The name 'Tony Iommi' sends shivers down the spines of guitarists around the world. As lead guitarist and songwriter of Black Sabbath, Tony Iommi is considered to be one of the most influential musicians of the past four decades and the inventor of heavy metal. From working class, Midlands roots, his unique playing style - a result of a disfiguring hand injury he suffered working in a sheet metal factory -- created a dark and gothic sound unlike anything that had been heard before and which captured the mood of its time. Sabbath went on to become a superband, playing to massive audiences around the world and selling millions of records, and Iommi led the life of a rockstar to the fullest - with the scars from all the drug-fuelled nights of excess and wildness to show for it. Iron Man is the exclusive account of the life and adventures of one of rock's greatest heroes.

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While there are other books that offer more detail about the band, lead guitarist and songwriter Iommi's chronicle is an important addition to the Black Sabbath story. Even early Sabbath detractors recognized that Iommi's pummeling riffs in songs like "Iron Man" and "War Pigs"-powerfully delivered by lead singer Ozzy Osborne-defined the Sabbath sound. Iommi's autobiography is as direct as his music, beginning with his description of losing the two middle fingers on his left hand in an industrial press accident as a teenager in the early days of the band, which, he notes, some people credit with creating "the deeper, down-tuned sound" of the band-"I had to reinvent my style of playing to accommodate the pain." The book's main virtue is its straightforward, year-by-year account of the band's history, from early struggles ("When we recorded Paranoid I still lived at home") through the band's breakup with Ozzy in 1979 ("There were so many drugs flying around, coke and Quaaludes and Mandrax, and there was booze and late nights and women and everything else") to Iommi's post-Ozzy versions of Sabbath and various solo projects. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Surprisingly, the man who invented the heavy-metal riff didn't do it out of creative inspiration but out of prosthetic necessity. Detailing the gruesome accident that resulted in the severing of two fingers on his left hand, Iommi opens his memoir with both graphic description and honesty. It was this event that shaped his style of guitar playing and the sound that was to define Black Sabbath. While much of his memoir details the trials and tribulations of Black Sabbath, Iommi paints an intimate portrait of his own life from childhood to his most recent musical effort in Heaven & Hell. Aided by journalist Lammers, Iommi's narrative voice is evident in each vignette. Unfortunately for Iommi, the book ends in the same way it begins: with another accident, this one involving his right hand. Still, even with two damaged hands, Iommi reminds us that he is one of the greatest guitar legends alive today. VERDICT Another rock 'n' roll memoir rife with addiction and celebrity. Readers who enjoyed Joel McIver's Sabbath Bloody Sabbath will be drawn to Iommi's insider perspective.-Joshua Finnell, Denison Univ. Lib., Granville, OH (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.