Tony Iommi Would Like to Start Writing New Music Soon

Last year may have marked The End for Black Sabbath, but guitarist Tony Iommi has been adamant that he does not plan to retire from music, despite health problems that make touring impractical. 

Iommi says he's been busy since Black Sabbath's last show a year ago, but not with music.

"Music-wise, I would certainly like to start writing again, but at the moment I'm doing a lot of stuff for charities; Heartlands Hospital, which is part of the Heart of England Foundation Trust, and also Wythall Animal Sanctuary, and both of those are very dear to me," he told U.K. website The Midlands Rocks

The guitarist says one of his main projects is to raise money to buy hospital beds for cancer patients undergoing chemo therapy.

Part of the reason Black Sabbath called it a career last year was due to Iommi's poor health stemming from lymphoma and the ensuing treatments. Iommi's cancer has been in remission for a couple of years, but he's indicated that he hasn't truly recovered. 

Last November, Iommi said the specter of cancer will probably hang over him for the rest of his life.

"Well, to me, it's never gonna go away; it's always gonna be there," he told Loudwire. "According to my oncologist, the professor, he said it's probably gonna come back. So it's hard to sort of go, 'Oh, well, that's brilliant then.' But I do live [day] by day now, and just every day is a winner, really. And we'll see. I hope it doesn't come back, but you never know."

As far as getting back into music, the guitarist says the decades he spent on tour kept him from enjoying a regular life, so he's concentrating on that for a little longer.  

"I thought after this tour, 'Well, now I will get time to just relax and do some stuff that I had always wanted to do,' but it hasn't happened yet," he said. "I don't know what it is — the time is just flying by, and I think because of all the years of not seeing my friends that often it has got to the stage now where I see them a lot. And we moved house, and we met a new group of friends, and so we have the old friends and the new friends and we just seem to be doing more than ever."

Iommi, alongside bandmates Ozzy Osbourne and Geezer Butler, retired Black Sabbath after 49 years last February with a final show in the band's hometown of Birmingham, England.

All three heavy metal pioneers have shied away from talk of retirement in recent interviews. 

Butler says he writes music constantly. Osbourne is about to embark on his No More Tours 2 farewell tour, which he says will mark the end of his touring career.  


Photo: Getty Images


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