The Blairing Out With Eric Blair Show spoke with Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi at last night’s Ronnie James Dio Stand Up And Shout Cancer Fund’s second awards gala about the importance of the event, as well as the progress of the band’s much talked about new album. Check it out in the video interview below.
Iommi, who was diagnosed with lymphoma last year, explained that organizations such as the Ronnie James Dio Stand Up And Shout Cancer Fund were crucial in the search for a cure: “It’s great that there’s somebody doing something about it and trying to get rid of this awful disease. You can’t praise it enough. Things like this is what is needed to make people aware of what is going on.”
The guitarist also reflected on his fondest memories of his former Black Sabbath and Heaven And Hell bandmate, the late Ronnie James Dio: “Oh, I’ve got a lot of memories of Ronnie. We had some great times. Particularly when we’d done the last album [Heaven and Hell 's 'The Devil You Know'] with Ronnie and the last tours, it was a whole new world. We had such a great time and we were looking forward to doing another album. So there’s a lot of great memories of Ronnie.”
Several publications recently reported that Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne had revealed that Iommi had recorded the guitar tracks for fifteen new Black Sabbath songs in the studio. However, Iommi explained that Osbourne’s comments had been misinterpreted: “That’s wrong. When Ozzy said it, I think he meant what we’ve done. We’ve written 15 songs and we’ve played them all. But now, at the moment, we’re recording them. We recorded them at my house first, in England, just as demos, but now we’re doing them for real. So we’re about six tracks in now, at the moment.”
Meanwhile, Black Sabbath has confirmed it will headline day two of Japan’s inaugural Ozzfest on May 12 at Makuhari Messe in Chiba City. Slipknot will headline day one on May 11.
Furthermore, Black Sabbath recently announced they would tour Australia in 2013. Date and venues can be found below.
Black Sabbath’s new album is tentatively scheduled for release in April 2013 via Vertigo/Universal Republic in the U.S. and Vertigo in all other territories.
Black Sabbath Australian tour dates:
April
25 – Brisbane Entertainment Centre – Brisbane, Australia
27 – Allphones Arena – Sydney, Australia
May
1 – Rod Laver Arena – Melbourne, Australia
4 – Perth Arena – Perth, Australia
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