Tony Iommi On Sabbath's 1985 Live Aid Reunion: "It Was A Bit Surreal, To Be Honest…"
Guitarist Tony Iommi remembers reuniting with the original Black Sabbath line-up for Live Aid 1985.
As part of a new SiriusXM Volume series celebrating the 35th anniversary of Live Aid, Black Sabbath's Tony Iommi has been looking back at the heavy metal titans' iconic original line-up reunion at the Philadelphia leg in 1985.
The guitarist joined forces once more with Ozzy Osbourne, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward for the first time since 1978, running through Children Of The Grave, Iron Man and Paranoid in front of thousands of fans at the John F. Kennedy Stadium on July 13.
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"It was great," Tony recalls on Live Aid Look Back: 35 Years Later. "It was great being with the guys again. It was a bit surreal, to be honest, because, basically, I had been in the studio working. It was an unusual thing for me to come from the studio, and then suddenly, here we are, in the next couple of days, onstage in front of all the people. We'd never really done that before. We'd always sort of rehearsed for a proper show for a while.
"But this was a quick rehearsal for an hour or whatever it was, and then the next day, of course, onstage. So it was a bit nerving, because you don't know how things are gonna go with the equipment and all this stuff. We hadn't been onstage together for so long. You have to sort of suck it and see what's gonna happen."
The two-hour Live Aid Look Back: 35 Years Later special will air in full throughout the week, and will feature interviews with the likes of Tony, Judas Priest's Rob Halford and REO Speedwagon's Kevin Cronin.
Hear Tony's thoughts below:
And watch Black Sabbath performing Paranoid at Live Aid 1985: