Nodes of Gold

Bad news out of England on Monday: Tony Iommi, lead guitarist for the band Black Sabbath, has been diagnosed with "early stage lymphoma" (nothing more specific than that), and has begun treatment.

Sounds like it's time for a new installment of Nodes of Gold.....

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It's been a while, so I'll remind you: Nodes of Gold is a (not really any longer) regular feature in Lympho Bob, highlighting the life and triumph of someone famous who was diagnosed with lymphoma of some sort. F. Scott Fitzgerald said that the rich are just like you and me. And indeed, they are -- sometimes, unfortunately, they get lymphoma. Past Nodes of Gold honorees include Mr. T, actor/comedian Arte Johnson, golfer Paul Azinger and football player Joe Andruzzi.

And now, Tony Iommi.

Iommi is lead guitarist for Black Sabbath (one of my favorites when I was younger), a band probably best known for having Ozzy Osbourne as its lead singer from 1969 to 1977, then again in 1997. Sabbath has had 22 members over the years, but Tony Iommi has been a constant -- the only member of the band that has stayed with them for all of their 33 years. That's loyalty.

Sabbath's lead guitarist, Iommi  is considered a pioneer in heavy metal guitar, creating riffs like this one:



In fact, in 2004, Guitar World magazine named him the greatest metal guitarist of all time.

He also, very briefly, spent some time as guitarist for Jethro Tull, pre-Sabbath.

But despite his loyalty, he did have some difficulties. Like, for instance, in 1992, Iommi was arrested while on tour. Bandmate and pal Ozzy Osbourne bailed him out -- or so Ozzy claimed later, when he sued Iommi for the $75,000 he posted for him.

And a personal connection: a couple of years ago, I was experiencing a strange dizziness, especially in the mornings. I didn't know if it was lymphoma-related, and I eventually had an MRI, which turned out to be negative. The doctor figured it was probably stress-related, caused by lots of jaw-clenching, which is one of those side effects of having cancer. Anyway, the Ear doctor did a whole bunch of tests, and it was also determined that I had some upper-register hearing loss. We agreed that this can be directly attributed to listening to so much Iommi-fueled Black Sabbath, through Radio Shack headphones, when I was 13. Especially this song:



So, Tony Iommi, I'm very sorry to hear that you've joined the club that no one wants to be a member of. I'm sure it's little consolation, but you do now officially have Nodes of Gold.

Hope the treatments go well.