Before Black Sabbath became legends and before heavy metal ruled the world, Tony Iommi was just a working-class kid trying to survive. Music wasn’t paying the bills yet, so like many young men in Birmingham, England, he worked at a sheet metal factory. He played guitar at night and worked long, dangerous shifts during the day. No one could have imagined that a single moment at that factory would help create an entirely new sound in rock music.
One day, Tony was asked to operate a large metal press — a job he wasn’t used to. It was supposed to be routine. Instead, it turned into a nightmare. The machine came down suddenly and cut off the tips of two fingers on his right hand, the very fingers he needed to play guitar. Doctors told him the worst news possible: he might never play again.
For a guitarist who lived and breathed music, this felt like the end of everything.
At first, Tony was ready to quit. What was the point of a guitarist without fingertips? But then he heard about Django Reinhardt, a famous jazz guitarist who played with damaged fingers and still became a legend. That story lit a fire in Tony. If Django could do it, maybe he could too.
Tony decided not to give up. Instead, he got creative. He made homemade fingertip covers using melted plastic and leather to protect his damaged fingers. Even then, playing normally was painful. So he tried something different — he tuned his guitar strings lower. This made the strings looser and easier to press down.
That simple change did something unexpected.
The lower tuning gave the guitar a dark, heavy, and powerful sound. It felt slower, thicker, and more menacing than anything people were used to hearing. Tony didn’t plan to invent heavy metal — he was just trying to keep playing. But that deep, gloomy tone became the backbone of Black Sabbath’s sound.
Soon, Tony Iommi, Ozzy Osbourne, Geezer Butler, and Bill Ward formed Black Sabbath. Their music sounded different from everything else at the time. It was heavier. Darker. More intense. Songs like Black Sabbath and Paranoid didn’t just entertain people — they changed rock music forever. Heavy metal was born, largely because Tony had to adapt to his injury.
Around the same era, another loud and powerful band was rising — AC/DC. Black Sabbath and AC/DC even toured together early on. While there were some clashes behind the scenes, Ozzy Osbourne had nothing but respect for AC/DC. He loved their raw energy and straight-to-the-point rock sound.
Ozzy was especially impressed by Angus Young, calling him unstoppable and full of endless energy. He also had deep love for AC/DC’s original singer Bon Scott. To Ozzy, Highway to Hell wasn’t just a great album — it was addictive. Even though he respected Brian Johnson, Ozzy always felt Bon Scott had something special.
In the end, Tony Iommi’s accident could have ended his dream. Instead, it reshaped music history. Sometimes, the hardest moments create the greatest ideas — and heavy metal is living proof of that. 🤘