Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler recalled how Tony Iommi almost joined Jethro Tull before returning to their band and finding success in his own way.
The rocker sat down with Q104.3 and talked about Iommi’s short time away from the band. He revealed that the Black Sabbath guitarist impressed Ian Andersen so well that he almost tried to steal Iommi:
“Yeah, he enticed Tony away. We were a blues band at the time, and we supported them in Birmingham. And as Tony was doing his guitar solo, we saw Ian Anderson slowly come into the gig, stand right in front of Tony, and he was just like, mesmerized.”
He continued:
“And we were thinking, ‘Oh no, this looks bad.’ Because we were doing nothing at the time. And afterwards Tony came, when we were got in the van, going home, he says, ‘Ian Anderson has asked me to join Jethro Tull moving.’ ‘We’ve got nothing, you may as well go for it.’”
This happened in Black Sabbath’s early days when Iommi, Butler, Ozzy Osbourne, and Bill Ward were originally called Polka Tulk before changing their name to Earth. However, Iommi didn’t stay long with Ian Anderson’s band. He didn’t record any music with Tull but did perform ‘A Song for Jeffrey’ on ‘The Rolling Stones Rock & Roll Circus’ and made another live appearance on BBC.
Iommi’s Time With Jethro Tull Taught Him A Lot
During another interview on BBC Radio, Iommi reflected on his short time with Jethro Tull in 1968 and its impact on Black Sabbath. He said that being in a band with such a strong work ethic allowed him to bring that experience back to Black Sabbath.
Iommi said of his experience with Jethro Tull:
“It [taught] me a lot because I saw the way they worked, and I took that back to our band, ‘This is what we need to do.’ They thought I must be mad, but they did it. Geezer never saw the light of the day until 12 o’clock normally.”
He added:
“But I said, ‘No, we gotta rehearse at 9 o’clock.’ So we would go around to his house, pick him up, we would get there to the rehearsal, and it started working. It was a serious thing. And because I had the chance of being in Jethro Tull and didn’t do it, our guys had more to show. And it sort of worked.”
You can watch the interview below.