Legendary guitarist Toni Iommi is undergoing stem cell therapy in an attempt to keep him rocking.

On October 20th he told a BBC radio show, “I’ve had this problem with my hand and I’ve had this stem-cell treatment on it. The joints [were] rubbing on the joints. It was bone to bone and it was getting a bit painful.”

The admission was noted at the time by music websites and the Daily Telegraph and the Times have followed up with new stories today.

Peter Buckle, of the Robens Centre for Health Ergonomics at the University of Surrey, warning in the Times that, “We have found a whole set of injuries affecting the hand, arms and wrist [of guitarists] which you would normally associate with working on a hard, fast production line. The temptation for younger musicians is to press too hard on the strings and try to force the frets. Holding the instrument away from the body to excite an audience may look good but it can put a huge pressure on the shoulder and upper arms.”

Iommi has already overcome damage sustained to his hand as a youth. We remain confident those who think this will force him to hang up his axe are merely paranoid.