"Christmas came early!" Queen's Brian May gifts best friend Tony Iommi from Black Sabbath a unique bespoke present, two years in the making

Queen guitarist Brian May has gifted his dear friend Tony Iommi a bespoke replica of his iconic homemade Red Special guitar.

Black Sabbath's legendary riff lord took to Instagram to express his delight and gratitude at receiving the present from his "best friend", posting "Christmas came early!"

"Huge thanks to my best friend Brian May and master builder Andrew Guyton for this incredible left-handed Red Special replica," Iommi writes. "Andrew personally delivered it last week - a true gift from Brian, two years in the making."

He added, "Andrew said 'It’s built with the exact vintage construction of Brian May’s original Red Special, but shaped to match Tony’s iconic Jaydee Old Boy neck. Features a built-in treble booster and authentic vintage-style pots and pickups to replicate the classic tone'."

Iommi and May have been friends since the early '70s, their friendship developing from a mutual respect for one another.

"We had a very fast connection," Iommi told BBC Radio 2's Rock Show in 2021, "and we used to talk to each other at all hours of the night in the early days."

Back in 2013, Iommi told the Birmingham Mail that May had visited him at his home in the Warwickshire village of Lapworth after he was diagnosed with lymphoma. He recalled May being impressed upon hearing some of the riffs he had stockpiled, and told the newspaper, "We may well find some way of working together on them."

Talking to Classic Rock’s Polly Glass in 2021, Iommi again expressed his hope that a proper collaboration between the pair could happen “one day".

“We've talked about it for years, we really have,” he said, “and the pandemic smacked everything up. Brian came here to my house just before all that happened: it was a lovely day, we sat outside in the courtyard and played riffs. I played him some of the stuff I'd got, and he said, 'Oh, great, you've gotta do something with this,' and we've talked about it on and off. It would be nice, one day, to do that.

“He's really busy now doing all sorts of things,” Iommi added, “and it's great that he's kept active. You can never say what's gonna happen, it would be nice. I'm open for a lot of things now, really.”

Back in October, May hailed Iommi as a "genius" on Instagram while sharing footage of the Sabbath man's surprise appearance at a London performance of Black Sabbath - The Ballet, when he joined the Birmingham Royal Ballet onstage at Sadler's Wells Theatre for a show-closing version of Paranoid.

"Wow!" May posted. "The true father of heavy metal making that beautiful axe sing like a bird tonight at Sadlers Wells. Tony Iommi plus a 40-piece orchestra and a cast of 50 dancers, putting the icing on the cake of a great production of Black Sabbath - The Ballet. Proud to call this infinitely modest and generous genius my friend."

Earlier this year, following Black Sabbath's farewell show, Iommi offered an update on his long-anticipated new solo album.

“I was doing my own album until [Back To The Beginning] came up, and then, of course, I had to stop and concentrate on [preparing for] the Sabbath [performance],” he told US rock DJ Eddie Trunk.

“But I’m continuing next week on trying to finish off what I started with this album. And then who knows what I’m gonna do then? It’s great, really, ’cause if something pops up, I’ll do it, if I want to do it. So it’s a good thing.”

Regarding the plan for vocals on the album, the guitarist continued: “I’ve got one singer on it at the moment, which I originally thought of different singers. But it started off as, It’s gonna be an instrumental album... but then I thought, Oh, I wanna try it with a singer. And so that’s what I’ve been doing.”