Tony Iommi revealed a broken agreement with the Hard Rock Cafe. He sold them his red Gibson SG, nicknamed “Monkey,” used on BLACK SABBATH‘s early albums. They allegedly agreed to resell it to him if he wanted it back, but the cafe refused when he tried.
In a new interview with Guitar World (via Guitar.com), Iommi said: “The guy who used to buy memorabilia for the Hard Rock came to England and visited me. He wanted to buy some stuff… I’d retired the Monkey SG because it was too valuable to me; I didn’t want to take it on the road and risk it getting damaged.”
“He offered to buy it and it seemed like a good idea because the guitar could be displayed for people to see and kept safe, instead of sitting in a case somewhere in my storage,” he continued. “But the deal was if I ever wanted it back, I could let him know and buy it back for the same price. It seemed fair enough – a good deal.”
Several years ago, Iommi tried to activate the buy-back clause in his deal with Hard Rock to reclaim the SG. Unfortunately, the buyer of the guitar had passed away, and the contacts he reached out to were unaware of the original agreement.
“Anyway, he passed away, so that was it,” Iommi said. “We tried to get in touch with Hard Rock to get it back and they knew nothing about the deal.”
Iommi mentioned that in 2020, Hard Rock Cafe agreed to lend the guitar to Gibson for the creation of replicas.
He said: “I think we did about 50 of them, and I own two of those. I have to say they are exactly like the one I owned, and they are what I used in the studio. They have the same knocks and bumps as the original, plus the little monkey sticker. It’s the same guitar, basically.”
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