Sabbath's Tony Iommi To Have Major Surgery

Rock Radio is reporting that Tony Iommi, one of the world's greatest riffmeisters, is to undergo surgery for a hand problem similar to the one Eddie Van Halen went through earlier in the year. The axeman behind Black Sabbath and Heaven and Hell's greatest sounds has revealed that, after the band's live run in support of acclaimed 'first' album 'The Devil You Know', he'll go under the knife to relieve almost constant pain in his left hand.

He tells The Aquarian: "After this run we're going to have some time off. I've got to have an operation on my hand. It's sort of a major thing I need to get done and I've been putting it off.

"The cartilage has gone from the thumb in my fingering hand. It's been like that for a year, to be honest. I've been taking anti-inflammatories and all sorts of stuff to try and calm it down. But it's inevitable I have to have the operation - the bone is rubbing on the bone."