Tony Iommi: Alvin Lee was a Good Friend to Black Sabbath

Like the rest of the music world, Tony Iommi was shocked and saddened by the sudden passing of Ten Years After's Alvin Lee last week.

Black Sabbath goes way back in their friendship with Lee.

Tony says in birminghammail.co.uk that, "In the early days, when we were still going by the name of Earth, it was Alvin who helped us get some gigs."

Admittedly, however, Lee steered them the wrong way about one thing (good thing they didn't take his advice).

According to ultimateclassicrock.com, when Alvin Lee heard that Earth was changing their name to Black Sabbath he was "horrified".

He told Iommi the band would never do any good with a name like that. :-D