his friend Ira Harris while waiting for that big break.
It’s really hard to quantify the impact of Chuck Berry. He is rightly considered the first rock guitarist to truly make waves, and as John Lennon once said, “if you were to give rock and roll another name, it might be Chuck Berry”. That kind of appreciation from such pivotal figures doesn’t come by accident.
