Here's a collaboration no one saw coming. Robbie Williams has recruited Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi to play on his new single, Rocket, the first track shared from the former Take That singer’s forthcoming album, Britpop.
The track features electric guitar from Iommi throughout, and is a sort of bland high-energy pop-rocker that is more P!nk than Paranoid, and comes and goes in under three minutes. Whatever you can say about Williams he is at least eager to get right down to it.
Britpop (stylised BRITPOP, all caps, you gotta shout to be heard these days) is scheduled for release in the Autumn, and you can expect more guest appearances.
“I set out to create the album that I wanted to write and release after I left Take That in 1995,” said Williams, on Instagram. “It was the peak of Britpop and a golden age for British Music. I’ve worked with some of my heroes on this album; it’s raw, there are more guitars and it’s an album that’s even more upbeat and anthemic than usual.
“There’s some ‘Brit’ in there and there’s certainly some ‘pop’ too – I’m immensely proud of this as a body of work and I’m excited for fans to hear this album.”
There are no details as to who produced Rocket, or as to how a boyband idol ended up working with the Godfather of Heavy Metal, but it’ll keep Iommi’s chops up as he prepares for Black Sabbath’s final curtain call – this time for real – on 5 July at Villa Park when he takes to the stage with metal’s original Fab Four for the Back To The Beginning one-day festival.
Sabbath are headlining. The lineup reads like a who's who of metal guitar. There will be sets from Metallica, Slayer, Pantera, Gojira, Halestorm, Alice In Chains, Lamb Of God, Anthrax and Mastodon.
Rage Against The Machine’s Tom Morello is musical director for the show and has put together an all-star band featuring Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan, Slash and Duff from Guns N’ Roses, Wolfgang Van Halen, Zakk Wylde, Anthrax’s Scott Ian, Ozzy Osbourne alumni Rudy Sarzo and Jake E Lee, and many more. Morello will no doubt play.
Hey, maybe Robbie Williams will be a surprise guest. Isn’t 2025 crazy?
Okay, speaking of Iommi guesting on other people’s records, Williams should be congratulating himself. This is a coup. Iommi does not make a habit of it. He guested on NWOBHM heroes Quartz’s 1977 debut album, but then he was producing his fellow Brummies so maybe that doesn’t count.
Notably he joined forces with Cathedral on Utopian Blaster, from the UK doom legends’ 1995 album, The Carnival Bizarre.
He also played on Diamond Head’s 1993 album, Death And Progress, on a track called Starcrossed (Lovers of the Night). Come to think of it, that is maybe what ChatGPT would come up with if you asked it to come up with a Ronnie James Dio-era Sabbath song-title.
Iommi joined Dio on Girlschool’s I Spy, from 2008’s guest-laden Legacy album, and contributed lead guitar to Candlemass’s Astorolus – The Great Octopus, from 2019’s The Door To Doom. And of course he did his old mate, Ozzy, a turn on Patient Number 9.
