Tony Iommi Black Sabbath album plans were quietly shelved after Iommi turned down an approach from producer Andrew Watt, who had proposed recording one final record with the band’s original lineup in the early 2020s. Iommi has spoken about the offer for the first time in an exclusive interview with Classic Rock.
Watt, who produced Ozzy Osbourne’s final two albums, 2020’s Ordinary Man and 2022’s Patient Number 9, brought the idea to Iommi after working with the frontman. The guitarist was unmoved. ‘I’d met Andrew Watt when he was producing Ozzy,’ Iommi says. ‘He was very keen and a bit too excited. He also didn’t know what it was like working with the original Sabbath, working with Bill.’
That reference to Bill is Bill Ward, Sabbath’s original drummer, whose relationship with the band’s recording process has been rocky for well over a decade. Iommi’s other reason for declining was equally straightforward: he felt the story had already been told. ‘We’d done 13,’ he explains, ‘and I didn’t like the idea of: “Now here’s another album.”‘
The shadow of 13 and Bill Ward’s absence
13, released in 2013, marked the band’s first studio album with Ozzy Osbourne since 1978’s Never Say Die!. Ward had been slated to appear alongside Iommi, Ozzy and bassist Geezer Butler, but backed out of the sessions following a contractual dispute. Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave drummer Brad Wilk completed the recording lineup in his place. The spectre of that falling-out clearly still colours how Iommi thinks about the prospect of another full-band reunion in a studio.
There had been talk, at least publicly, of another album coming after 13. In early 2014, Ozzy told Classic Rock that the band had more to give. ‘The whole Sabbath experience this time around was great,’ he said. ‘We all made friends, we didn’t fuck 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.’
The final tour happened. The End ran for roughly a year and wrapped in early 2017. The only new music to accompany it was an EP featuring four previously unreleased tracks from the 13 sessions alongside four live recordings from their 2012-2014 reunion tour. The promised studio album never materialised, and now Iommi has made clear it never will, at least not on his watch.
Tony Iommi Black Sabbath chapter closes as solo work takes over
Watt’s pitch, then, fell at the first fence. Iommi’s scepticism about the logistics of working with Ward again, combined with a reluctance to dilute what 13 represented as a closing statement, was enough. The producer’s enthusiasm, however genuine, apparently read as a lack of understanding of what that particular creative dynamic actually involves.
With Sabbath definitively off the table, Iommi has been channelling his energy into solo material. His forthcoming album, From The Dark, is due for release on 23 October via BMG. The full interview is in the new issue of Classic Rock, on sale now. For anyone still holding out hope of a Tony Iommi Black Sabbath album with the original four members, the guitarist’s own words are about as definitive a door-close as you are likely to get. Black Sabbath‘s story, in the studio at least, ended with 13.
