Iommi

Iommi is Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi's first official solo album. He came close before. 1986's Seventh Star was supposed to be, but Warner Bros. insisted on calling it a Black Sabbath Featuring Tony Iommi record for marketing purposes. In a way, Iommi is nearly a Black Sabbath tribute album since its ten songs each feature an all-star guest vocalist…

Iommi is Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi's first official solo album. He came close before. 1986's Seventh Star was supposed to be, but Warner Bros. insisted on calling it a Black Sabbath Featuring Tony Iommi record for marketing purposes. In a way, Iommi is nearly a Black Sabbath tribute album since its ten songs each feature an all-star guest vocalist. Actually, "Who's Fooling Who" is three-fourths Black Sabbath since it includes vocalist Ozzy Osbourne and drummer Bill Ward. The other singers are Black Flag and Rollins Band's Henry Rollins, Skunk Anansie's Skin, Nirvana and the Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl, Pantera's Philip Anselmo, System of a Down's Serj Tankian, the Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan, the Cult's Ian Astbury, Type O Negative's Peter Steele, and Billy Idol. Guest musicians include Queen guitarist Brian May, John Mellencamp drummer Kenny Aronoff, White Zombie drummer John Tempesta, Soundgarden bassist Ben Shepherd, Soundgarden and Pearl Jam drummer Matt Cameron, and '80s-era Black Sabbath bassist Laurence Cottle.

Two full decades after the release of 1986's underestimated Seventh Star album, Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi and journeyman vocalist/bassist Glenn Hughes (Trapeze, Deep Purple, etc.) decided the time had come for them to work together once again. Ensconcing themselves in Birmingham's DEP Studios, the duo composed and recorded eight tracks for release, but when Iommi was suddenly called into action with a re-formed and regularly touring original Sabbath, the work in progress was abandoned, filed away, and then, naturally, quickly bootlegged under the imaginative title of Eighth Star.

WhoCares, full title Ian Gillan & Tony Iommi: WhoCares is a music project by Deep Purple frontman Ian Gillan and Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi and a charity release by the supergroup WhoCares they had formed with the help of other musicians, to raise money to rebuild a music school in Gyumri, Armenia after the destruction of the city in the 1988 earthquake in Armenia. In addition to Ian Gillan and Tony Iommi (who were Black Sabbath bandmates from 1983-1984), many artists took part in the charity music project including Jon Lord (Ian Gillan's then-Deep Purple bandmate), ex-Metallica bassist Jason Newsted, Iron Maiden drummer Nicko McBrain, and HIM guitarist Mikko "Linde" Lindström.

Tony Iommi and Glenn Hughes have quite a storied history together. Both hail from the same area in England. Iommi and Hughes first collaborated together on the 1986 Black Sabbath album, Seventh Star, before reuniting in 1996 to work on some new tunes Iommi had penned. The project was ultimately shelved when Iommi reunited with his Sabbath pals, but it finally saw an official release in 2004, as DEP Sessions: 1996. During the album's resurgence, the duo decided to work on a proper album together, which resulted in Fused a year later. Joined by ace session drummer Kenny Aronoff, Iommi and Hughes made a conscious decision to come up with a heavier, more riff-based album than DEP (which Iommi felt was more melody based)…

WhoCares, full title Ian Gillan & Tony Iommi: WhoCares is a music project by Deep Purple frontman Ian Gillan and Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi and a charity release by the supergroup WhoCares they had formed with the help of other musicians, to raise money to rebuild a music school in Gyumri, Armenia after the destruction of the city in the 1988 earthquake in Armenia. In addition to Ian Gillan and Tony Iommi (who were Black Sabbath bandmates from 1983-1984), many artists took part in the charity music project including Jon Lord (Ian Gillan's then-Deep Purple bandmate), ex-Metallica bassist Jason Newsted, Iron Maiden drummer Nicko McBrain, and HIM guitarist Mikko "Linde" Lindström.