Tony Iommi is looking forward to feeling less tired when his cancer treatment schedule lightens shortly.
He’s been attending hospital on a regular basis since being diagnosed with lymphoma in 2012, which has placed restrictions on Black Sabbath’s touring schedule in support of award-winning album 13.
And although he’ll will need continuing medical attention, it will be less pressing when he no longer has to receive antibodies administered every six weeks.
Iommi says: “We’ve some good things lined up for the coming year, firstly the Grammys, then some dates in the US and Canada, and in the summer a quick trip round Europe.
“I should also be finishing my regular treatment and I’m hoping to not get so tired – all positive.”
Last year Iommi said his health could constrict Sabbath’s plans for the rest of their career, saying: “I can’t commit to doing another two years or anything like that. I have to play it as it comes now.”
In April he told how bandmate Ozzy Osbourne coerced him into seeking attention when he first felt ill. “Ozzy was the one who kept on at me to go to the doctors because he was concerned about me,” the guitarist said.
He admitted he’d “started writing himself off” after his diagnosis, explaining: “Cancer meant death to me. I would lie awake at night, thinking about selling this, getting rid of that, and preparing everything: who should speak at my funeral and where I’d want to be buried.
“But I also kept thinking ‘I’m not ready to go yet. I’ve got too much to do, and I like being here’.”
BLACK SABBATH’s Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler are featured in a new interview with Matt Munday at The Independent. An excerpt from the story is available below:
Iommi, as his iron handshake testifies, is in robust health again. I do not raise the subject of his treatment for lymphoma directly with him, for fear of appearing glib, and he accepts my compliment that he is looking well without further comment. However, speaking on the phone the following day, Butler raises the subject and says that “we all thought he was on his way out at one point. He’d lost tons of weight and his hair was gone. I think the album took his mind off all the radiation and chemo. And then, as we were recording, he seemed to bloom.”
Butler believes that Iommi was the main difference between this album and Sabbath’s last (aborted) attempt in 2001, which yielded only six songs that were “just not good enough.”
“I didn’t think we’d ever do an album together after that,” Butler says. “Which is why we took so long. But this time Tony had got his own studio at home, and he had all these incredible riffs. The hardest part is to take an average riff and form it into a song. As soon as we heard these riffs, we knew Tony was back on form. We knew straight away it was going to work.”
Will 13 be their last album? It ends with the sound of thunder and a tolling bell, which is how their very first LP began, though this was Rick Rubin’s idea. “We’re very pleased with the album,” Iommi equivocates. “Though if it does turn out to be our last, then it’s a great way to go.”
Black Sabbath Live… Gathered In Their Masses has entered the Top Music Videos chart in the US at #2, selling approximately 9,000 copies in it’s first week of release. In Canada, the title lands at #4 on the SoundScan DVD chart.
Black Sabbath’s triumphant 2013 tour – which kicked off earlier this year in Australia – can now be seen by fans around the world via Black Sabbath: Live… Gathered In Their Masses (Vertigo/Republic).
Black Sabbath: Live… Gathered In Their Masses tracklistings:
DVD / Blu-Ray:
‘War Pigs’
‘Into The Void’
‘Loner’
‘Snowblind’
‘Black Sabbath’
‘Behind The Wall Of Sleep’
‘N.I.B.’
‘Methademic’
‘Fairies Wear Boots’
‘Symptom Of The Universe’
‘Iron Man’
‘End Of The Beginning’
‘Children Of The Grave’
‘God Is Dead?’
‘Sabbath Bloody Sabbath’ (Intro)/’Paranoid’
CD:
‘War Pigs’
‘Loner’
‘Black Sabbath’
‘Methademic’
‘N.I.B’
‘Iron Man’
‘End Of The Beginning’
‘Fairies Wear Boots’
‘God Is Dead?’
‘Sabbath Bloody Sabbath’ (Intro)/’Paranoid’
Clips for ‘War Pigs, ‘End Of The Beginning’ and ‘Loner’ can be seen below:
BLACK SABBATH guitarist and rock icon Tony Iommi has received an honorary degree from Coventry University.
According to BBCNews, the founding member of the Birmingham heavy metal band was awarded an Honorary Doctorate Of Arts by the institution.
He said it was a “great honour” to receive the doctorate and thanked the university for his nomination.
The honorary degree was “in recognition of his contribution to the world of popular music”, the university said. It recognised “his role as one of the founding fathers of heavy metal music and his status as one of the industry’s most influential figures”.
Iommi said: “It’s brilliant. I couldn’t believe it.”
As previously reported, former BLACK SABBATH drummer Bill Ward recently suffered a perforated diverticulitis and underwent surgery in California. The procedure was successful, and Ward is expected to make a full recovery over the next several weeks.
Ward’s former bandmate Tony Iommi has passed along the following well-wishes: “Sorry to hear you’ve been unwell hope you make a speedy recovery.”
Subsequently, Bill Ward’s artist reception on October 26 at the Annapolis Collection Gallery in Maryland has been postponed.
“I am truly sorry that I have to postpone the Absence Of Corners gallery reception (scheduled for October 26th),” said Ward. “The feedback I have received from everyone about this project has been astounding, and I was so looking forward to this event. I want to thank the Annapolis Collection Gallery for everything they are doing. I am honored that they are exhibiting my art, and I hope to get there to celebrate this collection with you all very soon.”
The gallery and Bill Ward have agreed to find another date in the future which will allow him time for a complete recovery.
Created over the last year, Ward’s collection Absence Of Corners is a highly limited release of fine art of epic size and conceptual. The collection, in its entirety is now available, along with audio commentary on each piece by Ward. Each piece can be reserved at BillWardDrumArt.com.
BLACK SABBATH guitar legend Tony Iommi is featured in a new interview with Matt Blackett at Guitar Player magazine. An excerpt is available below:
GW: I read an interview where you said that after the accident either you thought about playing right-handed, or maybe you should have thought about it. I have to say, I think it would have changed the entire music business had you flipped your guitar over and played righty.
Iommi: “I think you’re probably right, because that accident made me develop a style—one that I could play—and by doing that, it created a different sort of sound. I had to make the sound bigger and work on it a bit. I couldn’t just pick up anybody’s guitar and play. I mean, the whole thing really was against me. But that sort of thing makes you work. It makes you develop something, because I really wanted to play, and I wanted to make the sound big. I had to come up with a new way of playing to make it big.”
GW: You guys have always had tempo and groove changes in your tunes, and ‘God Is Dead?’ is a great example of that tradition. What is it that you like about doing that?
Iommi: “I just think it gets to a point in the song where it needs something—either picking the tempo up or slowing it down. If it’s a fast song, maybe a bit that slows down in it, like we did with Ronnie on ‘Die Young.’ It was an up-tempo thing, but then we used a quiet part in it to come down. Again, it’s just down to creating some kind of different mood in the song, and I’ve always liked that.”
Black Sabbath fans who didn’t see the band live on their recent tour will now have the chance to experience them via a new DVD, Black Sabbath: Live…Gathered In Their Masses (Vertigo/Republic).
Due out November 26th, the DVD was recorded in April 29th and May 1st, 2013 in Melbourne, Australia (additional details TBA), when the band – OZZY OSBOURNE (vocals), TONY IOMMI (guitar) and GEEZER BUTLER (bass) – kicked off their world tour in support of their 13 album, which entered the charts at #1 in 13 countries (including their first #1 in the US).
Check out a teaser video below:
Meanwhile, Black Sabbath will head to South America and Mexico in October for a headlining stadium tour (where they’re expected to play to more than 300,000 fans) and then onto Europe in November and December.
Find Black Sabbath’s live itinerary at this location.
The clip below features fan-filmed video of Black Sabbath’s entire August 28th show in Irvine, CA at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre:
The band’s setlist on the night was as follows:
‘War Pigs’
‘Into the Void’
‘Under the Sun’/Every Day Comes and Goes’
‘Snowblind’
‘Age of Reason’
‘Black Sabbath’
‘Behind the Wall of Sleep’
‘N.I.B.’
‘End of the Beginning’
‘Fairies Wear Boots’
‘Methademic’
‘Symptom of the Universe’
‘Rat Salad’
‘Iron Man’
‘God Is Dead?’
‘Children of the Grave’
Black Sabbath will be immortalized in an all-original, terrifying 3D maze, Black Sabbath: 13 3D at Universal Studios Hollywood’s premier Halloween Horror Nights event, beginning September 20th. Check out newly-released back-stage footage from the upcoming event below:
The new maze, based on the darkest lyrics from Black Sabbath’s biggest hit songs and the only attraction at the horror event to incorporate 3D video, will also include scenes inspired by the legendary band’s recently released Billboard #1 album, 13. A nightmarish landscape of doom will engulf guests as they enter Black Sabbath: 13 3D and traverse through horrifying graveyards, disturbing madhouses and bone-chilling battlefields.
“We were all really excited when Universal Studios Hollywood approached us about doing a 3D ‘Halloween Horror Nights’ maze based on our music,” said Black Sabbath’s OZZY OSBOURNE. “I’ve seen the drawings of what it will look like when it’s finished and it looks amazing. I can’t wait to walk through it on opening night in September.”
Guests will come face to face with a heart-stopping Lucifer and his bride, blood-soaked dead bodies and bubbling pools of “radioactive water” while song’s inspired by ‘Luke’s Wall’, ‘Iron Man’, ‘Paranoid’, ‘War Pigs’, ‘Electric Funeral’ and – of course – ‘Black Sabbath’ violently penetrate the confines of the maze at high volume.
“Very few bands can claim to have defined a genre of music but Black Sabbaths’ remarkable influence in the evolution of heavy metal will go down in history,” said John Murdy, Creative Director for Universal Studios Hollywood. “Tony Iommi’s dark, iconic riffs, Ozzy Osbourne’s haunting vocals and Geezer Butler’s foreboding lyrics provide the perfect soundtrack for ‘Halloween Horror Nights’ and endless inspiration for our new haunted attraction Black Sabbath 13 3D.”
Halloween Horror Nights 2013 at Universal Studios Hollywood brings together the sickest minds in horror to immerse guests in the living, breathing, three-dimensional world of the most notorious and terrifying creatures and features a slate of unrivaled film production quality mazes, terror-filled Scare Zones and a fully re-imagined Terror Tram experience, uniquely themed to today’s most definitive horror properties. This year’s haunted attractions will include The Walking Dead: No Safe Haven, based on AMC’s Golden Globe-nominated, Emmy Award-winning show, and Evil Dead: Book of the Dead, inspired by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment’s chilling remake of the cult classic.
Source: Bravewords.com BLACK SABBATH guitar legend Tony Iommi is featured in a new interview conducted by Glenn BurnSilver for the Phoenix New Times. An excerpt from the discussion is available below:
Q: How is playing together–recording together–after so many years of tension and not being in the studio? The last album with the original lineup was in 1978… Ozzy was booted out in 1979…
Iommi: “Tensions? The tensions over the years have mainly been about business. It’s not been personal at all. We always got on well on a personal level. It’s been going really good.
It’s just a different attitude now. When we got back together to record this album everybody had a different attitude toward what we were doing this time. We wanted to make an album together. We all really appreciated each other and respected each other. That’s really the only way to go into it–a full band commitment–and everybody was ready to put everything into it.
We did try back 12 years ago, and nobody could settle on it then. It wasn’t the right time, there were to many things going on. Ozzy was doing MTV, so it just didn’t work then. We weren’t going to do it until everybody was fully committed, and that was this time. Rubin was interested in doing the album (in 2001). We played him some tracks but that’s as far as we got with it. We pulled the plug on it. We never got into the studio. We’d just played him some tracks.”
Black Sabbath hit Toronto’s Air Canada Centre on Wednesday, August 14th in support of the band’s #1 album, 13.
Bassist Geezer Butler posted the following message: “At the Toronto gig last night, we were presented with a double gold disc award for sales of the latest album, 13. Then we were presented with official Toronto Maple Leafs jerseys, plus it was an absolutely fantastic show. Thank you Toronto, thank you Canada.”
Black Sabbath’s live itinerary can be found at this location. Geezer uploaded the following photos at his Facebook page:
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