Tony Iommi admitted that he has his own “fragrance cave” in his home. And explains how a particular scent reminds him about death.
One of Tony Iommi’s most fruitful personal and work relationships during the pandemic is the one he has with Sergio Momo, a designer and guitarist with whom he created his own fragrance. Xerjoff’s designer has helped Iommi create his own perfume, as well as featuring on the song of the same name that promotes it, “Scent Of Dark.” In this way, Iommi promotes his new project in the best way he knows how, with new music.
“There’s so many different ones I’ve had over the years, from Cartier onwards and Bond No.9, Tom Ford, and lots of different ones that I can’t even remember now,” Iommi said. “When I was younger, every Christmas you’d either get a little bottle of Old Spice [aftershave] or something; it was either that or Brut. As the years went by and we were touring more in America and Australia, I used to just pick up different ones.”
He also admits when asked if he has kept his bottles in the collection cave: “I do. … There’s probably 80, something like that.”
Iommi’s interest in colognes and perfumes dates back to his beginnings with Black Sabbath and recalled one that remained with him, calling it “a terrible memory.” “It was one of my neighbors in a house I used to live in, and her daughter phoned me up and said, ‘Oh, she’s fallen on the floor,'” he explained. “I went over there, and she passed away in my arms. And she had this perfume on that as soon as I smell it now, it smells like death to me. I don’t know what it was, but when I smell it, it reminds me.”
Regarding the song “Scent Of Dark”, Iommi had the riff for a while. It was booked and hadn’t been used yet. They created the song with programmed drums as a base. Mike Exeter added bass next, as well as keyboards, and that’s when Iommi added his guitar work. That was the first version of the song, which would show how it would end up. In its final version, Jimmy Crutchley added bass and Ash Sheehan on drums. Finally, the orchestral instruments were added, something he had already done in his Black Sabbath days, but with a new perspective.
“One of the few things I remember is riffs, most other things I forget,” he admitted. “I can be having a shower and suddenly think, ‘Oh, God, I remember that,’ and I’ll come up with a riff that I might have done years ago. But I do have lots of stuff on CDs from the past, and on computer, on my phone. I’ve got 500 or 600 different riffs.”