When Tony Iommi played in Jethro Tull
It’s rarely talked about, but before he brought the sound of heavy metal to life with his Gibson inside the Black Sabbath, Tony Iommi had a brief stint in the Jethro Tull.
Iommi was performing with Earth – a precursor group to Black Sabbath that included Ozzy Osbourne, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward – when in 1968 he was asked to join Ian Anderson’s band as a last-minute replacement for the guitarist Mick Abrahamswho had just left the band.
His brief stint with Anderson’s lineup saw him appear on stage in “The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus”those extravagant live concerts featuring the Stones, the Who, Dirty Mac – a supergroup made up of John Lennon, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards (on bass) and Jimi Hendrix Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell – and Jethro Tull.
“It was a strange meeting,” Iommi tells Guitar World. “One night we did a concert with Jethro Tull and that was when Mick Abrahams got fired or left – I don’t know what happened. After the concert they asked me if I would be interested in joining them, which is It was truly amazing.”
Iommi secured the job after a highly competitive audition, for which he traveled more than 150 kilometers from Birmingham to London. “I walked in and saw all these musicians lined up and I thought, ‘Oh no, forget it,’” the guitarist says. “But one of the crew saw me and told me to go and sit in a cafe across the street.”
Iommi was last in line and passed the audition. When Anderson later invited him to attend the Stones concert, Iommi asked his Earth bandmates what they thought.
On the occasion of the “Rock and Roll Circus” performance, Jethro Tull played “Song For Jeffrey”, a 1968 single included in “This Was”, the English band’s debut album. The version on the disc that contained the recordings of that concert, however, was the studio version played by Abrahams. In addition to Iommi and Anderson, the live lineup included the drummer Clive Bunker And Glenn Cornick on bass and harmonica
Iommi’s collaboration with Jethro Tull did not continue further and Mick Abrahams was replaced in 1969 by Martin Barrewho remained in the lineup with Anderson until 2011.
