Tony Iommi says he couldn’t buy the guitar he played on Black Sabbath’s earliest albums back from the Hard Rock Cafe, because the person who bought it off him died.
In a new interview with Guitar World, the pioneering metal player reveals he once sold a custom Gibson “Monkey” SG to the restaurant franchise, with the option that he could buy it back at the same price if he ever wished. However, the deal ultimately wasn’t honoured due to one tragic loophole.
“The guy who used to buy memorabilia for the Hard Rock came to England and visited me,” Iommi remembers (via Guitar.com). “He wanted to buy some stuff and I said it should be fine. I’d retired the Monkey SG because it was too valuable to me; I didn’t want to take it on the road and risk it getting damaged.”
The guitarist says he wanted to part ways with the instrument as it would be more treasured in a museum-like display than if it were gathering dust in one of his cases. “The deal was if I ever wanted it back, I could let him know and buy it back for the same price,” he adds. “It seemed fair enough, a good deal.”
Some years ago, Iommi attempted to invoke the buy-back clause in the Hard Rock deal and get the SG returned. Sadly though, the person who’d purchased the guitar had passed, and the people the musician contacted had no idea about the original terms.
“Anyway, he passed away, so that was it,” he says. “We tried to get in touch with Hard Rock to get it back and they knew nothing about the deal.”
The instrument was never formally returned to Iommi but, in 2020, the Hard Rock let the guitarist briefly take it back so Gibson could make a new signature model. In an interview with Guitarist that year (via Ultimate Guitar), the player revealed he used his classic SG on the first “four or five” Sabbath albums.
Sabbath retired in 2017 after a lengthy farewell tour, but all four of the band’s classic members have recently expressed interest in reuniting. Singer Ozzy Osbourne began the campaign to get the band back together, saying their farewell felt “unfinished” due to the absence of founding drummer Bill Ward.
