Hard Rock wouldn’t have been the same without British bands like Deep Purple and Heavy Metal wouldn’t exist as we know if it wasn’t Black Sabbath. So those were two really important bands, which had two fantastic guitar heroes: Tony Iommi and Ritchie Blackmore. Both of them were really crucial for the evolution of Heavy Rock and continue to inspire countless bands all over the world.
Over the decades, the “Riffmaster”, Tony Iommi talked about many bands, including Deep Purple, giving his opinion on them. So Rock and Roll Garage selected what he said about them.
What is Tony Iommi’s opinion on Deep Purple
Like most artists from that era, Tony Iommi loves Deep Purple and worked with many musicians who were previously part of the band or Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow. One of them was obviously, the vocalist Ian Gillan, who recorded with Sabbath the album “Born Again”, released in 1983.
In an interview with Classic Rock magazine in 2024, Iommi revealed that his favorite Deep Purple song was probably “Speed King”. The track was from their groundbreaking 1970 album “Deep Purple In Rock”.
“I always liked Deep Purple, and my favorite album of theirs is In Rock. It has one classic song after another. They always used to come up with great riffs. Speed King is hard to beat. It’s a great, energetic song that shows every member of the band doing what they did best. (Ian) Gillan’s vocals and the keyboards of Jon Lord… They were such great musicians,” Tony Iommi said.
Black Sabbath used to play “Smoke on The Water” when touring with Gillan
Curiously, when Ian Gillan joined Black Sabbath in the 80s and toured with the band. They used to play Deep Purple’s most famous song “Smoke on The Water” live. Talking with Steve Newton in 1984, Iommi said he always liked Purple and Gillan and explained why they were performing that famous Purple track.
“Well, it’s really probably one of Ian’s more known ones, you know. As far as him being associated with what he’d done before. And he wrote the song anyway, so. (…) I try and play it more like it was done originally. I mean, I obviously do put me own bits in. But I try and keep it more to how it was done,” Tony Iommi said.
“Born Again” was the final Black Sabbath album with the drummer Bill Ward and the only one with Gillan. The vocalist left the band to reunite with Deep Purple in 1984, recording their comeback album “Perfect Strangers”. Gillan would leave the band again in the 90s but he rejoined them after the album “Slaves and Masters” (1990), which was recorded with Joe Lynn Turner. He’s been in the band ever since.
Tony Iommi recruited many artists who had previously worked with Blackmore
Besides Gillan, there are many other artists who previously worked with Blackmore and were later recruited by Iommi to join Sabbath. Some of them are the drummer Cozy Powell, singer/bassist Glenn Hughes, singer Ronnie James Dio, bassist Bob Daisley and drummer Bobby Rondinelli. So it’s easy to see that he has the same view as Blackmore when choosing the kind of musicians he wants to work with.
Gillan and Iommi would work together again in the supergroup WhoCares. The band was formed in 2011 by them alongside Jon Lord, Jason Newsted, Nicko McBrain and Mikko “Linde” Lindström. It was a charity project to raise money to rebuild a music school in Gyumri, Armenia, after the destruction of the city in the 1988 earthquake.
