“​​The deal was if I wanted it back, I could let him know and buy it back. He passed away and Hard Rock Cafe knew nothing about the deal”: Tony Iommi tried to reclaim his iconic Gibson ‘Monkey’ SG but wasn’t allowed – because the person he sold it to died

Tony Iommi’s Gibson ‘Monkey’ SG might be the most iconic electric guitar he’s ever been associated with across his storied career, but – at the time of writing – the Black Sabbath legend no longer actually owns it.

And that’s not for a lack of trying: as Iommi explains in the new issue of Guitar World, he once tried to reclaim his SG from its current custodian, but he wasn’t allowed.

For context, the Monkey SG is currently in the possession of the Hard Rock Cafe, which bought the instrument after Iommi had decided to retire it. Rather than allow it to gather dust in storage, Iommi thought he’d pass it on to an institution that could eternalize it for fans to see.

Apparently, one of the conditions of the exchange was that Iommi could eventually buy back his beloved SG if he ever desired. Unfortunately, things didn't go quite according to plan when Iommi eventually did try to get it back.

“The guy who used to buy memorabilia for the Hard Rock came to England and visited me,” Iommi tells Guitar World. “He wanted to buy some stuff and I said it should be fine. 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.

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“​​The deal was if I ever wanted it back, I could let him know and buy it back for the same price,” he adds. “It seemed fair enough, a good deal.

“Anyway, he passed away, so that was it. We tried to get in touch with Hard Rock to get it back and they knew nothing about the deal.”

While Iommi couldn’t get his hands back on the guitar he used to record much of Black Sabbath’s early material, he was allowed the next best thing: Gibson could borrow the OG model in order to reproduce a run of painstaking replicas.

Sure, it might not sound like quite the same thing, but Iommi isn’t too fussed. In fact, in his opinion, it almost is the same thing.

“They allowed Gibson to go in and take the guitar in order to copy it exactly,” he goes on. “They made the replicas; I think we did about 50 of them and I own two of those.

“I have to say they are exactly like that one I owned and they are what I use in the studio. They have the same knocks and bumps as the original, plus the little monkey sticker. It’s the same guitar, basically.”

Iommi is synonymous with the Gibson SG, but as he revealed in the same Guitar World interview, he was actually once a Fender Stratocaster player – and he might have remained one had it not been for a studio mishap.

Visit Magazines Direct to pick up the latest issue of Guitar World and read the full interview with Tony Iommi.