Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi: ‘I’ve Had the Last Dose of Chemotherapy’
Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi has issued a much-desired update on his battle against lymphoma, reporting that he is done with chemotherapy and soon to move onto three weeks of radiotherapy.
Iommi expressed gratitude to fellow Sabbath founders Ozzy Osbourne and Geezer Butler for traveling overseas to join him in creating tracks for the legendary group's upcoming album, which by some miracle seems to still be on track even though the majority of Sabbath's planned world tour has been scuttled.
He seems up for the three weeks of "tiring" radiotherapy and especially thankful to all the fans who sent him well-wishes since the announcement of his condition. In fact, the only sour note in the entire message is that there's no mention of original Sabbath drummer Bill Ward to be heard. Ward was originally supposed to be part of the group's 2012 reunion tour and album plans, but a dispute over (what else?) money has left him thus far unwilling to sign up to join his former bandmates.
Here is the entirety of Iommi's statement, from his official website:
"A little update on how it's all going:
"Well, I've had the last dose of chemotherapy, so hopefully my body will start to get back to normal soon. The steroids were the [worst]. I've now got three weeks of radiotherapy coming up which I'm told can be very tiring, so we'll see.
"A big thanks to [fellow SABBATH members] Ozzy [Osbourne] and Geezer [Butler] for coming over to England; it was a big incentive for me. We managed to work most days and have some great new tracks.
"And, importantly, thanks again for your kind messages. Hope to be seeing you soon."