TONY IOMMI Says That He Is Close To Finalizing Singer For New Solo Album

BLACK SABBATH guitarist Tony Iommi is currently working on the material for a new solo album, tentatively due sometime in 2005. Unlike his last solo offering, 2000's "Iommi", which boasted a different singer on each of the album's 10 cuts, the forthcoming effort will feature only one vocalist on the entire CD. Asked in a pre-taped phone interview on the "Friday Night Rocks" show on New York's Q104.3 Friday night (April 23) if he knows who the singer on his upcoming solo album will be, Iommi said, "I do… almost. (laughs) I can't say yet, because I haven't finalized it. But I'm pretty sure now. Yeah, it's difficult… I mean, I loved having 10 singers on the last album, but the problem is, if you wanna go out on the road with it, it makes such a problem, because to get everybody in one place at one time is very, very hard. We did have things planned for the last album, but of course, the SABBATH tour came up, so I had to sort of put aside what I'd got planned and we'd done the SABBATH tour, which was great. But unfortunately, some of the solo stuff went by the wayside. But it would have been nice to have done a few shows with that — with all the people [that were involved in making the album]."

With regards to whether there are any plans for BLACK SABBATH to release a new studio album or do some more touring together, Iommi said, "We did write some new material [for a possible new studio album a few years ago] and then it came to a stop. And I think it was at this point when [Ozzy started] doing all the MTV stuff and what-not, so it's very hard to say what's gonna happen with that or what we're gonna do. We never sort of make too many plans these days 'cause they usually go pear-shaped. But at the moment, for me, I'm just carrying on doing my solo stuff when I get back to England."