Tony Iommi has revealed why he turned down the chance to make one final Black Sabbath album with the original line-up.
The band’s last album was 2013’s ‘13‘, which saw Iommi appear alongside Ozzy Osbourne and Geezer Butler.
The line-up was completed Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave drummer Brad Wilk after original drummer Bill Ward’s chose to not participate due to a contractual dispute.
’13’, which was the iconic heavy metal band’s nineteenth album, topped the UK and the US charts and earned the group a Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance.
Now, Iommi has opened up about his decision to turn down the opportunity to record another album.
In a new interview with Classic Rock, Iommi shared that Andrew Watt, who produced Osbourne’s final two albums (2020’s ‘Ordinary Man‘ and 2022’s ‘Patient Number 9‘), had approached him about making a Sabbath album with the original line-up.
“I’d met Andrew Watt when he was producing Ozzy,” Iommi said. “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.
“Also, we’d done 13, and I didn’t like the idea of: ‘Now here’s another album’,” he added.
NME gave ’13’ three-and-a-half stars, in a review that read: “The good news is that ‘13’ is an amalgam of everything you’d want from a new Black Sabbath album featuring three of the original members.”
At one point, Osbourne said Black Sabbath would record “one more album” after ’13’, but in 2015 he revealed that the band had “opted against” it and that they would be too old by the time it was completed.
“It would take three or four years to write and record an album, by which time I’ll be fucking 73 or 72 or something, so we decided just to do a farewell tour,” he said at the time.
The band did later reunite in 2025 at the huge ‘Back To The Beginning’ event at Birmingham’s 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.
The performances were held just over two weeks before the Prince Of Darkness passed away in July 2025, aged 76.
When paying tribute to Osbourne in the wake of his death last summer, Iommi wrote: “I just can’t believe it! My dear dear friend Ozzy has passed away only weeks after our show at Villa Park.
“It’s just such heartbreaking news that I can’t really find the words, there won’t 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.”
In other news, the venue for Ozzfest 2027 has been officially announced. Meanwhile, Sharon has reiterated that the planned AI-powered avatar of her late husband is not about cashing in on his legacy. Universal Studios is launching two Ozzy-inspired haunted houses, too, saying it will help “grow his licensing program around the world”.
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