Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi has revealed that his good friend Brian May is the only guest musician to feature on his forthcoming solo album From the Dark.
Queen guitarist May makes his appearance playing the guitar solo on a song called Death Wake, which Iommi describes as "doom".
In conversation with Rolling Stone, Iommi says that he didn't want any other guests on the record, which finds him joined by vocalist Jørn Lande (Masterplan, Avantasia, etc.), bassist Becky Baldwin (Mercyful Fate) and drummer Karl Brazil (Robbie Williams) because he "wanted to keep it basically like a band".
Asked by writer Kory Grow if May plays on any other songs on the record, Iommi replies, "No. I did say to him, Do you want to play on something else? He said, 'No, no. Your solos are good. I don’t need to play'."
"But it was great that he did," he adds. "I just played him a couple of things, and he’d done it here at the studio in my house. Then of course he’d play something and go, 'Oh, I don’t know about it'. I go, I like it."
Iommi and May have been close friends since the early '70s.
In 2022, the guitarist spoke to Classic Rock about rumours that the pair were set to collaborate on new material.
"We’ve talked about it for years, we really have, and the pandemic smacked everything up," Sabbath's guitarist revealed."Brian came here to my house just before all that happened, and 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, 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."
Last Christmas, May gifted iommi a bespoke replica of his iconic homemade Red Special guitar.
Iommi took to Instagram to express his delight and gratitude at receiving the present from his "best friend", posting "Christmas came early!"
Iommi attempted to launch a solo career in 1986 with the album Seventh Star, although record label obligations led to it being released under the banner of “Black Sabbath featuring Tony Iommi”. He went solo in earnest with 2000’s Iommi, which featured a large cast of guest musicians including Ozzy Osbourne, System Of A Down’s Serj Tankian, The Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan and Type O Negative’s Peter Steele.
His second and thus-far latest solo outing, 2005’s Fused, featured the more concrete lineup of Iommi, Deep Purple and former Sabbath singer/bassist Glenn Hughes and drummer Kenny Aronoff.
The first taste of the guitarist's new record, single World Alone, was released earlier this week.
