Fans at Birmingham’s Villa Park and all over the world via the “Back to the Beginning” concert livestream surely noticed that Black Sabbath drummer Bill Ward took his shirt off during the band’s final performance. That was nothing new to witness for guitarist Tony Iommi, who likened his 77-year-old bandmate to Lord of the Rings creature Gollum in a new interview.
Iommi checked in for a post-show conversation with radio personality Eddie Trunk, who remarked that he was “impressed that Bill took his shirt off” during the four-song set. The guitar legend responded (as transcribed by Blabbermouth), “Oh my God. I’ll tell you what, one funny story. When we had a break on one of the rehearsals, we went in to eat at the studio, and Bill got his shirt off, and Geezer [Butler] was just about to have a sandwich. He went, ‘Oh, Bill put your shirt on. You’re putting me off the sandwich.’ [Laughs] But it’s typical Bill. He is always taking his shirt off every time. I mean, in the old days, he’d always take his shirt off.”
He continued, “I said to Bill, ‘Blimey, Bill, you look like Gollum.’ And I don’t think he knew who Gollum was. He’s always always been the same, Bill. He just doesn’t care. He goes on and does what he wants, which is great. That’s always been Bill. And immediately, of course, all the jokes started again as soon as we were together, having a go at each other. It was really fun, actually.”
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Elsewhere in the interview, Iommi said the original plan was for Sabbath to play six or seven songs, not just four. However, between Ozzy performing his own solo set just minutes before Sabbath, and a curfew in place for Villa Park, the band settled on performing just four songs. He revealed that “Fairies Wear Boots’ and the song “Black Sabbath” were among the tunes that got cut, although they did play a tiny bit of “Black Sabbath” prior to launching into “War Pigs.”
Hear a portion of Tony Iommi’s interview with Eddie Trunk below.
