Tony Iommi’s first solo album in over two decades is a cause for celebration. Even more so because it’s set to feature his close friend, Queen guitarist Brian May.
The Black Sabbath legend announced From the Dark earlier this week with the lead single, World Alone. In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Iommi revealed May recorded the solo on another track, Death Wake.
“In the very early Seventies, he was in one studio, and I was in another. We just hit it off,” Iommi recalls of his first meeting and friendship with May. “We’ve been friends for, God, nearly 60 years.”
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May played the solo on When Death Calls, from Sabbath’s Headless Cross album in 1988. He then lined up alongside Dave Grohl on Iommi’s 2000 solo track, Goodbye Lament, as part of his eponymous, guest-filled LP.
More recently, May gifted Iommi a left-handed version of the Red Special for Christmas. Their friendship is enduring and it will continue on From the Dark.
“We stay in touch all the time,” Iommi says of his friendship with May. “He’s played onstage a couple of times with me, and then we’ve done a couple of album tracks we played on together. He’s a very, very close friend.”
They could have doubled their money on From the Dark. Iommi offered the chance for May to play more. But the Queen legend didn’t want to overstay his welcome.
“I did say to him, ‘Do you want to play on something else?’” Iommi remembers. “He said, ‘No, no. Your solos are good. I don’t need to play.’
“It was great that he did. I just played him a couple of things, and he’d done it here at the studio in my house. Then of course he’d play something and go, ‘Oh, I don’t know about it.’ I go, ‘I like it.’”
From the Dark is due for release on October 23. It comes after the guitarist had teased flirtations with orchestras and, more surprisingly, that he’d been experimenting with a Kemper for its recording.
In related Iommi news, the Black Sabbath legend also recently reflected on Ozzy’s passing, one year on.
