BLACK SABBATH's TONY IOMMI Has 'Four Or Five Hundred' Unused Riffs On His Phone

In a new interview with Neil Jones of U.K.'s Planet Rock, BLACK SABBATH guitarist Tony Iommi was asked if there is a chance of some new music from him being released in the not-too-distant future. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "[There's] a good chance. I enjoy doing this. I've got so much stuff, I just wanna get started on getting it together now. Because my phone, there's four or five hundred riffs on it. And I've gotta get 'em off. It's getting around to doing it — that's the thing. It's just an abundance of all this stuff that I need to… 'Cause the pandemic put a bit of a block on it, really. And I was working it out and the engineer was coming over and we were getting through some things. But then when that happened and you couldn't have anybody in the house or in the studio, it put the kibosh on that for a bit. And then I started getting involved in other stuff. And it's just kicking back on again. I've gotta get back into getting these things down properly."

When Jones pointed out to Iommi that METALLICA guitarist Kirk Hammett lost a phone with more than 300 pieces of music on it during the creative process for the band's last studio album, "Hardwired… To Self-Destruct", Tony said: "I heard that. That must be awful. Somebody will nick my phone now. [Laughs] It's on my other phone. [Laughs]"

Iommi recently released a signature cologne, a collaboration with Italian luxury perfume house Xerjoff.

"Scent Of Dark" is the product of a friendship struck up during the pandemic between Iommi and Sergio Momo, acclaimed perfumer, and designer for Xerjoff, well known for its unique and individual creations and collaborations in the fragrance world. Sergio is also an accomplished guitarist, and his fine fretwork can be heard on "Scent Of Dark", a new song Iommi released to promote the cologne.

SABBATH's final tour, "The End", concluded in February 2017 in Birmingham, closing out the quartet's groundbreaking 49-year career. "The End" was SABBATH's last tour because Iommi can no longer travel for extended amounts of time.

Iommi revealed his cancer diagnosis in early 2012, shortly after SABBATH announced a reunion tour and album. He underwent treatment throughout the recording of the disc, titled "13", and the subsequent tour to promote it.

The BLACK SABBATH guitarist successfully underwent an operation in January 2017 to remove a noncancerous lump from his throat.

"13" was the first album in 35 years to feature Iommi, singer Ozzy Osbourne and bassist Geezer Butler all playing together.