Black Sabbath’s new box set ‘Anno Domini 1989-1995’ came out just a few days ago, and Tony Iommi recently sat down with Kerrang! to talk about it. During the interview, he revealed whether he would consider working with Tony Martin again. When asked about it, Iommi said he didn’t have any plans to do so:
“There’s no plan for anything at the moment. I never write things off, but obviously, you’re not going to get Cozy, you’re not going to get Geoff Nicholls. So it’d be a different thing again. But we probably won’t. I mean, I can’t see myself going on tour or doing anything at the moment. For me, touring has basically stopped now. I don’t want to be doing two years out on tour again.”
He explained why he isn’t able to go on tours now:
“I loved it, but my doctor at the time said, ‘You shouldn’t be flying all over the world too much,’ because of my cancer situation. Touring’s a great idea until you get about a year into it and then you get tired and you go, ‘Oh my God, this is tough.’ I’ve done that for 50-odd years, so now it’s time to sit back and rest! Well, rest, but not do nothing – I love playing, I’m still writing, still doing lots of stuff. I’m still trying to keep my life entertaining.”
‘Band Politics’ Delayed The Album
The set includes Tony Martin-era recordings and comes in four albums: ‘Headless Cross,’ ‘Tyr,’ ‘Cross Purposes,’ and ‘Forbidden.’ All of those albums were mixed by Iommi himself.
The former Black Sabbath frontman sat down with The Metal Voice and discussed the box set. He revealed that he wanted to do it for so long, but band politics became the reason for the delay of the set:
“I have been wanting this for a long time just as you have and the fans have. Unfortunately, I’m not in the band, so I have no part in the decision-making or the politics that go on. So I had to kind of sit and twiddle my thumbs just like you all did. I didn’t have any role to play in it, it was just that they sort of said they were thinking about it some years ago, but because of all the band politics and the contracts, the amount of people that are involved that they have to get agreements from. About a year ago they called me and said, ‘We can’t do it, it’s too complicated. There’s too many people demanding this that, and we just can’t get it together.’”
See what the box set includes down below.