Rehearsals have begun for the upcoming Black Sabbath ballet, and guitarist Tony Iommi is still pretty shocked it’s happening.
“I wouldn’t have believed them really, to be honest,” he tells Birmingham World when asked if he ever imagined Black Sabbath’s music could be turned into a ballet. “I’m looking at our music differently now with this, because it is being interpreted in a different way.”
He adds, “I never thought for a minute, we would have people dancing to Black Sabbath and ‘War Pigs’ and ‘Iron Man.’ But here we are, you know.”
While the music is being interpreted for ballet, Iommi says it hasn’t changed so much that fans can’t recognize the tunes, noting he’s “very happy” with how things are going.
As for whether he thinks heavy metal fans will embrace ballet after this, he says, “I certainly hope so. I mean, it is a strange combination, but you’ve got to push the boat out.”
The Birmingham Royal Ballet’s Black Sabbath – The Ballet is set to run from September 23 to September 30 at the Birmingham Hippodrome. Theatre Weekly reports that it will then move to London’s Sadler’s Wells from October 18 to 21, with tickets going on sale May 22.
Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
