On 4 March 2016, Iommi discussed future re-releases of the Tony Martin-era catalogue: "We've held back on the reissues of those albums because of the current Sabbath thing with Ozzy Osbourne, but they will certainly be happening... I'd like to do a couple of new tracks for those releases with Tony Martin... I'll also be looking at working on Cross Purposes and Forbidden." Martin had suggested that this could coincide with the 30th anniversary of The Eternal Idol, in 2017. In an interview that August, Martin added "[Iommi] still has his cancer issues of course and that may well stop it all from happening but if he wants to do something I am ready." On 10 August 2016, Iommi revealed that his cancer was in remission.
