Tony Iommi believes he was saved by music during his battle with cancer.
The 78-year-old Black Sabbath guitarist was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma back in 2012 and underwent months of gruelling treatment while working on the band’s 2013 album 13 with the rocker flying back and forth between the UK and Los Angeles – and he’s convinced throwing himself into making the record helped him through the difficult time.
During an interview with Krishnan Guru-Murthy on Channel 4 News podcast Ways to Change the World, Tony joked: “I carry on wondering when I’m gonna keel over. Yes, I do that.”
He added: “But I enjoy [being creative]. I enjoy doing it, and it keeps me going. And even when I was diagnosed with cancer, when we’d done the last album, Sabbath album [13], I wanted to work through that just to get my mind off it and not just give in. And it worked.
“And I was flying back, flying to L.A. when we’d done the recordings with [producer] Rick Rubin. Then I had to fly back to have a treatment and fly back again to carry on recording. But I enjoyed [staying busy] …
“I had to keep my mind focused on the music, really, and it helped me a lot.”
Tony – who released his latest solo record From The Dark last week – also explained how his working habits have changed since he built a home studio – admitting it’s allowed him to be more relaxed about the recording process.
He said: “The thing is I can come in here [at my home studio], just put some ideas down, and that’s it. Always in the past with Sabbath stuff or any stuff, you’ve had a time limit.
“You’ve had to have a rehearsal for six weeks to write the stuff, and then, of course, book the studio and do that. And then you’re on tour for 18 months.
“But this time I’ve had no pressure. I could just come in and do it when I want. And so I worked on it with my engineer. I’d say: ‘Let’s work on Monday and Tuesday, and do that every week for a bit. And if you’ve got something [to keep you] busy, we’ll cancel it. And if I can’t do it, we’ll …’
“And we worked like that, really. ‘Cause I still had to go for hospital appointments for my cancer check-ups, and he had things popping up. So we’d work when we could and put the ideas down, and build it like that, really. So it’s been quite relaxing.”