Tony Iommi Interview: New Solo Album, Ozzy, Back to the Beginning

"I play the way I play — and that's me, I like to just play from the heart."

On Tuesday (Aug. 25), the legendary Tony Iommi joined Loudwire Nights to celebrate the upcoming release of his first solo album in over two decades, From the Dark. Listen to the full conversation in the player near the end of this article.

Iommi was very open about his approach to From the Dark. Much like how he describes his guitar playing, he seemed to conceive this album in a similar way.

"It's been good fun, there's no pressure," Iommi shared with Loudwire Nights' Chuck Armstrong about the creation of the record.

"If nothing happened, nothing happened, then we'd do it the next time. But it did, every time we come to record something, it'd work."

The "we" Iommi referred to is the band that is all over From the Dark: vocalist Jorn Lande, bassist Becky Baldwin and drummer Karl Brazil. Though he said more than once that he thoroughly enjoyed making this album alongside his bandmates, he admitted when he started thinking about it, he didn't necessarily have a typical album in mind.

"What happened originally, I was going to do an instrumental album," he said.

"I did actually do a couple of instrumentals and I thought, 'Maybe I'd like to do it with a singer instead.' So I've still got the instrumentals, I haven't used them. Jorn was straight away in my mind because I love the way he sings, I love his vocals and he's done stuff with us before ... Our players, they're from Birmingham. Karl lives in Birmingham, Becky lives in Birmingham, Jorn lives in Sweden, but he comes over, so it's great."

The Last Conversation Tony Iommi Had With Ozzy

Of course, any conversation with Iommi these days can't only focus on From the Dark; with Back to the Beginning and the death of Ozzy Osbourne still fresh in the world's mind, Iommi was open about discussing both.

Iommi was very happy with how Back to the Beginning turned out and emphasized how impressed he was with all the bands who showed up, gave their time to the event and celebrated Black Sabbath. As you might expect, he shared that Ozzy was quite pleased, too.

"He was really happy with it, that we could do it, you know," Iommi said.

"In fact, I spoke to him the night before he passed. He said to me, 'I really feel tired and really worn out.' I said, 'Well, you're bound to really, it's been a lot of stress and pressure and stuff like that.' And the next thing, the next day, [he's] gone."

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He opened up and said it's still hard for him to truly accept that Ozzy is gone and is often reminded of him in various ways, even when he's watching YouTube and Ozzy pops up.

"It still feels like he's there."

What Else Did Tony Iommi Discuss on Loudwire Nights?

• Performing at Back to the Beginning: "It was a great honor. For me, [though,] it was difficult because seeing Ozzy sitting in a throne is not the way I see him. Always [when] we've been onstage, he's been running around and he'd run up to Geezer [Butler] and pull a face jokingly and come over to me and pull a face or the drummer or whatever. We always had a little laugh onstage and enjoy when he'd run about. But at Back to the Beginning, of course, he's in a throne and I couldn't see him, which felt very unusual. I stood back by Bill [Ward]. But, it was a great moment and I'm really glad we could get the opportunity to do it, because I mean, God, we didn't know he was going to go that quick. But he did ... There's memories that will remain there, from rehearsals to the whole thing...I am glad that we could do that gig."
• His friendship with Brian May, who performs on "Death Wake" on From the Dark: "We've known each other for 56, 58 years. He's my best friend. And of course, Eddie Van Halen was. We always stayed in touch a lot. They were the only two I really did stay in touch with ... [Brian] came to my house and we always have a little fiddle about. He brings a guitar or I've got one here and he'll use that. I said, 'Oh, bring your guitar when you come,' he brought his guitar and I said, 'You're going to be playing on this track here.' He's great. I said to him, 'Play on some other tracks,' but he went, 'Oh no, it's your album.' That's the relationship we've had with each other for all these years. We've played a lot together. He is a great friend."
• What else he's working on at the moment — and whether or not we'll get a vinyl release of his debut solo album, 2000's Iommi, one day: "Probably, I think there was talk of that [for Iommi]. So many things going on at the moment, all releases and mixes and people are on about the Born Again album, am I going to remix that? I will, once I get it ... I get confused with it all now, I think, 'Which one's this now?'"

Listen to the Full Interview in the Podcast Player Below

Tony Iommi joined Loudwire Nights on Tuesday, Aug. 25; the show replays online here, and you can tune in live every weeknight at 7PM ET or on the Loudwire app; you can also see if the show is available on your local radio station and listen to interviews on-demand here.