Tony Iommi: “My surgeon doesn’t expect my cancer to go away”

He speaks openly about his battle

Black Sabbath's Tony Iommi Published 8th Jan 2015



Rock legend Tony Iommi has spoken openly about his cancer battle and has revealed his surgeon believes the disease could come back any time soon.

In an interview with The Mirror, the Black Sabbath guitarist says that when he was diagnosed with the blood cancer lymphoma in January 2012 he thought he would die.

“When the doctors told me I had cancer I thought, ‘That’s it then’,” Tony said. “Cancer was death as far as I was concerned. I found a painful lump in my groin while I was in New York promoting my book. I thought it was my prostate acting up again, but Ozzy told me I should get it checked out.”

After discovering he had a type of Non-Hodgkin lymphoma, Tony broke the news to his bandmates in the studio while they were working on ‘13’.

Tony explained: “Ozzy came in and said: ‘Oh yeah, didn’t so and so die from that?’ Which is exactly not what you want to hear. I thought: ‘Thanks a lot, Mr Bloody Cheerful.’ But that’s Ozzy all over, he always puts his foot in it.”

Receiving six course of chemotherapy, Tony joked that his time in the studio was very different to the hedonistic recording sessions in the seventies.

! Black Sabbath with their 2014 Grammy award

“In the good old days there was cocaine everywhere. This time we had tea and coffee and health drinks that my wife, Maria, made for me because I’ve had to change my diet.

“Thankfully red wine is still on the menu, though. I’m determined to hold on to as many of those little pleasures as possible.”

Tony added that the gruelling touring schedule taking ‘13’ around the globe really sapped his energy.

“We played 81 shows in 28 countries. I really enjoyed it, but it was tough. After the illness I got really tired. Every six weeks I had to fly home for treatment,” he said.

“Then I had to be home for two or three weeks recovering before I could join up with the band again. We had to plan the whole tour around my treatment.”

Looking to the future, Tony admitted there are no certainties: “Every day I feel around for lumps and bumps. Every time I get a pain in my stomach I think, ‘Oh God, it’s cancer’. It’s horrible. I even dream about it.

“But that’s my life now. The surgeon told me he doesn’t expect the cancer to go away. There’s a 30 per cent chance that it could, but more than likely it will come back and it could be any time.

“I look at life differently now. I could be here another 10 years or just one year – I don’t know.”

You can read the full Daily Mirror interview here.