Tony Iommi films New Year message, reflects on 2025

(Image credit: Gibson)

Black Sabbath legend Tony Iommi has filmed a New Year message for fans. In the four-minute clip, Iommi looks back over 2025 and reflects on a year he says "started really well" with the re-release of Sabbath's Tony Martin-era albums and his unlikely collaboration with pop star Robbie Williams.

"I was asked by Robbie Williams' drummer Karl Brazil if I'd play on a track with Robbie, which, of course, I said, 'Yes, that would be great.' And as far as I was concerned, it was gonna be an album track, but then Robbie released it as a single, which is even better. And we did a video for it. And the track was called Rocket, and I really enjoyed it. It was really different for me to do that."

Iommi also looked back at the so-called "Summer of Sabbath", an initiative that celebrated Sabbath's Birmingham roots with a series of events including the historic Back To The Beginning show, when Iommi and original Sabbath members Ozzy Osbourne, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward played together for the last time. Other events included an Ozzy Osbourne Exhibition at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, a Black Sabbath walking tour, and the return of the Black Sabbath ballet.

"We were presented with the Freedom Of The City from Birmingham, which was absolutely amazing. I mean, I never thought we'd ever get that, which is a great honour," says Iommi. "They had a lot of paintings around of Sabbath on the walls, and it was really good. And all Birmingham became sort of a Sabbath city.

"It was really great seeing Ozzy, Bill and Geezer for Freedom Of The City. And at that point, of course, we were into rehearsals for the Back To The Beginning show at the Villa grounds in Birmingham. And the amount of bands that turned up to support Sabbath on that was just fantastic. What a great event. And, of course, it raised a lot of money for charity. It's just unfortunate and sad that Ozzy passed away a couple of weeks after that, may he rest in peace."

Iommi also revealed that he's continuing to work on his third solo album, the long-awaited follow-up to 2005's Fused, which will finally be released in 2026.

"I shall have definitely, definitely my solo album out. And I'm really looking forward to that. I'm enjoying doing it, and it's been great fun, and I really hope you enjoy it."

Iommi finishes the video – watch in full, below – by promising further updates and wishing fans a happy new year.

A 2026 New Year's Message - YouTube

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Online Editor at Louder/Classic Rock magazine since 2014. 40 years in music industry, online for 27. Also bylines for: Metal Hammer, Prog Magazine, The Word Magazine, The Guardian, The New Statesman, Saga, Music365. Former Head of Music at Xfm Radio, A&R at Fiction Records, early blogger, ex-roadie, published author. Once appeared in a Cure video dressed as a cowboy, and thinks any situation can be improved by the introduction of cats. Favourite Serbian trumpeter: Dejan Petrović.

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