Iron Man (43 page)

I thought, oh, for Christ's sake, and said: ‘What do you think it is?'

‘We think it's fluid in the joint.'

They checked again and found a hole in my joint where one of
the doctors had at some point injected a steroid right into the bone. That's why I was getting a swelling in my hand. They said: ‘Now that we know what it is we can actually go ahead with the procedure.'

They took blood from my arm, sent that to the lab overnight and grew new cartilage from it. Then, a day or two later, they injected it back into me wherever it was needed. The doctor changed his surgical gloves about three times in the course of the five minutes it took to give me the injections: that's how clean they were. I had to be there at the clinic for a week. Go in the morning, have the injections, and then back to the hotel. They took quite a few big files of blood in case I needed a top-up later, which I did. They grew the cells and I went in every day for that week and the difference was amazing. It really, really helped. I wasn't getting any pain any more.

I did have to go back to see Dr Wehling again a couple of months later, because the next joint up and also my left hand were playing up. I had a full body scan as well to see if there were any problems anywhere else. There was just a little bit at the base of my spine and at the top of my neck, in between the neck joints, but that was just normal wear and tear.

All these guitar players, like Jimmy Page and Pete Townshend, used to jump up and down and roll on the floor on their knees. Years later you really feel that. Like footballers, they get these joint problems because of all the abuse. I just stood there with the guitar for forty years, but you're standing funny when you're playing guitar, so all that gradual wear and tear and putting more weight on one leg and all that caused back problems for me. Dr Wehling gave me injections in my back as well and after about four days of those I never had another problem there again. All the pain disappeared. It's great.

The last time I saw him, he said: ‘It should be growing all right now.'

They didn't even X-ray it to check it; he just knows that it's growing now. He said to keep him updated about what's going on. It does hurt a bit in certain places now, but it's nothing at all like it was. When I'm playing for a bit, I forget about it. Since I've had this stem cell treatment I haven't felt the need to take any painkillers or anything. It's just been brilliant.

Until something else goes . . .

I would very much like to do something again with Geezer and Vinnie and another singer, but, of course, if we do start something new it would be under a different name. Heaven & Hell was very popular and it took up all of our time, but even after it ended I stayed very busy writing and getting involved with all sorts of projects. One thing that was a lot of fun to do was the ‘Out Of My Mind' charity single with Ian Gillan. It was a quarter of a century ago that we recorded our first charity single, ‘Smoke On The Water', in aid of Armenian earthquake victims. It was a big thing with just about everybody involved, like Brian May, Bryan Adams, Ritchie Blackmore and David Gilmour. We did a video of it and raised a lot of money. And then, in 2009, twenty-five years later, President Serzh Sargsian of Armenia got in touch. He wanted to give an award for what we'd done back then to Ian Gillan, myself and keyboard player Geoff Downes.

We went to Armenia and they showed us what they had built with the money from ‘Smoke On The Water'. We had dinner with Prime Minister Tigran Sargsian and the British Ambassador Charles Lonsdale and they were all really nice. We were there for a few days and did a couple of press conferences. At one of those
we started talking about maybe doing something else to raise more money, because, when they showed us around, we saw this music school which was just awful. It was like a tin shed, all cold and damp, so we thought, we've got to do something about this. On the flight back Ian and I discussed writing a single to raise more money. The first thing we did when we got back home was send them a lot of guitars and drums and whatever. We also wrote and released a couple of songs to help build a new school, that's what ‘Out Of My Mind' was all about.

First Ian and myself got together at my house. I wrote the music and he did the lyrics. We wanted some other people to play on it, and Ian mentioned Jon Lord. I said: ‘Yeah, that would be great!'

I suggested Nicko McBrain, and then we also got Jason Newsted on the bass and Linde Lindström on guitar. It worked out great, and we had a fantastic time recording it. The song turned out really well and we did raise a fair amount of money once again. And we had such a good time doing this that we've actually talked about making it into a proper band.

But whatever I do, Black Sabbath will always be there one way or another. On the day of Ronnie's funeral me and Maria had dinner with Eddie Van Halen and his wife. The phone rang. I picked it up to answer it without looking at the display first, and it was Sharon Osbourne.

Blimey!

I hadn't spoken to her for over a year. She said: ‘Oh, I've got the wrong number. I thought it was another Tony.'

When she realised it was me, she said she was sorry to hear about Ronnie. Then she went: ‘Will you call Ozzy? You must speak to Ozzy!'

I called him a few days later. He said: ‘I'd like to get together and have a chat.'

I said: ‘Well, I'll be back in England in a couple of days.'

‘Good. I'm coming over to England as well, let's see each other then.'

We didn't actually get together then, but we've called each other quite a lot. The idea for a new Black Sabbath album had been floating around between our different managements for a while, and we've been talking about it more and more. It's still not set in stone, but I talked to Ozzy towards the end of 2010, and he went: ‘I'm really looking forward to doing something!'

I actually wrote one or two songs for Sabbath, and there's a lot more coming up. But you never know. By the time you read this we might be in a studio recording, or we might even have an album in the shops already. Or maybe nothing will have come of it and it'll never happen. And we might be planning another tour, or we might never share a stage again.

Writing all this, my story, has obviously given me a lot of time to reflect on my life. It has been a bit like everybody else's I suppose: up and down. I've loved the different turns over the years, good and bad. You learn from them. I've got no real complaints, although it would have been nice to have had no hassles with the business side of things, such as with management and band members. You've got to have those as well, I suppose. These things are sent to try us. But when I look around the world now and see all the things that are happening to people, I've had a good life in comparison to most everybody out there.

I'm really proud of what we've achieved. We spawned a whole new generation of music, of players. You can even say that our music has saved a few lives. Judging by the letters we've had from people writing: ‘Without you . . .', people who might have wanted to commit suicide or do whatever were it not for the music, there's always somebody you've helped out there. It's extremely rewarding.

There was a time when all of the Brummie bands felt the city didn't really care much about us so it was great when all of a
sudden the people that run Broad Street decided to honour the city's famous residents. So it came to be that in November 2008 while recording ‘The Devil You Know' we all took time out so I could receive my star on the city's Walk of Fame! It was bitterly cold, snowing, but even so a great crowd turned up and Mike Olley and his team did a great job with bands playing and Kerrang Radio hosting the event. It was good to join Ozzy and other famous friends like Jasper Carrott, and recently I got involved in Bev Bevan's induction as well. The latest event in this change of heart from the establishment is the Home Of Metal exhibition, specifically honouring all of the heavy bands that came from the West Midlands, including Judas Priest and Led Zeppelin. I never thought that would happen!

And now I don't have to go out to prove anything any more, to anybody. Years ago I was trying to prove to people that I could do this and do that, but nowadays I really enjoy what I do, and I only need to prove to myself that I can do things.

Of course, I have regrets – a lot of them. But I think without that I wouldn't have learned anything. You can't have it all your own way all the time; you've got to have the bad side of life as well, the bad things that happen to you. But you deal with them.

I probably upset some people along the way, what with all the marriages and all the things that have happened over the years. It's all part of life. Hopefully, the people I've upset have gone on to better things.

My daughter Toni amazes me. After what she's been through, she's so out front now! Toni lives in Finland. She moved in with her boyfriend, Linde. He's the guitar player in a band called HIM and they are madly in love. He's a lovely lad and a very good player. He's very quiet and she just won't shut up, but they're very happy together. Thankfully, they come over often, so Maria and me get to see them a lot.

All I'm hoping for these days is that I'm still here in a few years.
I enjoy where I'm at now, I really do. It's a good place. I've got a good home life and a good family. And I'm fortunate because I'm still able to create and to go out and play music, and have some of the best friends on the planet.

But whatever happens, there's one thing I'm absolutely sure about.

I will never set fire to Bill Ward again.

T. J. Lammers, for the endless amount of listening and patience.

 

My managers Ernest Chapman and Ralph Baker, for their hard work, friendship, dedication and loyalty.

 

Ozzy, Geezer and Bill; there wouldn't be a book without you. Through all the ups and downs we've managed to stay friends and hopefully we'll have many more good times together.

 

My fans and supporters; thanks so much for being there.

 

Brian May, Eddie Van Halen and James Hetfield, for the kind words.

 

The two Mike's, Clement and Exeter, and endless amounts of crew members over the years.

 

My closest friends (you know who you are).

 

Love you all!

 

Tony

ABBA

Abrahams, Mick

AC/DC

Ackrill, Phil

Adams, Brian

Aerosmith

Air Supply

Albert (schoolfriend)

Alcoholics Anonymous

Ali, Muhammad

Allom, Tom

Anderson, Ian

Anne, Princess

Anselmo, Phil

Appice, Vinny

drumming style

and Heaven and Hell

rejoins band

and reunions

Arden, David

Arden, Don

arrest and imprisonment

manages Sabbath

and
Born Again
cover

Arden, Sharon,
see
Osbourne,

Sharon

Armenia

Aronoff, Kenny

Art

Astbury, Ian

Aston

Aston gang

astral travelling

Axén, Martina

Bad Company

Bain, Rodger

Baker, Ralph

Bandy Legs

Banfield, Phil

Bassey, Shirley

Battle Abbey

Beach Boys, The

Beastie Boys, The

Beatles, The

Beck, Jeff

Bee Gees, The

Belch

Berry, Chuck

Betty Ford Clinic

Bevan, Bev

Birch, Martin

Birds & The Bees, The

black magic

Black Oak Arkansas

Black Sabbath

awards

and Can Am studio

and crosses

down-tuned sound

first album

first American tour

first European tours

formation

and keyboards

last studio album

Live Aid reunion

management

and money

the name

and the occult

reunions

Stonehenge set

Black Sabbath albums

Black Sabbath
(film)

Black Sabbath (racehorse)

Black Sabbath tracks

‘After All (The Dead)'

‘After Forever'

‘Anno Mundi'

‘Behind The Wall Of Sleep'

‘Black Sabbath'

‘Buried Alive'

‘Cardinal Sin'

‘Changes'

‘Children Of The Grave'

‘Children Of The Sea'

‘Computer God'