{"id":600185,"date":"2026-09-14T15:26:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T15:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/600185\/"},"modified":"2026-09-14T15:26:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T15:26:09","slug":"tony-iommi-on-why-he-turned-down-the-chance-to-make-one-final-black-sabbath-album-with-the-original-line-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/600185\/","title":{"rendered":"Tony Iommi on why he turned down the chance to make one final Black Sabbath album with the original line-up"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tony Iommi<\/a> has revealed why he turned down the chance to make one final Black Sabbath<\/a> album with the original line-up.<\/p>\n

The band\u2019s last album was 2013\u2019s \u201813<\/a>\u2018, which saw Iommi appear alongside Ozzy Osbourne<\/a> and Geezer Butler<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The line-up was completed Rage Against the Machine<\/a> and Audioslave<\/a> drummer Brad Wilk after original drummer Bill Ward\u2019s chose to not participate due to a contractual dispute.<\/p>\n

\u201913\u2019, which was the iconic heavy metal band\u2019s nineteenth album, topped the UK and the US charts and earned the group a Grammy<\/a> Award for Best Metal Performance.<\/p>\n

Now, Iommi has opened up about his decision to turn down the opportunity to record another album.<\/p>\n

In a new interview with Classic Rock<\/a>, Iommi shared that Andrew Watt, who produced Osbourne\u2019s final two albums (2020\u2019s \u2018Ordinary Man<\/a>\u2018 and 2022\u2019s \u2018Patient Number 9<\/a>\u2018), had approached him about making a Sabbath album with the original line-up.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d met Andrew Watt when he was producing Ozzy,\u201d Iommi said. \u201cHe was very keen and a bit too excited. He also didn\u2019t know what it was like working with the original Sabbath, working with Bill.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlso, we\u2019d done 13, and I didn\u2019t like the idea of: \u2018Now here\u2019s another album\u2019,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

NME\u00a0gave \u201913\u2019 three-and-a-half stars<\/a>, in a review that read: \u201cThe good news is that \u201813\u2019 is an amalgam of everything you\u2019d want from a new Black Sabbath album featuring three of the original members.\u201d<\/p>\n

At one point, Osbourne said Black Sabbath would record \u201cone more album\u201d after \u201913\u2019, but in 2015 he revealed that\u00a0the band had \u201copted against\u201d it<\/a> and that they would be too old by the time it was completed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would take three or four years to write and record an album, by which time I\u2019ll be fucking 73 or 72 or something, so we decided just to do a farewell tour,\u201d he said at the time.<\/p>\n

The band did later reunite in 2025 at\u00a0the huge \u2018Back To The Beginning\u2019 event<\/a> at Birmingham\u2019s Villa Park. The gig saw both Sabbath and Ozzy stage their last-ever shows, and it marked the first time the original members had played alongside each other since 2005.<\/p>\n

The performances were held just over two weeks before the Prince Of Darkness passed away in July 2025, aged 76<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When\u00a0paying tribute to Osbourne in the wake of his death<\/a>\u00a0last summer, Iommi wrote: \u201cI just can\u2019t believe it! My dear dear friend Ozzy has passed away only weeks after our show at Villa Park.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just such heartbreaking news that I can\u2019t really find the words, there won\u2019t ever be another like him. Geezer, Bill and myself have lost our brother. My thoughts go out to Sharon and all the Osbourne family. Rest in peace Oz.\u201d<\/p>\n

In other news,\u00a0the venue for Ozzfest 2027 has been officially announced<\/a>. Meanwhile,\u00a0Sharon has reiterated<\/a>\u00a0that\u00a0the planned AI-powered avatar of her late husband<\/a>\u00a0is not about cashing in on his legacy.\u00a0Universal Studios is launching two Ozzy-inspired haunted houses, too, saying it will help \u201cgrow his licensing program around the world\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tony Iommi has revealed why he turned down the chance to make one final Black Sabbath album with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":600186,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[156,1614,157,111,139,69,1629],"class_list":["post-600185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-metal","tag-music","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-rock"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=600185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600185\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/600186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=600185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=600185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=600185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}