A new Tony Iommi solo album is officially happening! With plenty of anticipation preceding the announcement, Iommi himself revealed he’ll be hitting the studio this winter.

Iommi’s collected his pension with Black Sabbath after playing the band’s final show on Feb. 4, 2017 in their home town of Birmingham, England. The trailblazing guitarist has earned a well-deserved break from the road, though he’s occasionally been sitting down for intimate discussions before a live crowd.

While speaking at the Whitley Bay Film Festival in August, Iommi laid out a plan for his first solo album since 2005’s Fused. "I'm still writing stuff; I've put ideas down on tapes. When all this nice, sunny weather goes and it gets grim, I shall start going in the studio and putting it down,” the six-string icon revealed. "My engineer, who I had for everything with me at home, he's just done Judas Priest's album. Now he's finished that, and we'll hopefully start again and put some ideas down. I don't know what it's gonna be yet — whether it'll be an instrumental album. I've been approached by a lot of people to do something with them."

Iommi is likely referring to his longtime sound engineer Mike Exeter, whom he has worked with extensively over his career. Watch the guitarist's interview above and stay tuned for further updates on new music from heavy metal’s ‘Hand of Doom.’

Black Sabbath Albums Ranked