Last night, Tony Iommi released a statement commenting on his current condition. This marked the first time we’ve heard from the guitarist since Black Sabbath announced the cancelation of all but one of their European dates.

Iommi, who was diagnosed with lymphoma back in January, had the following to say:

“Hiya, A little update on how it’s all going:

Well, I’ve had the last dose of chemotherapy so hopefully my body will start to get back to normal soon, the steroids were the worse [sic]. I’ve now got three weeks of radiotherapy coming up which I’m told can be very tiring so we’ll see.

A big thanks to Ozzy and Geezer for coming over to England, it was a big incentive for me, we managed to work most days and have some great new tracks.

And, importantly thanks again for your kind messages, hope to be seeing you soon.

- Tony”

It’s great to hear that Iommi is still holding strong. Hopefully the guitarist will still be well enough to join Black Sabbath for the Download Festival and the American date Sharon Osbourne talked about recently. Of course, though, it’s still unclear as to who will be joining Sabbath behind the kit. Our wishes for a speedy recovery.