BLACK SABBATH Guitarist TONY IOMMI: 'With Music You Shouldn't Have Any Boundaries'

Eden Munro of Canada's Vue Weekly recently conducted an interview with BLACK SABBATH/HEAVEN AND HELL guitarist Tony Iommi. A few excerpts from the chat follow:

On HEAVEN AND HELL:

“People know that it's the same band that's called [BLACK] SABBATH. [We] originally started calling the tour the Heaven and Hell tour and it's gone into calling us HEAVEN AND HELL so that people can decipher the two [bands]."

On the distinct lack of communication between Iommi and bassist Geezer Butler on one side and singer Ronnie James Dio on the other:

"It's funny with our lot. That sort of happens [where we don't talk at all], but as soon as we see each other it's like nothing happened."

On how the band started working together again after all these years:

"I went to see Ronnie when he played in England at one of his shows, and we got together, and it was just great to see him again and the atmosphere was fantastic. Ronnie went back to L.A. and then he flew over again to work with me on [a new] track. We started with one track first to see how it goes, and it was really good. We bounced off each other, and it was all very easy and one thing led to another. We started with the one track and we ended up with three tracks for this album. It was all working great and it's just materialized now into doing some shows, which we're all really pleased about."

On the differences in sound between the Ozzy Osbourne and Dio versions of BLACK SABBATH:

"Ronnie is a totally different singer from Ozzy. When I wrote for Ozzy I sort of knew where he was going to go — working with him for so many years I sort of had an idea of which things were good for him to sing on or not — and, of course, when Ronnie came in I had no idea, so it was a totally open book and just the whole style of writing changed with Ronnie."

On the band's plans to avoid playing any of the Osbourne-era staples during the HEAVEN AND HELL tour:

"Ronnie did leave himself open. He said, 'Listen, if you want to play any of the old SABBATH stuff, I'm quite open to that.' But, to be honest, I don't think we will. I mean, we may try one or two, but we've talked about just doing the Dio era, which is nice because we've got some great songs there and it'll be nice to put a show together with them."

On the prospect of creating new music with both Dio and Osbourne in the years ahead:

"It's unbelievable, really, to know that we can still do the two projects. But I think that's the way it should be, really. I think with music you shouldn't have any boundaries. You should be able to go out and do what you enjoy. At the moment Ozzy is going to be going out and doing his solo tour, so it enables us to be able to go out and do this as well. Why shouldn't we?"