Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi's cancer is in remission, but there's a 30 percent chance it could return, according to the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer. While he's still touring and recording with Ozzy Osbourne and co., life has changed significantly for Iommi.
"Every day I feel around for lumps and bumps," he told The Mirror (via Consequence of Sound). "Every time I get a pain in my stomach I think, 'Oh God, it's cancer.' It's horrible. I even dream about it. But that's my life now. The surgeon told me he doesn't expect the cancer to go away. So, I look at life differently now. I could be here another 10 years or just one year - I don't know."
Iommi offered a dark (yet slightly funny) anecdote about the band's current studio sessions.
"In the good old days there was cocaine everywhere," he said. "This time we had tea and coffee and health drinks that my wife, Maria, made for me because I've had to change my diet."
While the illness has changed much of Iommi's routine, he wants to keep much of his life as normal as possible. But cancer (he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 2012) has also created a silver lining.
"Sometimes I wonder if I should try to live a more peaceful life," he said. "Then I think, 'I don't want to let the illness take over.' After all, I enjoy where I'm at now. I've even become a guest lecturer at Coventry University after they awarded me an honorary doctorate. If someone had suggested that to me years ago I'd have turned it down, but I've been through a lot and I've learned from it, so it feels good to pass that on."
Black Sabbath are currently prepping the follow-up to their 2013 comeback record, 13. Check out "God is Dead?" from that release below:
