{"id":641182,"date":"2026-08-17T04:23:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T04:23:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/641182\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T04:23:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T04:23:14","slug":"the-drummer-that-tony-iommi-was-scared-to-play-with-in-the-1980s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/641182\/","title":{"rendered":"The drummer that Tony Iommi was scared to play with in the 1980s"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Tony<\/p>\n

Credit: Far Out \/ TIDAL<\/p>\n

Sun 16 August 2026 17:30, UK <\/p>\n

July 5th, 2025, was the date that Black Sabbath<\/a>, one of the most influential bands of all time, officially called it a day.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Heavy metal fans from around the world descended on Villa Park as Black Sabbath set out to perform one of the biggest heavy metal shows of all time, officially deciding to call curtains, while sharing the stage with all of the acts they had inspired along the way. Acts like Pantera, Slayer and Metallica all performed as an ode to Sabbath, as they knew full well that without Tony Iommi and co, they may not have had such careers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

James Hetfield said in an interview that Black Sabbath was the band that helped him understand the kind of music that he wanted to make. Once he heard their self-titled album and realised that music didn\u2019t just need to be sweet, but could also be terrifying. It completely revolutionised the way that people looked at music, and, as Hetfield claimed, \u201cSabbath was the band that put heavy in my head<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n

When people talk about the influence of Sabbath, though, they tend to focus on their first few albums, and fair enough, as those records were completely revolutionary; they were the albums that basically gave rise to heavy metal. <\/p>\n

The problem that Sabbath had afterwards was trying to continue putting out exciting music within the genre that they had developed, and while they still released great records such as Master of Reality and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, they didn\u2019t get crowds quite as excited as those initial titles. <\/p>\n

On top of that, different band members kept leaving because they had personal issues or because of creative friction, with Iommi constantly trying to keep the band going and keep the ideas coming, but that proved to be harder and harder as time went on. One of the replacements that people talk about a lot and say must have been impossible to rectify was when Ozzy Osbourne left<\/a>, and they needed to find a new singer; however, not enough people talk about Bill Ward leaving the band. <\/p>\n

The importance of a good drummer, someone you can feel confident with playing, and who can hold the complex riffs that Iommi was putting out together, cannot be understated.\u00a0When Ward left the band, Iommi needed to find someone who could play the songs, hold the sound together, and continue to push Sabbath in the right direction, so he ended up going with Vinnie Appice, who was a confident percussionist, but with whom he was also nervous about playing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Further reading: From The Vault<\/strong><\/p>\n

You have to give credit to Tony Iommi; he helped front one of the most influential heavy metal bands of all time, and then after the dust had settled, he continued trying to push the boundaries of the genre, while changing the musical landscape with a varying band line-up, even when the prospect of working with other musicians felt somewhat scary.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBringing Vinnie in was another complete shock for me, and I was absolutely petrified,\u201d he said, \u201cI must be honest: I hadn\u2019t played with another drummer for many, many years. Bill knew everything I did, and we followed each other, really down to the T, but bringing somebody like Vinny in was a different style drummer. We auditioned him in LA, and two or three days later, we were playing a festival in bloody Hawaii.\u201d<\/p>\n

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