While promoting his new book, Iron Man: My Journey Through Heaven And Hell With BLACK SABBATH, Gibson spoke with guitar legend Tony Iommi prior to the official announcement that Iommi, Ozzy Osbourne, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward will hold a press conference at Hollywood’s Whiskey A Go Go today 11/11 (at 11:11 AM Pacific time). Here are a few excerpts from the chat:

Gibson: Were you surprised about how much you remembered about life in Black Sabbath?

Iommi: "I actually remember a lot about the past. Ozzy’s the same. It’s yesterday I can’t remember. It was hard going back to when I was a kid, it was hard to open up. I’ve never really spoken about my personal life. When I read back what I’d written and talked about, it was like reading someone else’s story.

Gibson: Your book jacket’s testimonies are impressive – Eddie Van Halen calls you “the creator of heavy,” James Hetfield salutes you as “the Riffmeister,” Brian May calls you “the father of heavy metal…” That said, are you ever frustrated at being portrayed as somewhat one-dimensional as a guitarist?

Iommi: "Yes, I am sometimes. But I’ve lived it with it so long now… and it’s nice to get credit for something, isn’t it? I listen to and can play jazz and blues, but it’s the riffs that I get recognized by. I haven’t done so much jazz and blues on records – one day, I’d like to do that. But to me, Black Sabbath were always open to new sounds. On every Sabbath album there’s always something out the box. We had instrumentals on a hard rock album when everyone was telling us, 'You can’t do that!' I love 'Laguna Sunrise' acoustic instrumental on Vol. 4), for example. I enjoyed working with a choir, I liked getting string sections involved on (Sabbath Bloody Sabbath’s) 'Spiral Architect'. Sabbath always did something different on each album. But I guess many people don’t remember those tracks so well."

Gibson: In Iron Man you say you still have six demos with Ozzy Osbourne singing?

Iommi: "Yeah. They are still kicking around. I’ll decide what I do. There are all these rumors flying around about a Black Sabbath reunion, but we’ll have to see. If it was the original lineup, great, I would love that. But we will have to see. New songs? I’ve still got loads of ideas. Some, I wouldn’t use on a new Black Sabbath album, I’d have to change them. But let’s just say I have lots of ideas."

Read the entire interview Gibson.

A countdown clock, leading up to today's announcement has been launched at the band's official website.