Jimmy Kay from Canada’s The Metal Voice recently spoke to former Black Sabbath singer Tony Martin about the upcoming new Box set “Anno Domini featuring his era with the band from 1989-1995.

This new collection that brings four albums back into print after an extended absence. “Anno Domini 1989-1995” will be released in four-LP and four-CD configurations. The set contains newly remastered versions of “Headless Cross” (1989),”Tyr” (1990) and “Cross Purposes” (1994),plus a new version of “Forbidden” (1995) that guitarist Tony Iommi remixed specially for the collection via BMG and Rhino. The box set will be released  May 31, 2024.

When asked how this Box Set came to fruition
“I have been wanting this for a long time, just as you have and the fans have. Unfortunately I’m not in the band so I have no part in the decision making or the politics. So I had to kind of sit and twiddle my thumbs (wait). So I didn’t have any role to play in it. They were thinking about it some years ago but because of all the band politics and the contracts and the amount of people that are involved that they had to get agreements. About a year ago they called me and said we can’t do it, it’s just too complicated, there’s too many people (involved) demanding this and that and we just can’t get it together. So a few months after that they called me again and said do you know what, things have changed and so we think we’re going to get this thing going after all. And BMG the record label picked it up and they’ve been so patient and they ran with it so it sort of started to happen really quite quickly after. The remix of ‘Forbidden’ (album) Tony (Iommi) did with his Engineers I had no role to play in that either but they’ve done a great job. Then he (Tony Iommi) invited me to come down and listen to it some months ago and I was just blown away. So once they’d got over the initial problems of contracts and agreements and band politics and all the rest of the crap that goes on it. It kind of happened quite quickly and here we are now with the whole box set thing in your hand and wow it’s a thing. I was really pleased obviously cuz you know it was like 10 years of my life, 10 years of the Sabbath story that was missing. Well it was missing in the physical sense, it wasn’t missing in the fans minds. People remembered it and you know over the past 25 years people have always talked to me about it but they just couldn’t buy it. They just couldn’t get their hands on it and I might say just that neither could I. The first time I’ve actually physically held these albums in my hand in like 25 years cuz I gave all mine away thinking that I would get some more and then they stopped making it and I couldn’t so you actually to physically hold them myself is great as well.”

When asked about the recent rise in popularity on his era in Black Sabbath

“I’ve noticed from my kids that they’re not so attached to you know particular band members , even though they still revere the original lineup. But there is another thing in play here, back then we were just a little bit unfashionable and we were coming up to the days of Nirvana and Green Day and Nine Inch nails and grunge and stuff like that. So they (those bands) were starting to steal the Limelight a little bit and we were just a little bit out of fashion. But what happened now is with all that dust settled and people are revisiting these albums and also there’s something else to play in here in that it’s been 25 years. So there’s a whole generation of people that never even got it before. So there’s a whole bunch of stuff that has come into play which culminates in what we’re doing now and that re-release of the box set just fills that Gap. Suddenly it’s been validated now by Tony Iommi who’s really loving what we did and never had that before. So now he’s sort of saying what a great job we’ve done and actually the songs and the stuff that we wrote were really good. He (Tony Iommi) said to me I don’t know how you sang on that stuff. I said I don’t know sang on that stuff either, it was hard work mate. When I spoke to Tony Iommi he was just thrilled with it and he’s given it a great validation now. He’s more fond of it now than he ever has been. It has brought us closer together .”

When asked about the new Forbidden remix
“It really fits as a Black Sabbath album now. I really wish Cozy Powell was alive to hear this. I was thinking he would have loved it, cause we didn’t back then. The drums are thundering now. I just love it now, I didn’t back then but I do now.

When asked if he and Tony Iommi would tour together again
“I was told that Tony’s really done with touring now and and so that’s not likely to happen. I did sort of say if they were interested if they wanted to do something I’d be happy to give it a go. He (Tony Iommi) hasn’t stopped working I mean he’s still doing stuff but like I was told anyway that his touring days were done, so I don’t think so. I mean I could probably get out on the road and do things myself but it’s slightly harder for me because I have to start at the beginning. My career went into the studio writing and recording so for the past 25 years because I’ve been doing that you know and and it’s been good for me, I’ve been happy in the studio.”