Tony Iommi Has Unused Material “That Goes Back For Years”

Tony Iommi has previously spoken about the wealth of unused material that he has for a potential new project, but now the Black Sabbath legend has revealed that some of these ideas actually go back “years”.

Speaking to SiriusXM’s Trunk Nation host Eddie Trunk, Tony says that he's adding to this extensive collection of material daily at the moment, working on new music while in lockdown and looking ahead to a time when things go back to normal and he can really fine-tune these ideas. He also added that, while he's got to stay in the house, he will look back and assess the material that he already has (“There's so much stuff – I've got stuff that goes back for years”).

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“Every night I play and put something down,” he says. “I was due to be working now with my engineer Mike Exeter, but, of course, you can't have anybody in your house because of the lockdown.

“We’d planned to start putting some of the things I've got here down because I've got so much stuff. That was the original plan. Hopefully when it all clears up, we'll definitely be starting. I do have the bug to do something – certainly not world touring, but I do enjoy playing.”

Explaining what this future project could consist of, Tony adds that he and Mike will “start putting down some drums, bass and guitar so we can make it like a proper band”, before deciding on who to work with.

Check out the interview clips below:

Last month, Tony was asked by Guitar World if he had any plans to make new music – be it for a solo project, or collaborations.

“Well, that’s the million-dollar question,” he replied. “I’ve got loads of stuff. I keep saying to Ralph [Baker], my manager, ‘I want to put it down properly,’ but the engineer I’ve used for years, Mike Exeter, has gone on to do other things… I’d like to put some stuff down, but it won’t be a touring band.

“Actually, [Queen guitarist] Brian May came over and I gave him four or five CDs of riffs, and he’s going, ‘You’ve got to do an album with these, just put them out like that,’” Tony continued. “I said, ‘No, I don’t want to do that. I’m going to do them properly.’”

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