Tony Iommi “That Was Not The End Of Black Sabbath, Just The End Of Full On Tours For Us”

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Tony Iommi has once again said that he wouldn’t rule out BLACK SABBATH recording new material or playing a one-off event.

BLACK SABBATH finished its year-long “The End” farewell tour on Saturday night (February 4) in the band’s hometown of Birmingham, England, closing out the quartet’s groundbreaking 49-year career with an emotional 15-song set.

The band decided to make this tour its last because Iommi, who was diagnosed with cancer in late 2011 and is currently in remission, can no longer travel for extended amounts of time.

Speaking to the U.K. radio station Planet Rock, Iommi said: “I’m going to miss playing on stage because that has been my whole life, the band and playing on stage. I like [playing on stage] and I’m sure it’s not going to end like that; I’m sure we might do a one-off show somewhere.

“It’s just the touring for me — it’s time to stop roaming the world and be at home for a bit… I’m still going to write and put stuff out.”

Asked if SABBATH‘s recording days are truly over, Tony said: “No, I don’t think we’ve ruled anything out apart from me not wanting to tour any more on that scale, but who knows, we may do something. We haven’t spoken about it. That’s another thing — we haven’t talked about anything, really, that’s to do with what’s going to happen afterwards. But I’m sure something can happen somewhere.”

Tony added that he is looking forward to the new chapters ahead in his life. “It’s nice just to take some time off and really think about it,” he said. “I’ve been offered quite a lot of stuff at the moment. It’s quite exciting. There are lots of different things coming in, things I would never have thought, to be honest. It’s all there and needs some thought. I don’t want to rush into anything.

“Thing is, when you’re touring, you’ve got to go out for six, eight, twelve months or whatever and you’ve got a schedule that you have to do. Now… if I want to do some TV for a month, I can do that.”

The original lineup of SABBATH came together in 1969 with Iommi, Ozzy Osbourne on vocals, Geezer Butler on bass and Bill Ward on drums. That lineup recorded and toured through 1978, and periodically reformed through the ’90s and 2000s for live work.

They regrouped again in late 2011 for a new album and tour, although Ward dropped out after a few months over financial issues. SABBATH has used Ozzy‘s regular touring drummer Tommy Clufetos since then for live work. RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE‘s Brad Wilk laid down the drum tracks on the album “13”, which came out in June 2013.

Iommi and Butler haven’t announced any specific post-SABBATH plans yet, but Osbourne is reportedly at work on a new album, and already has a pair of solo shows scheduled for this summer.