Earlier this month, Black Sabbath’s acclaimed lead guitarist Tony Iommi released his first new rock music in eight years, the single “Scent of Dark.” He also released a new cologne by the same name.
More recently, the 73-year-old U.K.-born Iommi is making more headlines after saying that “you can never say never” when it comes to Sabbath’s potential reunion.
Videos by American Songwriter
Speaking to the U.K.’s Planet Rock Radio, Iommi said, “You can never say never, can you? We’ve known in this band you can never say, ‘That’s never gonna happen again,’ because every time we said that, it has.
“We never thought we’d get back with Ozzy after the early years. We never thought we’d get back with [Ronnie James] Dio again; we did. So you just can’t say it’s never gonna happen.”
But his reason for not jumping into a reunion these days has, at least primarily, nothing to do with personalities or the songs. It’s more so about the rigors of long tours.
“It’s just the major touring that has come to a stop,” Iommi said. “I wouldn’t wanna do 18-month tours again, but that doesn’t say we wouldn’t do any one-off stuff.”
Black Sabbath’s original drummer Bill Ward has talked about his own health limitations, saying in October: “My biggest contention has been ‘let’s make another album’. I haven’t spoken to the guys about it, but I have talked to a couple of people in management about the possibility of making a recording. Which I can do safely, even with Covid around. I can lay track at my studio in Los Angeles. I’m very open-minded about doing something like that.”
In other Iommi and Ozzy news, the two seem to be working on Osbourne’s forthcoming solo album.
“On this new album, I’m working with Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Tony Iommi, and Zakk [Wylde],” said Osbourne on his radio show, Ozzy Speaks, on the Sirius XM channel, Ozzy’s Boneyard.
Photo by Kevin Mazur/WireImage