Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi: “Ozzy was brilliant with melodies…”

In recent years Black Sabbath’s affable riff-god has embraced celebrity fragrances. Promoting his aftershave Tony Iommi Deified alongside Italian perfumers Xerjoff, the black-clad, crucifix-bedecked master of the devil’s tritone penned the instrumental Deified in 2024. So began From The Dark, his first studio set since Black Sabbath's 13 in 2013, and his first solo record since 2005’s Fused. An undead thriller penned with Norwegian singer Jørn Lande, previously of operatic supergroup Avantasia, it also sees “dear old friend” Brian May play a solo on Death Watch. There’s still something darkly monolithic about Iommi’s pioneering sound. It’s the Brummie brick heavy metal was built with; enduring testament to late bandmate Ozzy Osbourne and all Black Sabbath achieved.

From The Dark****’s subject-matter includes nuclear Armageddon. Are we still dealing with the war pigs?

Well, the world’s not in great shape, is it? It’s so sad that we keep spending millions on weapons.

Django Reinhardt overcoming fire damage to his fretting-hand was inspirational when you lost the tops of two fingers in an accident aged 17. Were you a fan of Django’s music too?

Very much so. Especially his stuff with Stéphane Grappelli. I suppose there’s a bit of a Django influence on stuff like Planet Caravan [from 1970’s Paranoid].

Ozzy: what images endure?

Oh god. So many. When I picked him up for our first European tour he came out of his house with one shirt on a coat hanger. I said, “Oz, we’re going away for six weeks!” He said, “I know.” (Laughs). I remember playing the piano part for Changes [from 1972’s Vol. 4] and Ozzy coming up with that fantastic melody. He was brilliant with melodies. It’s quite Beatles-ish, that one.

You have a huge store of unused guitar riffs. What will happen to them after you’ve gone?

Where do you think I’m going? (Laughs). I should sift through them, but every time I go into the studio I come up with something new. Brian May was over and he said, “Got any riffs?” I found some old cassettes and must have played him about 150 ideas. He was like “You’ve got to use these!”

You once befriended horror-film icon Christopher Lee…

We interviewed each other at a London hotel and his son-in-law filmed it. I have a copy and Sir Christopher had a copy, but the film was never released. I told him I loved The Curse Of Frankenstein and The Mummy. He said “Really? They were rubbish!”

A little bird tells MOJO you’ve seen the ABBA Voyage avatar show.

Yes, my wife’s Swedish, and we took along [tennis player] Sue Barker and her husband. It was very good, but it left me with a strange feeling. Nobody there - just these images.

John Bonham was best man when you first married in 1973.

Strange old day, that was. We went out to the club in Birmingham for my stag the night before. John said, “Open all the champagne you have.” He wanted me to down 12 glasses for starters. I refused, so he polished them off - and the rest. I had to get him home, but he was pissed as a parrot and he’d lost his keys. When I pressed the buzzer Pat [Bonham’s wife] said, “Is he drunk?” I said, “He is a bit, yeah.” She said, "I’ll open the door, but he’s not coming up. Leave him in the hallway.” Next morning he was right as rain.

Legend holds you played bagpipes on 1973’s Sabbath Bloody Sabbath.

Not true! I did send out one of the crew to get a set. I thought it might be quite haunting. But when he brought them back I couldn’t get a tune out of them.

Prior to Sabbath’s last stand at Villa Park last year, Andrew Watt’s wanted to produce a final album with the original line-up. You declined. Why?

Working with Rick Rubin [on 2013’s 13] had already been awkward, and Bill [Ward] had pulled out. Andrew’s good but I couldn’t imagine Bill or the rest of us being okay with him telling us what to do. And then Ozzy died, sadly. We would never have had enough time.

Tell us something you’ve never told an interviewer before.

I’ve got a great Yacht Rock playlist I put on when people come for dinner.

From The Dark is released on October 23 on BMG.