You would, too. With its rows of gorgeous, cute but proud Cotswold cottages and misty early-autumn backdrop, it’s the sort of place a Harry Potter location scout would jump for. Other celebrities nearby include British tennis legend Sue Barker, while up the road, celebrity spotters can bag Blur’s Alex James, TV’s Jeremy Clarkson, and politics’ David Cameron.
It’s all very beautiful and very classy. But the really good stuff is on the other side of the door to Tony’s home studio. An enormous, framed Black Sabbath movie poster dominates one wall of the kitchen, but everywhere you look you’re dazzled by another piece of memorabilia from an incredible life: live photos, fully signed Back To The Beginning posters, gold discs, artwork, pictures with friends like Ozzy, Eddie Van Halen, Brian May. Visit the cloakroom, and you’re greeted by a wall of framed Kerrang! covers.
In the studio itself, a trio of guitars from stage and studio hang on a stand. On a shelf, a load of Kerrang! Awards sit proudly, alongside even more discs and photos, while stacked up on the wall are his custom amps. “The upstairs is full of the others,” he says, showing us the guitar he played on Sabbath’s The End Tour a decade ago now.
The Sabbath riff king admits he doesn’t get time to play in here every single day. “I’m too busy these days,” he laughs. “Sabbath retired, and you think you’ll get plenty of time, but I keep saying yes to things!”
Recently, that’s included a date with smooth-talking TV pianist Jools Holland on Later…, and another trip down south to Windsor Castle to be invested as an MBE, an invitation he initially thought was a speeding ticket when it hit the doormat. He’s also not long been handed The Lord Mayor Award, and The Freedom Of The City Of Birmingham. “I don’t exactly know what that means. I think we can take sheep through the centre.”
This is still, though, where Tony Iommi works. And what he’s been working on is From The Dark, his first album in 13 years, since Sabbath’s final record, 13, and 21 since his last outing under his own name, Fused. In a surprise to absolutely nobody, a lot of it is really heavy, really doomy, and really Iommi.
“It’s embedded in me,” he chuckles. “As soon as I come in here and I start playing, I always start off with something heavy. It’s just in my bones, I like it. I had to make a conscious effort to write some more up-tempo stuff as well, but generally the first thing I’ll do is start coming up with something really grim.
“I don’t know where it comes from,” he puzzles. “I’ve actually got CDs, and cassettes, even, of riffs. Hundreds of riffs. But every time I come in to do an album, I come up with something new and never revisit the old stuff. I’d like to one day sit down and put them on, but I’ll probably fall asleep!”