Guitar legend Tony Iommi made a surprise appearance at the opening of a new Black Sabbath-based ballet at The Hippodrome Theatre. The theater is, fittingly, located in the iconic rock band’s hometown of Birmingham, United Kingdom.
The ballet is directed by Carlos Acosta and Ballet Now, and commissioned by Birmingham Royal Ballet. It features eight re-orchestrated renditions of Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid,” “Iron Man,” “War Pigs,” “Black Sabbath,” “Solitude,” “Orchid,” “Laguna Sunrise,” and “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath.” As well as new compositions inspired by the group.
Iommi had even attended some of the rehearsals but surprised the audience when he made a cameo during the final number. Where he shredded his guitar on the band’s hit song “Paranoid.” Taking an obligatory bow along with the cast and crew once the performance was over.
But Iommi wasn’t the only celebrity in attendance. Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler, Sharon Osbourne, and Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant were also in the crowd. Along with Electric Light Orchestra drummer Bev Bevan, who served as the touring drummer for Black Sabbath from 1983 to 1984. (Who also played drums on the band’s 1987 album “The Eternal Idol.”)
After his performance, Iommi posted on Facebook thanking everyone who supported the Ballet. Gushing about being able to work with such talented performers.
In April, Iommi was asked by Birmingham World about his feelings on Black Sabbath’s music soundtracking a ballet.
“I’m looking at our music differently now with [the ballet], because it is being interpreted in a different way,” Iommi said. “It’s still got the basic things, but then it did have in the different orchestral things coming in. And then I never thought for a minute we would have people dancing to Black Sabbath and ‘War Pigs’ and ‘Iron Man’. But here we are…”
“Birmingham Royal Ballet are very conscious of the work being what it is — the Sabbath music,” he added about Royal Ballet’s interpretation of their music. “We don’t want to change it so you can’t recognize it. So they’ve held that part of it, but added another dimension to it. So I was very happy with that.”
“Black Sabbath – The Ballet,” is set to run through September 30th. You can check out the footage from the primere below:
