Tony Iommi

BIOGRAPHY – Tony Rombola

Tony Rombola is the lead guitarist of American heavy metal post grunge band Godsmack.

Tony Rombola was born in 1964 in Norwood Massachusetts and started teaching himself the guitar when he was 11 years old. He grew up listening to bands like Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin as inspiration and learned a lot about playing the guitar by reading guitar magazines such as Guitar World.

On leaving school, Tony Rombola trained and worked as a carpenter, playing in bands as a sideline. Tony Rombola played in covers bands playing all styles of guitar from funk to classic rock, rock and metal. It was when Tony Rombola was in a band playing covers of Alice in Chains and Rage Against the Machine that he met Godsmack front man Sully Erna and bassist Robert Merrill.

Sully Erna recognised Tony Rombola as being a talented guitarist and invited him to join Godsmack as the lead guitarist. Rombola played on the original CD “All Wound Up” in 1996 that went on to be released as the debut album “Godsmack” in 1998.

Throughout the nu metal era of rock Tony Rombola was one of the few lead guitarists to play solos, rather than the riff and rhythm driven guitar sound of the genre. The song “Keep Away” from the debut album was inducted into the top 100 greatest rock songs under the heading guitar legends.

Godsmack have released five albums and have been described by Rolling Stone magazine as being “”hard as nails and cranked to eleven”.

Although he is best known for his work with Godsmack, Tony Rombola is also involved with the band Another Animal as a side project with band members from Godsmack, Ugly Kid Joe and Dropbox. They formed in 2007 and have released two albums.

Tony Rombola plays custom Gibson les Pauls, having started playing on a Gibson copy SG and says that if he had not met Sully Erna he would probably still be working as a carpenter.