Mercyful Fate bassist Becky Baldwin was sure that the first message about playing on Tony Iommi’s new solo album was a scam. As it turned out, what opened the door for her was a bass cover of a Black Sabbath song on YouTube.
“`The Email She Thought Was Fake
Baldwin plays bass on From The Dark, which comes out on 23 October. Speaking to Jamie Westwood and Tom Stevens on «The Chronicles Of Podcast», she described the mail that arrived on a random Wednesday, with Iommi’s name in the subject line: a stranger introduced himself as his manager and asked whether she wanted to come to the studio and hear some material. She immediately thought it was fake — until she checked the name, the website and the wording of the message, made a phone call and realised the man was real, and so was the job.
How They Found Her
She asked, then, how they found her. The answer was producer Mike Exeter, who keeps an eye on musicians to see who he might need for production and had, as he told her, been following her for years. When Tony was looking for a bassist and she was posting covers of classic metal — Black Sabbath among them — Exeter showed him her cover of «Children Of The Sea» and Iommi said to bring her in for a jam. The song is on Black Sabbath’s Heaven And Hell (1980), their first album with Ronnie James Dio on vocals.
The Bass Covers That Opened Doors
The videos, she explained, please the fans, but the original reason was different: she wanted to show people in the industry that she can play and what music she wants to make. It took years to pay off, but in the end it brought her the two jobs that counted — through Hank Shermann for Mercyful Fate and through Exeter for Iommi.
From One Song to a Whole Album
The first invitation was for one song, to see how she writes a bass line and how she works under studio pressure. In the end they asked her to play on the whole record. As she said, Iommi started out writing with many collaborators in mind, as on his 2000 solo album Iommi, but as the material progressed he judged that it worked better with one singer and one drummer, so the record would sound unified. That Iommi had a different guest singer on almost every track.
From The Dark
On From The Dark Jørn Lande sings on every track, while Karl Brazil, who has worked with Robbie Williams and James Blunt, is on drums. The bass lines were written by Baldwin, working from a guide track by Exeter and blending her own ideas with his.
The album is released on 23 October through BMG, produced by Iommi and Exeter. It is Iommi’s first solo album since Fused in 2005, with «World Alone» and «Stormwatcher» as singles, and on 22 October fans will be able to hear it a day early at listening parties in 18 cities.
Iommi has said he wanted Black Sabbath’s Geezer Butler on bass, but he was not available, and that he chose Baldwin because she plays in Butler’s style. In July 2026 she said she was so nervous at the first session that she expected to be replaced. Baldwin, 35, filled in for Joey Vera on Mercyful Fate’s 2022 tour and in January 2024 the Danish band named her their permanent bassist.
See also: James Hetfield: Tony Iommi has influenced me more than any other guitarist · King Diamond: The «grandfather» of extreme metal — the story of Kim Bendix Petersen
Source: https://blabbermouth.net/news/becky-baldwin-explains-how-she-landed-gig-playing-bass-on-tony-iommis-new-solo-album
