In a new interview with Guitar World, Tony Iommi shared how he ended up losing a priceless guitar.
The red 1965 Gibson SG Special, called ‘Monkey,’ was Iommi’s first important guitar. He used it after his white Stratocaster broke while recording Black Sabbath’s first album. It helped him during the band’s early success but was later displayed at the Hard Rock Café in New York. He was supposed to be able to buy it back, but that deal didn’t happen.
“The guy who used to buy memorabilia for the Hard Rock came to England and visited me,” the rocker recalled. “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.”
He added, “The deal was if I ever wanted it back, I could let him know and buy it back for the same price. It seemed fair enough, a good deal. Anyway, he passed away, so that was it. We tried to get in touch with Hard Rock to get it back and they knew nothing about the deal.”
Even though the guitar remained at the Hard Rock Café, they reached a compromise. Iommi lent ‘Monkey’ to Gibson, and the company made detailed replicas. They produced about 50 of these replicas, and Iommi owns two of them. He mentioned that the replicas look very similar to the original, including its wear and the monkey sticker, and he uses them in the studio.
According to Iommi’s website, the red Monkey guitar is a 1965 model, which “became the main instrument when the bridge pickup on Tony’s white Stratocaster failed after the band recorded ‘Wicked World’ on the ‘Black Sabbath’ album. … The guitar was donated by Tony to the Hard Rock Cafe organisation (as seen in their documentary Hard Rock Treasures). At the time of writing it is on display at the Times Square location in New York City.”
While the original guitar remains with the Hard Rock Cafe, fans have the option to buy the signature models on Reverb.