Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi has been made a professor of music at Coventry University, reports BBC.com.

Iommi, guitarist and founding member of the heavy metal group, had already been awarded an honorary doctorate by the university in November 2013. He plans to return to the campus in the autumn to work with students on their song writing and composition skills.

After a taster session in May, he said: "Good start, I'm looking forward to working with the students."

Director of arts and culture at the university, Dr Geoff Willcocks, said: "Tony is without doubt a rock icon and he's an inspiration to so many people around the world. It's wonderful to have such an important and respected international figure working with us."

The head of performing arts at the university, Dr Sara Reed, said it was an honour to have the musician at the department. She added: "His huge wealth of experience and musical knowledge is beyond value to our students. It's a fantastic opportunity for them to learn from such an immensely talented individual."

On June 25th, Black Sabbath will play the Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle in Stuttgart, Germany. Upgrade ticket packages including a meet & greet before the show have been added and can be purchased at this location.

As part of their world tour in support of their reunion albumm 13, Black Sabbath played du Arena on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi on May 29th. Ahead of the show, the band took part in a press conference at the Shangri-La Hotel. Footage from GulfNewsTV can be seen below:

Prior to the Abu Dhabi show, The National spoke to Ozzy Osbourne about a number of topics. A few excerpts from the chat follow:

The National: 13 is the first Black Sabbath album with you as the lead singer in 35 years. What made you return to the studio with the guys?

Ozzy: "People were always asking me if we would ever do another Black Sabbath album together and I didn’t know. I mean, we did try before but we felt like we were forcing it and it just didn’t work. This time, it came naturally and a lot of it was down to working with the producer Rick Rubin, which was a joy. He had a vision of working on a Black Sabbath album for a long time and because we knew what he wanted, we felt like we were halfway there already before we started."

The National: With the success of 13, have fans and the record company been asking for a new album?

Ozzy: "You know what? The way I look at it now is that I am 65, if we have another album in us, I would do it. To be honest with you, I haven’t talked to the rest of the guys about whether they want to do another album with me. We didn’t sit down and plan our next move. But I am up for it. If they say “let’s do another album” then I don’t mind. But at the same time I have my own solo career which is doing great, so I always want to work on that. Time is not on my side anymore, so I want to put all my irons in the fire and whatever comes out the hottest, then I will just go for it."

The National: Do you view yourself as one of rock’s last wild men?

Ozzy: "I am just Ozzy and there is only one of me, thank God. I do think that everybody wants to be Ozzy for a day and just go out and be crazy without injuring people. I think everyone wants to have a crazy day."

Read more at The National.