Tony Iommi says that he has been too busy enjoying life and doing charity work to pursue any new musical projects since BLACK SABBATH retired from the road a year ago. In February 2017, the legendary heavy metal band finished "The End" tour in SABBATH's hometown of Birmingham, England, closing out the quartet's groundbreaking 49-year career. During a February 3 interview with The Midland Rocks, Iommi was asked how he has been spending his time since he and his bandmates played the final show of the SABBATH tour. "I thought after this tour, 'Well, now I will get time to just relax and do some stuff that I had always wanted to do,' but it hasn't happened yet," he revealed. "I don't know what it is — the time is just flying by, and I think because of all the years of not seeing my friends that often it has got to the stage now where I see them a lot. And we moved house, and we met a new group of friends, and so we have the old friends and the new friends and we just seem to be doing more than ever." Asked if he is thinking about any sort of music-related activity at the moment, Iommi responded: "Music-wise, I would certainly like to start writing again, but at the moment I'm doing a lot of stuff for charities; Heartlands Hospital, which is part of the Heart Of England Foundation Trust, and also Wythall Animal Sanctuary, and both of those are very dear to me. I just try and help where I can, and with the Hospital Trust, at the moment we are trying to raise some money to buy some beds for the chemo patients. And so that is something that I very much like to be involved with. You see, the nurses and the doctors, they work so hard and they don't get a lot of credit for it and when you're in there, they are all so committed and it sparks me off, and so that's what I've been spending some of my time doing." Iommi was diagnosed with lymphoma in early 2012, shortly after SABBATH announced a reunion tour and album. He underwent treatment throughout the recording of the disc, titled "13", and the subsequent tour to promote it. Iommi said in 2016 interview that "the lowest moment" for him was being diagnosed. He explained: "You automatically wind yourself up saying, 'That's it then,' but that is not always the case. When they tell you, you think, 'Oh God.' That was a low time. I have had a few low times in my life like everybody has, but that was one that stuck in the head." The BLACK SABBATH guitarist successfully underwent an operation in January 2017 to remove a noncancerous lump from his throat. Last November, a documentary focusing on SABBATH's final concert, "The End", was made available in home video and audio packages, featuring footage of the entire historic show.
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