Ex-BLACK SABBATH Singer TONY MARTIN On Possible New Collaboration With TONY IOMMI: 'I Know He Wants To Do It'

Former BLACK SABBATH singer Tony Martin was interviewed by Metal Jacket Magazine two days before his May 16 performance in Zagreb, Croatia as a guest at a concert of Zele Lipovača, longtime guitarist of the Bosnian heavy metal band DIVLJE JAGODE. You can now watch the chat below. A couple of excerpta follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On his upcoming solo album and autobiography:

Tony: "Well, it’s changed. It started off as 'Book Of Shadows', but now I can't use that, 'cause that's been used a couple of times now. So then it went through a couple of other changes, and now I'm thinking it might be called 'Think No Evil'. It's really the story of me, from before BLACK SABBATH, through BLACK SABBATH and after, so it's like a whole biography thing. But I also have personal video that I took on the tour bus, backstage, in the studio and stuff like that, and I wanna put that on a DVD in the book, but I'm just finding it slightly difficult to get a publisher to do the video part and the book together. Publishers don't usually release DVDs, so you have to go to somebody else and get the DVD and them getting them to coordinate to put the two things together, it's a bit difficult. And there's lots of people talking about it. But for now, I just keep writing and putting all the stories in, and hopefully it'll come at the end of the year — I hope."

On the status of the previously proposed reissues of albums from his era of BLACK SABBATH, featuring bonus material, including some new music:

Tony: "It is definitely possible. I spoke to [BLACK SABBATH guitarist Tony Iommi] just a few weeks ago. He's bought a new house and he's building a new studio. He said he needs to set that up and get that all ready. But when he's ready, I'm happy to do it, and I know he wants to do it. And just the fact that he wants to do it, it's, like, 'Oh, yeah. That's cool.' [Laughs] 'That's cool.' 'Cause those albums have been deleted for a long time, and I think they could sound better. Especially 'Forbidden' — oooohhhh… I hate that. It was the end of my time with BLACK SABBATH, so it's so… When I listen to it now, I think how I could make it better. So if he gives me the chance, I would love to do that again. Yeah, the possibility is definitely there. If he doesn't die… [Laughs] But, yes, I'm happy to think that it will be sometime soon."

On BLACK SABBATH's much-maligned "Forbidden" album not sounding like a true SABBATH release:

Tony: "I told [Iommi] that. It was me, Cozy Powell and Geoff Nicholls, I think, who is also not with us now. We were saying that 'this is not BLACK SABBATH.' And I understand what they were trying to do — the RUN-D.M.C. thing — but no, it didn't work. It didn't work. I have demos from the rehearsals, and it sounded really cool — really hard, and some of the songs are really kicking it. So I would love to re-record that. And if I got the chance, I'd actually like to re-write some of the lyrics, because my head wasn't there in the album. But if I get the chance, we'll have a go."

On the status of the long-awaited follow-up to his last solo album, "Scream", which was released in November 2005 via MTM Music:

Tony: "Well, there was supposed to be a trilogy with 'Scream' — so it was 'Clean', 'Mean' and 'Scream'. So there was supposed to be a light rock [album called] 'Clean'. Then the 'Mean' album was going to be more like grungy, sort of dirty rock. And then 'Scream' was was supposed to be the heavy metal album. And they said, 'No. You can only do the 'Scream' one.' So I didn't get the chance to do the other two. One day, I'd like to complete the trilogy — the 'Clean', 'Mean' and 'Scream' — which shows the — in brackets, the 'talent' of Tony Martin, the different kinds of music that I can perform on. Again, that's a possibility. It's there waiting to be picked up, and I have the rights for that. So I just have to try and get this solo album out first and then maybe I can revisit some of the old things and get those out. I've got a lot of music that I could do. It's just time, really. I'm sixty years old now, so I'm running out of time."

"Scream" featured legendary drummer Cozy Powell (BLACK SABBATH, RAINBOW, WHITESNAKE) on the track "Raising Hell" as well as songwriting contributions by another SABBATH member, Geoff Nicholls.

BLACK SABBATH released six albums with Tony Martin on vocals: "The Eternal Idol" (1987),"Headless Cross" (1989),"Tyr" (1990),"Cross Purposes" (1994),"Cross Purposes Live" (1995) and "Forbidden" (1995).