Tony Iommi - Sick Tony Iommi Recording With Black Sabbath

The 63-year-old guitarist has been diagnosed with the early stages of lymphoma, a cancer of the white blood cells, but he is not letting the illness slow him down and he has been back in the studio with his bandmates working on new material.

Bassist Geezer Butler has revealed they started recording at Iommi's home studio on Thursday (19Jan12) and he has already written two new songs for their comeback.

In a post on his website, Butler writes, "Today we got the engines back up and running at Tony's home studio. Far from being down and depressed about his lymphoma diagnosis, Tony had already written the music for two new songs, and I must say it has given us all a kick up the rump - it's great to hear him churning out those riffs again... Takes more than that to stop Tony. Can't wait for you all to hear our workings; it has been great working on this stuff."

Butler goes on to thank fans for all their well-wishes amid his friend's health crisis, adding, "I want to thank the lovely encouraging emails sent to this site giving Tony love and encouragement and great vibes. It really does help, not only Tony, but us as a band - it raises up our spirits and restores our faith in this tarnished world.

"Sabb (sic) fans are good people. Time and again, you have proven your faith in us and boosted our endeavour."