Iron Man by Tony Iommi Page A

‘You’ve got to have a go; they really want you to play.’
    So he came and fetched me from the caf. Everybody was gone by the time it was my turn. We did a twelve-bar blues and I got to solo. We did another two or three jams and then they said: ‘You’ve got the job.’
    Before I knew it I was in rehearsals with Jethro Tull for the recording of their Stand Up album. The song ‘Living In The Past’ from that album would go to No. 1 in the British charts. I came up with a couple of the riffs for ‘Nothing Is Easy’.
    Because I felt so out of place in London and I really felt bad about leaving Earth, I took Geezer down with me for moral support. He would sit at the back of the room, and they were fine with that. John put us up in his flat and took us to the rehearsals. They started at nine o’clock in the morning sharp. I had never heard of nine o’clock in the morning with our band, none of us had. With Earth we would just straggle in whenever we felt like it. But with Tull it was: ‘Gotta be there, on time!’
    The first day we got there maybe ten minutes late and I could hear Ian Anderson screaming at John: ‘Nine o’clock, I said!’
    I thought, bloody hell, this is a bit serious. I hadn’t even plugged in and already the tension was palpable. At twelve o’clock sharp it was: lunch. I just sat down with Ian at a table. The others were at another table whispering to me: ‘No!’
    I thought, what’s the matter with them?
    They went: ‘You don’t sit with Ian. You sit with us.’

    â€˜What do you mean?’
    â€˜He likes to sit by himself. And we sit together.’
    I thought, bloody hell, that’s a weird set-up. This is supposed to be a band!
    That night Ian Anderson took me to see Free play at the Marquee. He introduced me to everybody as his new guitar player, so I thought, this is wonderful. I felt like a pop star. From being a nobody from Birmingham to people at the Marquee taking an interest – it seemed great. We watched Free for a bit and left early. Rehearsal again the next morning, nine o’clock. And don’t be late!
    But it just didn’t feel good. The thing that put the nail in the coffin for me was a meeting with the band’s manager. He said: ‘You’ll get £25 a week and you are really lucky to have this position.’
    That pissed me off. I said: ‘What do you mean I’m really lucky? They want me because they like what I play, not because of luck!’
    After that I thought: I want to be a part of a band that’s going to make it all together, not be put in a band where they’ve already made it and I’m ‘lucky to be in there’. I went back to the rehearsal room and said to Ian: ‘Can I have a word with you?’
    We went outside and I said: ‘I don’t feel comfortable about this whole thing.’
    He said: ‘What’s wrong?’
    â€˜I’m not happy with the situation. And I don’t feel right about being “lucky” to be in a band and all this sort of stuff.’
    Ian was great, I can’t fault him at all; he was very nice about the whole thing. He said: ‘Look, if you are definitely sure you want to leave . . .’
    â€˜Well, I am.’
    â€˜We’re in trouble now, because we’re doing this film, The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus , and we don’t have a guitar player. Would you do that at least?’
    I felt bad walking out on them, so I said: ‘Yes, I’ll do that.’

    And that was it. As soon as I came out of that last rehearsal I said to Geezer: ‘Let’s get the band back together.’
    He said: ‘Are you sure about leaving Tull? You ought to give it time.’ He was pushing me, but then he said: ‘I’m glad you’re not doing it.’
    I said: ‘Let’s make a proper go of it. Do what they’re doing: rehearse in the morning,