The enduring friendship between rock royalty Brian May and Tony Iommi has produced a touching moment of generosity. Iommi, the legendary riff-master of Black Sabbath, revealed this week that the Queen guitarist gifted him a bespoke, left-handed replica of his iconic “Red Special” guitar—a project that had been two years in the works.
Taking to social media to share his excitement, Iommi posted photos of the stunning instrument, which was hand-delivered by luthier Andrew Guyton.
“Christmas came early!,” Iommi wrote on Instagram. “Huge thanks to my best friend Brian May and master builder Andrew Guyton for this incredible left-handed Red Special replica. Andrew personally delivered it last week – a true gift from Brian, two years in the making.”
The instrument is a unique hybrid, designed to blend the signature sound of May‘s homemade axe with the specific playability preferences of the Sabbath guitarist. Iommi shared the technical details provided by the builder.
“Andrew said, ‘It’s built with the exact vintage construction of Brian May’s original Red Special, but shaped to match Tony’s iconic Jaydee Old Boy neck. Features a built-in treble booster and authentic vintage-style pots and pickups to replicate the classic tone.'”
The two musicians have shared a close bond since the early 1970s. In a 2021 interview with BBC Radio 2, Iommi reflected on their immediate rapport.
“We had a very fast connection,” Iommi said at the time. “And we used to talk to each other at all hours of the night in the early days.”
This gift is likely to reignite fan speculation about a potential musical collaboration between the two giants. It is a topic both have discussed publicly for over a decade. In 2013, Iommi revealed to the Birmingham Mail that May had visited him shortly after his lymphoma diagnosis and was impressed by a collection of unused riffs. More recently, Iommi told Classic Rock magazine that they had made tentative steps toward working together before the world shut down.
“We’ve talked about it for years, we really have, and the pandemic smacked everything up,” Iommi explained in 2021. “Brian came here to my house just before all that happened: it was a lovely day, we sat outside in the courtyard and played riffs. I played him some of the stuff I’d got, and he said, ‘Oh, great, you’ve gotta do something with this’… It would be nice, one day, to do that.”
The mutual admiration runs deep. Just this past October, May heaped praise on Iommi following the latter’s surprise appearance at the Black Sabbath – The Ballet performance in London. After watching Iommi play “Paranoid” alongside the Birmingham Royal Ballet, May took to Instagram to honor his friend.
“The true father of heavy metal making that beautiful axe sing like a bird tonight at Sadlers Wells,” May wrote. “Proud to call this infinitely modest and generous genius my friend.”
