Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi talks about his next possible solo album
Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi looked back on Dio-era in an interview he appeared on, also talking about his plans for the future.
In his interview with Rockin’ Metal Revival, and Black Sabbath’s legendary guitarist Tony Iommi mentioned Bill Ward’s sudden leave again, while also talking about some covers from Black Sabbath that he actually liked. Iommi also mentioned his way of keeping track of the riffs he comes up with, as there is apparently a huge pile of them. Sabbath‘s guitarist had talked about Bill Ward‘s leave before this as well.
Asked about his possible upcoming solo album, Iommi replied chill and laid-back, mentioning that he’s not under pressure:
“That’s what I was saying. Here at the moment, in England, is a complete lockdown, you can’t have anybody in your house, so I was working with my engineer here before the lockdown. And of course, lockdown comes and you can’t have anybody in. So once it lifts, I’m going to get him in, and then we’re going to start putting some things together out of all the riffs I’ve got. But again, I don’t know what to use.”
“It’s quite exciting because I’m not under any pressure to do anything, as far as I don’t have to have another tour or this and that. So I’m going to just take my time, put ideas down, and decide whether I’m going to have a vocalist on them, who I’m going to have on them – or to do it as film music, or an instrumental… I don’t know yet, I really don’t know, and I haven’t put any kind of limit on it. I’m open to anything at the moment, to be fair. So it’s quite exciting, really.”
Tony Iommi explained how he planned to keep track of his riffs, mentioning a story with Queen’s guitarist Brian May
“Well, to be honest, I’ve tied myself in knots at the moment. I had Brian May come over because he’s one of my best friends, and he said, ‘Oh, can I listen to some stuff?’ So I got some of my CDs out where I’ve got the riffs on, and there’s just so many. There’s five, or six, or seven hundred riffs, and I said, ‘Look, I’m not going to sit here playing. Take them home and have a listen.’ But it’s the sentiment stuff, I just can’t even remember what’s on them, I’ve got to go back and listen.”
“When I get to start working on them once this pandemic’s lifted and I can get my engineer to the house, I’m going to start putting them together. Because there’s so many that I remember were quite good. There’s always going to be some that are not, but you put them down, and when I listen back to them, I’ll decide whether to throw them out or to use them. But yeah, I have got a lot of stuff.”
Iommi also talked about the change the band went through while replacing Bill Ward with Appice:
“It really did, particularly for me because I’d played with Bill two or three years before Sabbath in a couple of different music bands, so I’d only played with Bill for all those years. It was a big shock for me to lose Bill. When Vinnie came in, he’s a totally different-style drummer to build. Bill played more behind the beat where Vinnie would be a bit more upfront and it’s a bit more energetic sort of style, where Bill was more laid back.”
So it was different. And of course, then we would change the writing as well. Vinnie got on board when we started doing ‘The Mob Rules’ album, that was a slightly different approach again because you’ve got a different drummer and it created a different vibe on it. Great drummer, really great drummer.
