Opeth's Mikael Åkerfeldt: the 10 guitarists that blew my mind

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Prog titan on the players that inspire his work

2. Tony Iommi

“I could go obscure here, but for most obscure bands I don’t know the guitar player’s name – I’m more obsessed with the band. You couldn’t make this list without Tony. 

"He’s a lot more versatile as a guitar player than he’s given credit for. He was really into jazzy blues and even stuff like Django Reinhardt. Listen to Planet Caravan… that’s one stunning guitar solo he does there. It’s insane how everything fell into place through his [finger] accident. I also really love his playing on The Writ. 

“He’s another guitarist that was ruthless – it would be his way or the highway, which lead to Ozzy getting the boot. It was good for the band at the time, I think. They made two fantastic records with Dio, then one with Ian Gillan and some more with Tony Martin and whoever came after. It was good for Black Sabbath. He pushed them to do my favourite album of theirs, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. It had Wil Malone doing the strings, who we ended up using on our last record.”

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Amit Sharma
Amit Sharma

Amit has been writing for titles like Total Guitar, MusicRadar and Guitar World for over a decade and counts Richie Kotzen, Guthrie Govan and Jeff Beck among his primary influences. He's interviewed everyone from Ozzy Osbourne and Lemmy to Slash and Jimmy Page, and once even traded solos with a member of Slayer on a track released internationally. As a session guitarist, he's played alongside members of Judas Priest and Uriah Heep in London ensemble Metalworks, as well as handling lead guitars for legends like Glen Matlock (Sex Pistols, The Faces) and Stu Hamm (Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, G3).