Perhaps it was the result of having spent years playing guitar for Black Sabbath alongside Ozzy Osbourne, whose future solo hits would include ‘Crazy Train’.
And so when one young man gatecrashed the Midlands Today sofa on Broad Street by throwing himself next to Iommi’s during a TV interview, the legendary axeman simply kept his cool. Watch how it happened in our exclusive video here:
Iommi had been sitting on the BBC Midlands Today sofa next to the Black Sabbath Bench earlier this week to record an interview with reporter Ben Sidwell celebrating the programme’s 60th anniversary.
Westside BID’s street warden Enoch White instantly sprang into action to remove the prankster, but when he jumped up to run away our second camera reveals he almost ran straight into the side of a blue tram.
Luckily, he didn’t trip on the pavement and managed to stop himself a yard away from the vehicle which was moving at regular speed. Despite the interruption, ‘Iron Man’ Tony simply carried on chatting with Ben on the sofa.
It was in June 2019 when Tony and bass-playing bandmate Geezer Butler had originally arrived by canal narrowboat to unveil the bench above the Black Sabbath Bridge, which was renamed at the same time.
This was Tony’s first public return to Westside since major restoration work in March this year upgraded the faces of the four members of the original Black Sabbath, including Ozzy Osbourne and drummer Bill Ward.
And Iommi had a special message for Westside BID, which imagined, created and installed the bench all those years ago. He said: “It’s always special for me to visit the Black Sabbath bridge when I get the chance. The Westside BID team has done a brilliant job maintaining our youthful good looks for all the fans that travel here. Keep up the good work! Tony.“
We covered the red sofa interview in our video story published here yesterday.
To watch Tony’s full interview with Ben Sidwell, tune into Midlands Today at 6.30pm today on BBC1.
Pictures and video for Westside BID by Graham Young
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