Tony Iommi raffles signed Gibson SG to support Birmingham hospital charity

Tony Iommi put one of his personal Gibson SG guitars up for raffle, offering fans a signed instrument used in the recordings for his upcoming solo album while raising money for Queen Elizabeth Hospital Charity. Every ticket sold went directly to the Heartlands Hospital Charity Appeal, turning a collector-grade Black Sabbath guitar into a hospital fundraiser with a very personal Birmingham connection.

The prize is no ordinary SG. Iommi’s guitar carries the kind of modifications that define his sound, including upgraded tuning keys and copper-shielded electronics, and his official site describes it as a Tony Iommi Signature Guitar personally signed by the Black Sabbath icon and used over a number of years in his home and studio. The raffle ran through Raffall and was promoted across Iommi’s official website and social media, giving fans a straight route into a piece of his working rig rather than a museum display.

The Heartlands link gives the giveaway its weight. Trade coverage tied the raffle to a £150,000 fundraising campaign for Birmingham’s Heartlands Hospital cancer centre, and the hospital connection is personal for Iommi because it treated his cancer. That makes the guitar more than a celebrity keepsake: it is part of a campaign aimed at patient care, with the appeal anchored in a place that has already mattered to him directly.

Iommi has done this before, and the earlier result shows why his instruments carry such force in the charity world. BBC coverage of a previous guitar raffle recorded a £50,000 haul for a hospital appeal, a reminder that an SG linked to Iommi’s hands can move serious money as well as serious interest. His official site also points back to the heavily modified Gibson SG Special known as the Monkey SG, calling it his most iconic instrument and crediting it with helping shape Black Sabbath’s sound and heavy metal itself. For fans, this raffle lands in that same lineage: a signed SG with real studio provenance, real custom work, and a direct line to one of Birmingham’s most important causes.