Tony Iommi pays tribute to fellow guitar great, the late Leslie West

Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi has paid tribute to Leslie West, a fellow guitar great, after his passing on Wednesday, December 23rd.

The co-founder of hard rock band Mountain died after suffering cardiac arrest at his home in Florida and was rushed to hospital but never regained consciousness.

As per Blabbermouth, tributes from the music world soon began pouring in, including from Sabbath’s lead guitarist. “So sad to hear the news of Leslie West’s passing, Iommi wrote in a post on social media. “He was a great guitar player and his band MOUNTAIN were one of the first bands that SABBATH supported on our early tour of America.

We struck up a great relationship on that tour – they were a really good band and Leslie’s playing and sound was just superb and he was a great singer too! When they came to the UK to tour he brought a gift of a similar Gibson to what he used on stage ….he was a really nice guy and will be sadly missed. RIP”.

Sabbath supporting Mountain, what a mosh pit that would have been to be a part of. It’s little wonder that Iommi admired West so much either, given his influence in guitar playing. He helped popularise the Gibson Les Paul Jr. model with P-90 pick-ups to create a unique tone of his own. Before his passing, West enjoyed a great and long relationship with Dean Guitars, releasing several signature models with them.

With songs like ‘Mississippi Queen’, his band Mountain also had a huge impact on the development of heavy metal music in the 1970’s, alongside Sabbath.

West is survived by his wife Jenni, brother Larry and nephew Max. He famously married his wife onstage during a performance at Woodstock’s 40th anniversary concert in 2009 (Mountain also featured in the original line-up in 1969.