Fact #117169
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Tony Iommi : We did the Fillmore East, and blimey, it was fantastic. We supported The Faces and we went down really well. That was the biggest place we’d ever played.
The women in America just seemed a lot more forward to the women back home, a lot more open. We were like kids in a candy shop. We couldn’t believe it. We had women coming up and talking to us – instead of blokes coming and talking to us. When we checked into a hotel there were all these women there, but we didn’t know anything about groupies. We didn’t know how that scene worked. It was certainly an eye-opener, that’s for sure.
With a name like Black Sabbath, we had all sorts of weird people coming to the gigs in America – witches and all sorts. There would be people coming to our hotel with black cloaks on, lighting candles. It was something that grew out of proportion. You never know what people will do. You didn’t know what sort of people would be around. Some of those religious weirdoes were as dangerous as the Ku Klux Klan.
The most disturbing thing I ever had was when one person came on stage with a dagger to stab me. Very disturbing to say the least! We were playing this open-air show. When we got to the gig, somebody had painted a cross on a door in red. We didn’t think much else of it. But later on we found out this bloke had cut his hand and drawn the cross in his blood. He was some religious freak. During that show, my amps were playing up and I really got pissed off. I lost my temper and kicked my stack over and walked off. And as I’m walking off, this bloke’s behind me. He’d got past security but somebody managed to jump on him. I didn’t know what was happening. I was still moaning about my gear. It was only afterwards that I found out this bloke had a dagger and was trying to bump one of us off.
(Source : interview with Paul Elliott for Classic Rock, 2014)
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The women in America just seemed a lot more forward to the women back home, a lot more open. We were like kids in a candy shop. We couldn’t believe it. We had women coming up and talking to us – instead of blokes coming and talking to us. When we checked into a hotel there were all these women there, but we didn’t know anything about groupies. We didn’t know how that scene worked. It was certainly an eye-opener, that’s for sure.
With a name like Black Sabbath, we had all sorts of weird people coming to the gigs in America – witches and all sorts. There would be people coming to our hotel with black cloaks on, lighting candles. It was something that grew out of proportion. You never know what people will do. You didn’t know what sort of people would be around. Some of those religious weirdoes were as dangerous as the Ku Klux Klan.
The most disturbing thing I ever had was when one person came on stage with a dagger to stab me. Very disturbing to say the least! We were playing this open-air show. When we got to the gig, somebody had painted a cross on a door in red. We didn’t think much else of it. But later on we found out this bloke had cut his hand and drawn the cross in his blood. He was some religious freak. During that show, my amps were playing up and I really got pissed off. I lost my temper and kicked my stack over and walked off. And as I’m walking off, this bloke’s behind me. He’d got past security but somebody managed to jump on him. I didn’t know what was happening. I was still moaning about my gear. It was only afterwards that I found out this bloke had a dagger and was trying to bump one of us off.
(Source : interview with Paul Elliott for Classic Rock, 2014)