THE BEAST

Legendary BLACK SABBATH guitarist Tony Iommi has shared a year-end video message in which he outlined some of the projects that kept him busy during the last 12 months. The 74-year-old musician, who was diagnosed with early-stage lymphoma more than a decade ago, stated in part in the eight-minute clip (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET ): "It's been a good year for me, 2022, in parts anyway. I've been writing and recording. I'm having a new studio built, which I'm really pleased about. Well, actually, the studio is built, and it's almost ready to go; I'm just waiting for some equipment. Because of the war [in Ukraine], it's sort of stopped some of the parts coming through. But we're almost there. In another couple of weeks, I think I'll be ready to go in and start work in there, which I'm really looking forward to — writing another album."

Iommi also once again confirmed that the albums BLACK SABBATH recorded with singer Tony Martin will be reissued this year.

"[In 2023], of course, we're gonna have the Tony Martin box set and Cozy Powell and Neil Murray ," he said. "And I'm looking forward to that, because a lot of people have asked about that, which is great. They wanted to see when it's coming out, when it's coming out. And we've done 'em in succession, really, with these albums. You can't just bring everything out together; it has to come out in [the right] times. So we've had all the original SABBATH stuff come out, box sets, and then we've got the Ronnie [ James Dio ] stuff. And then the next thing will be the Tony Martin and then my solo stuff. So it's gonna be busy again. But it's great. And it's nice to be doing the interviews and talking about what we did and all the rest of stuff."

BLACK SABBATH released six albums with Martin on vocals: "The Eternal Idol" (1987), "Headless Cross" (1989), "Tyr" (1990), "Cross Purposes" (1994), "Cross Purposes Live" (1995) and "Forbidden" (1995). Eventually, Martin and his "Forbidden" -era bandmates were ousted when Iommi reunited with SABBATH 's fellow original members.

Six years ago, Iommi told I Heart Guitar that "it's a shame" that "it took a lot for people to accept" Martin as SABBATH 's vocalist. "It's taken all these years later for people to say, 'Oh blimey, that was a good band with good singing.' So it took a long time to get people to really realize how good it was."

In 2018, Iommi spent time in the studio remixing "Forbidden" for a future release. The LP, which features Martin , drummer Cozy Powell and bassist Neil Murray , is often regarded as SABBATH 's worst studio recording.

In February 2017, SABBATH finished "The End" tour in Birmingham, closing out the quartet's groundbreaking 49-year career.

"The End" was SABBATH 's last tour because Iommi — who was diagnosed with lymphoma in late 2011 — can no longer travel for extended amounts of time.

Iommi revealed his cancer diagnosis in early 2012, shortly after SABBATH announced a reunion tour and album. He underwent treatment throughout the recording of the disc, titled "13" , and the subsequent tour to promote it.

Via Blabbermouth