In a new interview with MusicRadar, Black Sabbath guitar hero Tony Iommi discusses going back to his roots for his final tour rig, the evolution of heavy music, his legendary riffs, and more.

In regards to what the guitar means to Iommi, 49 years after forming Sabbath, he reveals: “It’s a way of expressing your inner self. But I don’t sleep with the guitar now, when I did in the early days, mind! It has always meant something very special to me, and it brought out parts of me that you couldn’t bring out normally from within.

“Being able to write music, being able to play an instrument releases something in you that you wouldn’t normally be able to do... that I wouldn’t normally be able to do. And the guitar did that for me. It taught me a lot really.

“When I feel like it, I go and play now. And at the moment I’m really far away from it because there’s so many other things going on, the last thing I want to do is pick up a guitar! But when I do pick it up, I really enjoy it. And I liked it when I could sit with the band and come up with ideas and come up with riffs. Or at home I come up with riffs. Then I’m in my element.”

Read the full interview at MusicRadar.com.

Black Sabbath's multi-format release, The End, which captures the final destination of the band's touring adventure - an unforgettable farewell show at the Genting Arena in Black Sabbath’s hometown of Birmingham - is out now. The material was filmed on February 4th, 2017, capturing the legendary Sabbath lineup celebrating their storied career, marking the closure of a monumental chapter in rock history.