What national origin is Tony Iommi?

Cafe Society
1

A friend who’s a heavy metal guitarist recently loaned me the movie “Metal - A Headbanger’s Journey”, which contains an interview with founding Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi. I no longer play music anything like metal, but I loved Black Sabbath in my teens.

I was a particularly big fan of Iommi – not only did he play left-handed like I do, but this British guy appeared to be of some Mediterranean ethnicity(which I identified with, being a Greek kid from West Virginia).

I was pleased to learn that Iommi is considered a music visionary, the godfather of heavy metal.

I know the whole band hailed from around Birmingham, UK, but I always wondered what national origin Iommi’s name was. I had always presumed Arabic or Italian. Does anyone know?

2

I’m pretty sure it’s Italian. The first name, Anthony, would support that as well.

3

Googling “Iommi” and “Italy” turns up a whole bunch of names indicating you are correct.

I guess the repetitive spelling made the name look like it had been transliterated from another alphabet.

4

Tony is of Italian descent, as are Ronnie James Dio and Vinnie Appice.

So, after Ozzy and Bill Ward left, Ozzy supposedly referred to his old band as “Geezer and those 3 Italians.”