Graham Bonnet On Tony Iommi’s Offer To Join Black Sabbath

While discussing his musical plans for the future during a chat with the ‘Disturbing The Priest’ podcast, Graham Bonnet touched on his past career and recalled receiving an offer from Tony Iommi to join Black Sabbath. The singer explained why he rejected the offer by saying:

“Yeah, he called me one day, and I thought, ‘I don’t know about that.’ I couldn’t imagine me somehow in a band called Black Sabbath with the way I look. [Laughs] I don’t look very Black Sabbath. I’d have to grow my hair really long and dye it dark black and grow a beard or something. I wasn’t sure.”

Also citing his concerns about the band’s musical style, he added:

“And I wasn’t sure about the music either because I thought I wanted to do something that wasn’t like Black Sabbath. I was so sort of anti-heavy in a way because the way I write a song, the way my other friends who are guitar players, the way they wrote songs, it wasn’t the typical so-called heavy metal, heavy rock, whatever you wanna call it, way.”

When Iommi’s offer came up in the early ’80s, Bonnet was freshly out of Rainbow to pursue his solo career. Instead of joining Black Sabbath at the time, the singer released his third solo album, ‘Line-Up,’ and collaborated with musicians like Whitesnake’s Mick Moody and Rainbow’s Cozy Powell for it.

Years later, during a chat with Musikholics, he referred to that project by saying:

“I’m most proud of the album ‘Line Up’ from my solo career. I enjoyed recording an album that encompassed different genres. The musicians on that album were at the top of their game and could match me in the ability to play all genres. Real musicians…”

Check out Graham Bonnet’s recent interview in the video below.