Years ago, Tony Iommi sold one of his guitars to Hard Rock Cafe – and now he says they won’t give it back.
The Black Sabbath guitarist told Guitar World he sold them a 1965 Gibson SG nicknamed ‘Monkey’, with an agreement in place that he could buy it back for the same price any time.
But Iommi says the person he made the deal with has since passed away, and Hard Rock management told him they “knew nothing about the deal.”
‘Monkey’ was used on several of Black Sabbath’s early albums. Iommi says he took the Hard Rock deal so “the guitar could be displayed for people to see and kept safe, instead of sitting in a case somewhere in my storage.”