The Hartford Advocate recently sat down with Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi to discuss the differences between the band now and forty years ago and whether they will release a follow-up to their latest highly acclaimed album, ’13.’ A couple of excerpts from the chat can be found below.
Iommi said Black Sabbath was on an all-time high: “It’s a great feeling,” he decreed. “You can’t beat that feeling of walking onstage, especially with your old mates, you know. I think it’s better than it was 40 years ago.”
Iommi said having Ozzy Osbourne and Geezer Butler back in the band felt, “really comfortable.” He explained: “You know, we’ve been through a lot of experiences, family things and so on. I think when it comes back to the original guys again, it feels really comfortable. You do get — it comes along with age, I suppose — anxieties and different other things. But when you get onstage and start playing, it all settles down.”
Black Sabbath, who have been touring in support of ’13’ since Arpil, is currently playing four songs off their new album live and Iommi said that number could increase: “… I’d be up for doing the whole thing. That’s how we recorded it, so that’s how we can play it. It’s an album that is not impossible to do, if you know what I mean. We didn’t go in the studio and put loads of stuff on. It IS live, so we could go on and play any of those songs.”
Unfortunately, Iommi was unable to give a clear answer on whether Black Sabbath would ever release another album: “… because of my [cancer] treatments and stuff, I can’t commit to doing another two years, or anything like that. I have to play it as it comes now. While I’m doing it, I’m really enjoying it. If the rest of the year goes well, then we’ll look at it and see if it’s possible to do another album. It would be very nice to.”