Tony Iommi confirms he’s writing new music and he’s “very happy with it”
“I might not. So we’ll see how it goes,” he teases.
Image: Dave Benett / Getty
Tony Iommi has confirmed that he is working on new music which he’s “very happy with” in a New Year’s video message posted to his official YouTube channel.
Iommi also reflected on his favourite moments of 2023, from working on the Black Sabbath Ballet, to releasing a track alongside Gibson’s Cesar Gueikian and Serj Tankian of System Of A Down as part of the Gibson band.
After beginning the video by stating that he hopes that everyone had a great Christmas, Iommi goes on to announce that a boxset celebrating the Black Sabbath albums released when Tony Martin fronted the outfit (The Eternal Idol, Headless Cross and Tyr) will be released in 2024 following delays.
“Last year when I did my message, I did say we’d have a boxset coming out. Well, now I’ve been informed that it’ll be out in May… it’s been held up with paperwork and legal stuff. But anyway, it’s coming out in May now, if you’re interested, and I hope you are,” he says.
He goes on to recall the 2023 Sky documentary, Greatest Guitar Riffs, which he took part in alongside Brian May. You may remember that the TV channel carried out a survey which revealed that over half of music fans believe the guitar riff is dying out, however, 81 percent of participants believed that a memorable guitar riff was still vital to a good rock song.
“I also did a track with Cesar [Gueikian, Gibson CEO] and Serj [Tankian] from System of a Down to raise money for Armenia, which was good. So that’s out as well,” Iommi continues to reflect.
He wraps things up by announcing that he is “writing and doing plenty of stuff”: “It’s sounding really good and I’m very happy with it. I might use some orchestration, I might not. So we’ll see how it goes,” he shares, sitting before a display of music awards.
Watch Tony Iommi’s full video below: