BLACK SABBATH‘s Tony Iommi is a featured guest on “Rocket”, the first single from British pop star Robbie Williams‘s upcoming album “Britpop”. The high-octane rock track features an instantly anthemic chorus, pounding drums and a signature guitar solo from the heavy metal pioneer. The accompanying music video for the song was written by Robbie, Karl Brazil, Tony Iommi and Tom Longworth. In the video, Robbie can be seen wearing a punk-inspired outfit — red tartan trousers, heavy chain necklace and a leather biker jacket covered in graffiti — while he moves around several London landmarks accompanied by a flash mob, while other scenes were shot with Robbie and Iommi together in the latter’s hometown, Birmingham.
Behind-the-scenes footage from the making of the “Rocket” music video can be seen below.
Iommi said: “What an honor to be featured on Robbie Williams‘s new single ‘Rocket’. A genuinely great guy with a very talented band… [And it was] a great pleasure to appear in the official music video for [the song].”
The “Britpop” cover artwork is a nod to the album title featuring a painting of one of Robbie‘s most iconic looks — his red tracksuit outfit that he wore to attend Glastonbury Festival in 1995 at the height of the Britpop era.
“Britpop” will be released this fall via Columbia Records in a variety of formats, including CD, deluxe CD, cassette, alt cassette and digitally, while signed bundles will also be available for a limited time via the official Robbie Williams store.
On “Britpop”, Robbie says: “I set out to create the album that I wanted to write and release after I left TAKE THAT in 1995. 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. I also can’t wait to perform a song or two from it on my upcoming ‘Britpop’ tour, which I’m opening in the U.K., naturally.”
Robbie‘s “Britpop” stadium tour will see the global icon perform in cities across the U.K., Ireland and rest of Europe this summer — the first opportunity for fans to hear the new song “Rocket” played live. The tour, originally titled “Robbie Williams Live 2025” and now renamed “Britpop”, opened in Edinburgh on May 31, before visiting London, Manchester and Bath. The tour then continues across continental Europe, with dates in countries including Ireland, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Sweden.
Williams previously teased “Rocket” during an interview with NME while promoting his biopic “Better Man”.
“This [song] is massive guitars, as you can imagine,” he said. “It’s adrenaline-filled and balls to the wall.”
Iommi, along with the rest of the original lineup of BLACK SABBATH — singer Ozzy Osbourne, bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward — will play its final concert this summer. Dubbed “Back To The Beginning”, the charity show will be held at Villa Park in Birmingham, United Kingdom on July 5. Support at the gig will come from METALLICA, SLAYER, PANTERA and many more.
Last July, Iommi released a new song called “Deified” in conjunction with his new fragrance, Tony Iommi Deified, from luxury perfume company Xerjoff.
In February 2017, SABBATH finished “The End” tour in Birmingham, closing out the quartet’s groundbreaking 49-year career.
“The End” was SABBATH‘s last tour because Iommi — who was diagnosed with lymphoma in late 2011 — can no longer travel for extended amounts of time.
Iommi revealed his cancer diagnosis in early 2012, shortly after SABBATH announced a reunion tour and album. He underwent treatment throughout the recording of the disc, titled “13”, and the subsequent tour to promote it.
The BLACK SABBATH guitarist successfully underwent an operation in January 2017 to remove a noncancerous lump from his throat.
“13” was the first album in 35 years to feature Iommi, Osbourne and Butler all playing together.
