This is from the "Idol Chatter" column. Although the article is attributed to Iommi, it's obviously just a transcript of a spoken interview, with the interviewer's questions omitted. The editor is listed as Kristina Estlund. Thus (unlike Lemmy's MotorMouth column) it wasn't originally in text. Hopefully I haven't made any gross spelling or transcription errors.

Maintaining a freshness is the key to maintaining a career in music, and a belief in what I do, of course, is essential as well. I've always believed in what I do. Black Sabbath has been together for the last 26 - 27 years, and making an album was my original goal! Actually, before that, it was to get gigs, really. And then, of course, to play in London, and then play in the States.

To stay fresh, you have to get people in the band who have the energy, who really want to do it. I find that if you get somebody in the band who's not so eager to do it anymore, who's lost the fight for it, I think it becomes very difficult. But if you've got everybody there in the band that's right behind the band's goals, that really helps to keep the music fresh and to keep the ideas going.

I like all sorts of music, really. From Frank Sinatra to Soundgarden. It's a wide variety of music. I like anything that's musically good. So if it's musically good, I'm there! I don't like electronic sounding sort of stuff. At first I was influenced by a band called the Shadows, in England. They were an instrumental band, and were basically like the American band, the Ventures, really. They were the ones that really did get me into music. I really took to the idea of playing instrumentals.

[Regarding creativity] I think everybody's gone through a sort of writer's block or burnout; everybody's probably gone through that stage. It's a catchy thing! I haven't for many years now, but years ago I went through a stage, and it was really funny, actually! But it was probably -- actually a lot of it -- due to drugs and everything else I was doing at the time. More than likely I'd put it down to that, and the stress of the business and everything else that was going on. Now my life's a lot easier, and I find it a lot more pleasant to live.

As far as life on the road, I've been doing it for so many years, but I still think you need to adjust to it. Because when you're at home, you do things differently; you're not living out of a suitcase all the time or shoving off on buses or planes or whatever it may be. For me sometimes, it really gets me organized to go on the road, because I get into a routine and I sort of function quite well in a routine.

[On the Sabbath legacy] I'm very honoured that bands have actually done tributes to us and mentioned Sabbath as their influence. It's great, I feel a great achievement inside because many years ago, 24 years ago even, when we'd only been going a couple of years, and we were doing interviews in England, they were saying, "What are you thinking? You must be finished by now!" -- trying to wrap us up after a couple of years! We didn't think this was going to on on. And now here we are, 20-odd years later. Maybe it's because -- well, it's hard for me to sort of say why, because I'm just the player, you know? I just go on and enjoy what I do and believe in what I do. To analyze it is very difficult when it's your own thing. We should ask the fans that. It's great. It's great, though. I'm very pleased. And it's things like that that really do keep you going. I mean, I get fan mail, and to read some of the mail, it really is great what people say or what the kids say. Peope really love what we do and they say "Without you our lives would be dull..." you know, all sorts of things like that. It's great to me.

[Regarding today's marketplace] I hope that this album does well, and I hope that people do like the album. I don't know what's "in" or "out" because I don't follow that, I just go on and do what I do; if I start following trends, it's like I'm putting a gun to my head.

My advice to other musicians just starting out: Get a lawyer! (Laughs) It's all changed since I started. The music business is a big business, and you've got to be very careful, as you always have to be when you go in knowing nothing. You just have to tread carefully as well as legally, even if you get a manager. I think as far as the music side of things, just believe in what you do, and don't follow trends and such. I know it's difficult these days. The public can jump from one to another thing. "Let's do _that_" and it's so easy, I think, to fall into that and to try to please. When I started out it was much simpler. You had to make it to create the sound. It was a lot more involved that way then. Nowadays you can go out and buy things and gadgets that make a certain sound, and you can sound like Jimi Hendrix or you can sound like this or like that. In those days, you had to make your own sound, and the band became the sound of what you made. That was a difficult thing then. There weren't marketing guys or A&R guys or promotion people. There wasn't much at all. There wasn't much as far as airplay as well, certainly in England there wasn't. It was all very "underground" if you like, and word of mouth more than anything else. And you managed to get on with the business, with word of mouth. There wasn't TV or videos.