“Tony Iommi is the largest riff composer of all time”

Guitar World interviewed the guitarist of Rage Against The Machine Tom Morello. Among other topics, the conversation also concerned his opinion on the guitarist of Black Sabbath Tony Iommi.

To the question about what is distinguished Tony Iommi as guitarist, Tom Morello He praised his compositional skill first of all by saying, “Together with Jimmy Page, he is the greatest riff composer of all time. The riffs are really heavy and also have fantastic grooves.”

The 61 -year -old Morello in his chat also reported a personal anecdote of when, he, a novice guitar student, began in defense of the style of Tony Iommi. “I remember one of my first guitar lessons, where I was learning, I don’t know,” Sweet Leaf “or something like that. The teacher, who was a bit of a musician, denigrated Tony’s way of playing, saying: ‘These riffs are really simple’. I replied: ‘Yes, but he wrote them and they are simply fantastic!'”.

Tom Morello
also underlined how the work of
Tony Iommi
has greatly influenced his musical philosophy. “Simplicity does not take anything away from the size. I have always tried to keep it in mind when I write my riffs. Because the more technically you grow as a musician, the more sometimes you start to think that if it is not complicated, it is not good. So I constantly turn to the incredible catalog of Tony Iommi and its fantastic riffs. It has a unique style.”