10 Close Calls In Rock History

For every single rock musician, there's always going to be a time when you're going to have to suffer for your art in one form or another. Whether it's giving in to the demands of the record industry or just having to compromise within a rock band setting, not everything is going to be perfect when throwing together your songs. Then again, not many people have to deal with losing limbs in the process.

Just as Tony Iommi was about to quit his day job full time to make heavy music with Black Sabbath, his last day at the office saw him working on a steel machine, which came down on his fingers and severed the tips of them clean off. Although this kind of thing should spell disaster for any potential guitar player, Iommi was determined to not let it defeat him, considering how people like Django Reinhart were able to continue on without the use of a few of his fingers.

Using prosthetics to ease the pain, Iommi started to tune his guitar down to unheard of levels at the time, which gave birth to Sabbath's trademark heaviness and gutteral howl. As much as the genre has expanded outward since Sabbath's inception, continuing to still play after losing half of your fingers is still one of the most metal moves anyone has ever pulled.