"Many things are happening right now."
Legendary Tony Iommi spoke with Total Guitar about what the guitar means to him today, 49 years after the formation of Black Sabbath.
“It’s a way for me to express myself. But I don’t sleep with my guitar like I used to in the beginning. The guitar has always had a very special meaning for me (…) Being able to compose music, being able to play an instrument releases things in you that wouldn’t normally be released in any other way,” he reveals.
Iommi goes on to say that today, after Black Sabbath's farewell tour, he only plays guitar when he feels like it, "A lot of things are going on right now so the last thing I want to do is play guitar. But when I pick it up to play, I really enjoy it."
The guitarist confessed to Total Guitar that he feels most comfortable when he's writing riffs and coming up with new ideas.
Black Sabbath's farewell tour ended in Birmingham, England in February 2017. Since then, the band has released a DVD with a recording of the show, and frontman Ozzy Osbourne has announced his final world tour.
Tony Iommi was diagnosed with lymphoma in 2012 and has since undergone treatments and surgeries, the last of which was in 2017 when he needed to have a nodule removed from his throat.