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On Monday morning we awoke to the news that legendary Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi has been diagnosed with cancer. The news felt like a kick to the stomach. Only weeks ago the four original members of Black Sabbath made the announcement that they would reunite for a world tour, and the release of their first studio album by the original Sabbath since 1978’s Never Say Die!

Iommi has been a mainstay in the rock/metal world since Black Sabbath released their eponymous first release in 1970. The album became the stuff of legend as Sabbath was launched into sudden stardom. They snubbed the hippie, flower-power movement so popular at the time. Iommi has been the backbone of the band throughout the years. At times he was the only original member of the band keeping the Sabbath moniker alive against the wishes of many. Now he’s up against the ultimate foe.

It was 1980 at the age of 14 that I stepped on to a New York City bus and noticed that in the long bench seat in the back were three older teenagers with a boom box. For those of you less than 25 or 30 years old a “boom box” was basically a traveling stereo that you held on one shoulder. Believe it or not, the bigger the box, the cooler you were! Not known to me at the time was the identity of the blaring sound coming out of the obnoxious radio. It was something I’d never heard before. It was a sound so unfamiliar to me that a shy kid walked up to those older, cooler kids and asked what it was they were listening to? The response: “That’s Black Sabbath. That’s ‘Iron Man.’”

Well, life changed right there and then. I immediately went to Sam Goody’s (a mall-type record store that no longer exists) and bought the first Black Sabbath album that I found. It turned out to be their new release Heaven and Hell. At the time I didn’t realize that Ronnie James Dio had replaced Ozzy Osbourne as Sabbath’s front man. It didn’t matter; by the following week I had every Black Sabbath album released up until that time.

Sabbath wasn’t my entrée into music, but they were the first hard rock band that I listened to, and subsequently led me to a life of heavy metal. Bands admittedly paid homage to Sabbath, and some were great bands in their own right, but no one could hold a candle to the riff master. Iommi was, and still is, the signature sound of metal. He created it. You can read all of the interviews with various bands in the last 30 years and they’ll tell you that Iommi is the godfather of the heavy metal riff.

Hero worship isn’t part of my make-up. I admire many people, but it always stopped there. My curiosity and passion for Iommi’s playing though had me comparing every other guitarist I’d heard to him. The emotion and pure power that he could provoke had a hypnotic effect. Drugs weren’t necessary even though Sabbath fans were famous, or infamous, for their drug use. No doubt, albums like Master of Reality, Volume 4, and Sabotage were fueled by hallucinogens and cocaine, but what rock music wasn’t influenced by drugs in the early to mid-’70s?

So here we are. Our heroes are getting older and at some point you come to grips with the fact that they won’t be around forever. The good news is that the soon-to-be 64-year-old Iommi has the early stages of the disease. No further information has been released. Updates will be made on Sabbath’s Facebook page and at black-sabbath.com and Iommi.com. The new album is still slated for a fall release and will be produced by Rick Rubin. Concert dates for the summer remain unchanged. Sabbath is set to headline numerous European festivals prior to the album’s release. My goal is to take my 11-year-old son to the show.

My hopes and well wishes go out to a class individual. A couple of years ago I used this venue to eulogize one of the great voices in music when Ronnie James Dio died of stomach cancer. I refuse to believe that I will do the same for one of the greatest guitar players of all time. Let’s save it for 30 years from now.

All the best Tony.