Few guitarists have had as profound an impact on heavy music as Tony Iommi. His signature riffs helped shape the metal genre, influencing generations of musicians. One of those musicians, Tom Morello, renowned for his work in Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave, credits Iommi, alongside another iconic guitarist, as the foundation for his own riff-writing style.
“I’m a riff writer, and Ground Zero for riff writing is Jimmy Page and Tony Iommi,” Morello explained. “They’re the two pillars, and they play a significant role in how I developed my sound. ‘Iron Man’ was one of the first riffs I ever learned on guitar, and Tony Iommi has another two or three hundred of the greatest electric guitar riffs of all time in his catalog.”
According to Morello, the brilliance of Iommi’s songwriting lies in its simplicity. “The big lesson you can draw from the music of Black Sabbath as a musician is: Don’t be afraid to be simple and awesome.”
He recounted an experience where a guitar instructor dismissed the riff for ‘Sweet Leaf’ as too easy to play, failing to recognize what makes a riff truly great.
“I remember taking a guitar lesson to learn ‘Sweet Leaf,’ and the instructor was a bit snobby about how simple it was. I thought, ‘That’s not the criteria for greatness. That’s a f***ing song that rocks me like I’ve never been rocked before.’ Who cares if it has four notes or 40,000 notes in it? It’s great!”
Morello emphasized that the magic of Iommi’s riffs lies not in technical complexity but in their power and impact. He also credited the chemistry between Iommi and his Black Sabbath bandmates, especially bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward, for elevating the riffs to another level.
“For sure. As everyone knows, he suffered a terrible industrial accident and lost the tips of two of his fingers. He’s literally Iron Man! His fingers are not human. That definitely contributes to it. But it’s the rhythm section of Geezer and Bill that takes those great riffs and makes them Black Sabbath riffs.”
For Morello and countless others, Iommi’s playing is not about technical difficulty—it’s about the impact of the riffs. A legendary riff doesn’t need complexity; it just needs to hit hard, and Iommi is the master of that art.
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