Black Sabbath Planning Final Album and World Tour
The band members publicly wondered whether they were finished for good after 2013's '13' album, but Black Sabbath will reconvene one last time for a final studio album and world tour.
The news comes courtesy of singer Ozzy Osbourne, who confirmed recent musings from bassist Geezer Butler about the possibility of another studio LP. Butler stressed that it wouldn't be about the money, and Osbourne echoed his sentiments, describing the new level of personal and creative harmony that he, Butler and guitarist Tony Iommi achieved while working on '13.'
"The whole Sabbath experience this time around was great," Osbourne told Classic Rock Magazine. "We all made friends, we didn't f--- around, we all knew that we had a job to do, and we did it. It was a lot of fun. So we're going to do one more album, and a final tour. Once the dust settled after the last tour, we started discussing the idea, because we were getting asked about it all the time. I said to Sharon, 'What's going on? Because if there's no more Sabbath I want to get on with my own thing again,' and she came back and said 'Let me look into it.' Three weeks later I asked her about it again, and she said, 'Oh, I still have to talk to so and so ... ' and I said, 'Sharon, I ain't f---ing 21 anymore; if we're going to do it, I want to do it before I'm 70! Time isn't on our side!' So she made the call and came back and said, 'Yeah, the record company wants another album.' I believe [producer] Rick Rubin is going to do it with us again."
As with most things Sabbath, the devil is in the details, and Osbourne admitted he doesn't really know when it'll all come together, but he reiterated that he's antsy to get going. "It'll be sooner rather than later," he pointed out. "Obviously a lot of it is coming down to Tony's health, he's obviously got his cancer treatment. But we'll get onto it next year. I don't know if we'll be writing in England or L.A., but I'll fly to the f---ing moon for it if I have to!"
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