Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi: ‘We’ve written some great new tracks’

Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi has revealed that despite his ongoing cancer treatment, the band have continued to work on their new album and have written “some great new tracks”.

Iommi was diagnosed with lymphoma earlier this year and, as a result, the reunited metal legends moved the writing and recording of their new album from the US over to the UK so the guitarist could receive treatment and continue to work on new music.

The guitarist posted an update on his official website Iommi.com, which reads as follows: “I’ve had the last dose of chemotherapy so hopefully my body will start to get back to normal soon, the steroids were the worse. I’ve now got three weeks of radiotherapy coming up which I’m told can be very tiring, so we’ll see.”

He continued: “A big thanks to Ozzy and Geezer for coming over to England, it was a big incentive for me, we managed to work most days and have some great new tracks. And, importantly thanks again for your kind messages, hope to be seeing you soon.”

Earlier this year, Black Sabbath were forced to rework their summer reunion gig schedule to cope with Iommi’s treatment. The metal legends will still headline Download festival on June 10, but have replaced many of their previously announced European festival dates with Ozzy & Friends gigs.

The shows will see frontman Ozzy Osbourne joined by special guests including former Guns ‘N Roses guitarist Slash, Geezer Butler and Zakk Wylde.

The band’s estranged drummer Bill Ward is missing from Iommi’s update, indicating that he has not reconciled with his former bandmates as yet.

The drummer had previously revealed he was unhappy with the contract for the band’s new album and world tour and claimed he would not take part in the new album sessions and shows if a ‘fair agreement’ was not met. As a result of this, the remaining members of the band vowed to carry on without him.