It was moments before going onstage at the Los Angeles Forum on October 7, 1971 that Tony Iommi first tried cocaine. Handed a wrap of the stuff by a roadie, the Black Sabbath guitarist was assured that, “It’ll help you concentrate,” a promise confirmed when he went on and later claimed that his playing that night was like that of a god. Almost exactly two years previously, Tony and Black Sabbath had pulled up to London’s Regent Sound studio en route to a gig in Europe in their knackered old van, which the guitarist had driven himself, to quickly bash out the tracks for their self-titled debut album. Now here he was in La-la-land, with three albums to his name, 17,000 people waiting to see him, a limousine outside the venue and a load of this new wo...
