Since Black Sabbath wrapped their final concert in February 2017, guitarist Tony Iommi has taken his time determining his next musical step. He spent some time working with various charities and has hinted in the past year about returning to music. But a new Instagram post suggests that he’s approaching music in earnest, and may be doing so with an old friend.

In his post, the guitarist is seen hanging out with Queen’s Brian May, who is holding a small boombox. “Hard at work! In search of riffs – and finding about 500,” wrote Iommi. With someone with the guitarist's extensive history, it would not be surprising if he had a wealth of guitar ideas just waiting to be fully realized. The appearance of May could lead to some speculation of a collaboration, but there has been no confirmation of the pair doing anything more than just hanging out as of yet. See the photo post below.

Iommi has stated in a past interview that he and Judas Priest's Rob Halford have discussed working together “for ages,” adding, When the time’s right it would be nice to write a track or two, or whatever. I’d like to do that. It’s nice to work with people that you respect and like." But as stated, no collaborations have officially been confirmed.

The Sabbath guitarist expressed his desire to record a new solo album last October, hinting at a winter start. "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.” He went on to add, “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."

We’ll keep you up to date as Iommi’s next musical venture comes to fruition.