Tony Iommi to appear on Sky Arts series Guitar Star

"Great to announce that I’m taking part in Sky Arts’s new series Guitar Star. I’m looking forward to lending a helping hand", says Tony on regard of his upcoming appearing on the Sky TV program. The show, which starts on June 9 at 8PM on Sky Arts, will see the legendary axeman joining DJs Edith Bowman and Huey Morgan in the search for a world class guitarist.

Tony Iommi has revealed that he is losing his hearing after almost five decades in rock music. Speaking at the Ivor Novello awards, where the group picked up a lifetime achievement gong, Tony told the Mirror: “I’m going deaf. Singers have caused it. It has been caused by the racket over the years. There was no protection when we started and it was a bit sissy to put cotton wool on your ears and we liked it loud so we just grin and beared it. There are a lot of old bands back on the road like the Stones and it is great that we are still here to be able to do it.”

The axeman , who finished treatment for early stage blood cancer lymphoma last year , admitted that he had cut back on booze and rock stars were tamer these days. He said: “You just can’t keep up with the hell-raising days. I see a lot of my friends in the business and we go out for dinner, but it is a lot calmer now. We used to keep going until 5am but now everybody leaves at 10pm. I don’t drink as much now as since I was diagnosed I have cut down. I have a few glasses of red wine I suppose. Before I had the cancer diagnosis it was a couple of bottles of wine, but now I’ve cut down. Music is just different now. The days of people throwing things out the window has all gone. If you did not like it back then out of the window it went.”

Mirror.co.uk, 30 May 2015