Tony Iommi, one of the world's greatest riffmeisters, is to undergo surgery for a hand problem similar to the one Eddie Van Halen went through earlier in the year.

The axeman behind Black Sabbath and Heaven and Hell's greatest sounds has revealed that, after the band's live run in support of acclaimed 'first' album The Devil You Know, he'll go under the knife to relieve almost constant pain in his left hand.

He tells The Aquarian: "After this run we're going to have some time off. I've got to have an operation on my hand. It's sort of a major thing I need to get done and I've been putting it off.

"The cartilage has gone from the thumb in my fingering hand. It's been like that for a year, to be honest. I've been taking anti-inflammatories and all sorts of stuff to try and calm it down. But it's inevitable I have to have the operation - the bone is rubbing on the bone.

"I talked to Eddie Van Halen this morning because he's had the same sort of problem. I'm seeing him to have a chat about what happened. He thinks it's very successful, so we'll see."

Heaven and Hell are nearing completion of a US tour after spending some time in Europe and appearing at the Sonisphere Festival in the UK at the beginning of August.

Iommi says of their evening set: "It's all been good. The only thing was the weather. It just pissed down. It was England, it was Saturday, it was 50,000 people and ten minutes before we went on, it decided to open the skies and really pour down.

"But the crowd were great. It's just a shame it gets like that."

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