Black Sabbath's Tony Iommi Is Ready To Record Long-Delayed Solo Album
By Andrew Magnotta @AndrewMagnotta
January 4, 2023
Black Sabbath guitarist and cofounder Tony Iommi is finally ready to begin recording his long-awaited new solo album — what would be his first since 2005.
Iommi began discussing making another solo album shortly after Black Sabbath retired in 2017. A year ago, the guitarist claimed to have as many as 500 unused riffs in his vault, though he has held off recording them properly until the completion of his new recording studio.
"I've been writing and recording. I'm having a new studio built, too, which I'm really pleased about," Iommi said in a New Year's message issued via YouTube. "Well, actually, the studio is built, and it's almost ready to go. I'm just waiting for some equipment. Because of the war [in Ukraine], it's sort of stopped some of the parts coming through. But we're almost there."
He continued that he expects work on the album to begin "in another couple of weeks."
While the new album may be a long time coming (Iommi's last solo record, Fused, arrived 17 years ago), unlike his Led Zeppelin counterpart, Iommi has followed through with his promises for new music.
His "Scent of Dark" instrumental (to go with his signature cologne) arrived in 2021, and he cowrote and performed on two songs from Ozzy Osbourne's latest solo album, Patient Number 9, including the Grammy Award-nominated track "Degradation Rules."