"What a time to be alive!" Listen to the most surprising single of 2025, Robbie Williams' "adrenaline-filled and balls-to-the-wall" collaboration with Black Sabbath's Tony Iommi and 'The Voice Of Rock' Glenn Hughes

Robbie Williams and Tony Iommi — (Image credit: Dave Benett/Getty Images for Moco Museum | Samir Hussein/Getty Images for Live Nation UK)

Robbbie Williams has shared his collaboration with Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi.

Rocket, the first single from the pop superstar's forthcoming album BRITPOP, also features backing vocals from former Deep Purple legend Glenn Hughes, who famously worked with Iommi on Black Sabbath's 1986 album Seventh Star, and on Iommi's second solo album, 2005's Fused.

The unlikely, but undeniably rather impressive, collaboration was first revealed last year in an episode of the Percussion Podcast, when Williams' drummer and musical director Karl Brazil was asked about the former Take That man's upcoming album.

"He's working with various people," said Brazil. "I've been fortunate enough to do some songs with him and he's actually done a track called Rocket with Tony Iommi, which is very random. It's great. It's a rocker and it's really, really cool."

In an interview with NME, Williams described the song as "my favourite song off my new album."

"This [Rocket] is massive guitars, as you can imagine," he said. "It's adrenaline-filled and balls-to-the-wall!"

In a recent press release, Williams stated that with BRITPOP he was aiming to make the album he originally wanted to write after leaving Take That in 1995.

“It was the peak of Britpop and a golden age for British Music,” he said. “I’ve worked with some of my heroes on this album; it’s raw, there are more guitars and it’s an album that’s even more upbeat and anthemic than usual.

"There’s some ‘Brit’ in there and there’s certainly some ‘pop’ too – I’m immensely proud of this as a body of work and I’m excited for fans to hear this album."

BRITPOP will be released this autumn, and can be pre-ordered now.

Listen to Rocket - which features Williams singing "What a time to be alive!" - below. A video for the single will be released on Friday, May 23.

Rocket - YouTube

Watch On

Tony Iommi will play his final show with Black Sabbath - alongside Ozzy Osbourne, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward - on July 5 at Birmingham's Villa Park.

The one-day Back To The Beginning event will also feature Ozzy' Osbournes final solo performance and a supporting cast that includes Metallica, Tool, Guns N' Roses,. Slayer, Alice In Chains, Anthrax, Mastodon and more, as well as appearances from Billy Corgan, Fred Durst, Jonathan Davis, Wolfgang Van Halen, Papa V Perpetua, Sammy Hagar, Zakk Wylde, Jake E Lee and more.

“I’m already having palpitations,” Geezer Butler recently admitted. “In fact, I had a nightmare last night. I dreamed everything went wrong on stage and we all turned to dust. It’s important that we leave a great impression, since it’s the final time that people will experience us live."

Artists

A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne's private jet, played Angus Young's Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.