Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi is streaming his annual holiday greeting video message to fans as 2019 winds down.
"Hello, here we are again. Another Christmas. And here I am, wearing a Black Sabbath Christmas sweater. How about that?,” Iommi begins. “Well, it's been an interesting year for me and Sabbath. We started off at the beginning of the year getting a Grammy award, a 'Lifetime Achievement' award, which is brilliant — I mean, it's really great; it's the highest award you can have, Grammy-wise.
“And then, a few months afterwards, or a month afterwards, I went to Armenia with Ian Gillan for the 30th anniversary of the Rock Aid Armenia, which was fabulous. We had a great time there. We went to visit the school that we built, and that was lovely. And see all the kids and see all the people. They looked after us amazingly. That was so nice.”
“And then, just recently, I went to Nashville, to the Gibson factory,” continues the rocker. “I was invited there by the new owners, who, I've gotta tell you, are great. And they're so enthusiastic — lovely people. And I went around the factory and met all the people that work there, and they're so dedicated to what they do — all of them there now. And the Gibson product is lifted a million times, I tell you. They're so good, and wanna do the best, which is great for guitar players. So, that was lovely.
"But, anyway, I'm here to wish you a very merry Christmas and a really happy new year. Have a great year, and I'll look forward to seeing you next year."
Three-quarters of the original Black Sabbath lineup reunited to receive their Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award during the "Grammy Salute To Music Legends" awards ceremony and live tribute concert at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, CA on May 11.
Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward represented the groundbreaking metal outfit, while frontman Ozzy Osbourne missed the event as he continued to recover from surgery following an injury at his L.A. home.
In June, Iommi and Butler were on hand for the official naming ceremony and unveiling of the “Black Sabbath Bridge” in the band’s Birmingham, UK hometown; the unveiling coincided with a major Home Of Metal exhibition celebrating Black Sabbath and the band’s legacy, which ran throughout the summer at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.
Earlier this month, Black Sabbath released a new box set highlighting their classic 1970s-era recordings; “Black Sabbath: The Vinyl Collection 1970-1978” is a 9LP package that delivers the group’s first eight studio albums alongside a mono singles collection.
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