Tony Iommi on why he didn’t believe Motörhead were “heavy metal”
Motörhead were always a tricky one to pin down in terms of genre. They were considered a new wave of heavy metal, having formed in 1975 and influencing the thrash metal and speed metal genres. However, they themselves had always been insistent on being a “rock and roll” band with elements of punk. One person who certainly didn’t see Motorhead as a “heavy metal” band was one of its pioneers, Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi.
“I wasn’t that familiar at first with Motörhead, and then we did some shows together,” Iommi once remembered. “They were loud; I know that, and we were loud. I think one of the first shows we did with them was an open-air show. I think it was in Ireland. Underneath the stage were the dressing rooms and, of course, our dressing rooms underneath the stage. They were on, and it was horrendous. You could hear everything rattling and rumbling.”
He continued: “I wouldn’t accept it at first when they said heavy metal. I thought: ‘What’s that?’, you know. I always thought we put ourselves as heavy rock. But I heard it that many times ‘Oh, you’re heavy metal’. OK, we’re heavy metal, and that’s what we are.”
I doubt that Iommi is being rude about Motörhead here; he more likely meant that there was an awful racket coming from above where he and the rest of Black Sabbath had been waiting. Iommi is, in fact, in great admiration of Motörhead and Lemmy’s do-or-die attitude in particular.
“I met him a long time ago when he was with Hawkwind, just toward the end of the Hawkwind,” Iommi said of Lemmy. “He was weird. I think Lemmy has always been the same. You know, what you see is what you get. He’s always been that sort of person from day one, really.”
“I think Lemmy is the epitome of rock and roll, really,” Iommi added. “He always lived a wild lifestyle. It’s the whole thing, the sex, the drugs and Rock and Roll. He lived that life, and he loved it. He drank a bottle of Jack Daniels a day. On tour, they toured with us many, many times.”
When Black Sabbath were on tour with Motörhead, Lemmy and the rest of the band used to show Iommi what would fuel them throughout the shows. Iommi added: “There was never any food; there was always two bottles of Jack Daniels, two bottles of vodka, a couple of cases of beer. I mean, that was them, that’s the way they were, they didn’t pull any punches, they really lived that lifestyle.“
