Brian May says there is a "chance" he’ll release his collaboration with Tony Iommi.
Back in 2013, the Black Sabbath legend revealed he and the Queen guitarist had discussed teaming up to do something with the riffs he had laying about, just after he was diagnosed with cancer in 2011.
And now the ‘We Will Rock You’ hitmaker, who described his fellow riff-maker as a "luminous human being" with an "incredibly baffling sense of humour’, has suggested they could share what they worked on with the world.
He told Guitar World magazine: "I think there is a chance.
"We do more talking than anything else, but we do a lot of talking. [Iommi] is really my dearest friend in the business and has been for so many years.
"I could write books about Tony because he’s just the most [pauses] … I don’t even know how to put it into words. You know, he’s a luminous human being is Tony, with a wonderful, kind nature and an incredibly baffling sense of humour.
"And, of course, he is the father of heavy metal. He did that. He made that happen. And it’s from his fingers and his mind. That young ex-welder, he made that happen. So, you know, he forever wears that medal, I think. He founded this stuff, heavy metal, in my opinion. I mean, I think probably most people would agree."
Back in 2013, Iommi – who is in remission – had said: "When I was first ill, Brian May came to visit me at my house in Lapworth," Iommi told the publication. "I played him some of my stuff, rock riffs that I’d never quite got round to developing, or decided not to use. He said I ought to do something with them.
"It’s early days yet, and all my attention in on Sabbath for the foreseeable future, but we may well find some way of working together on them, and making them available in some shape or form.
"One of the ideas we had is that we could make the riffs available, get fans to use them in songs of their own, and see what they come up with. That way they’d effectively be recording with Brian and myself."