Black Sabbath to reunite, reports say
More than forty years after Ozzy Osbourne first sang about Satan coming ’round the bend, Black Sabbath’s original lineup may be getting back together. Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward have reportedly reunited in a “secret rehearsal studio”, with plans to record a new album and tour.
Metal Talk and the Birmingham Mail have both reported Black Sabbath’s return, with the Mail quoting a June interview with Iommi. While the guitarist criticised the report on his website, calling it “speculation”, he stopped short of denying that the band had re-formed. “Thanks to the internet it’s gone round the world as some sort of ‘official’ statement on my part,” he said. “To my old pals, Ozzy, Geezer and Bill, sorry about this, I should have known better.”
In the June interview, Iommi was more forthcoming. “It’s all been very hush-hush,” he said. Although Iommi was reconciled with Osbourne last year, they didn’t begin writing together until this summer.https://skysportt.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Black-Sabbath-001.jpg
Just a fortnight ago, Metal Talk claimed, the group booked a date in the studio, coming together for the first time since 2006. “We’re really looking forward to it and I think the stuff we’ve been writing is really good,” Iommi said. “It’s more back to the old original stuff.”
Last year, a Black Sabbath reunion looked about as likely as an audience for Osbourne at the Vatican. The singer was suing Iommi, asking him to “do the right thing” and share the Black Sabbath trademark with the rest of the band. “I don’t think there is any chance [of a reunion],” Osbourne told Rolling Stone. But in July 2010 they buried the hatchet, and plans have apparently been simmering since then. “Ozzy’s been the worst at trying to hold it back,” Iommi said. “He’s doing a lot of TV and he’s being asked stuff about a reunion and he’s going, ‘Well I never say never.’ He told me, ‘I don’t know what to say.'”
If Black Sabbath have indeed reunited, it still doesn’t mean they will necessarily release a new album; they didn’t manage it last time. But the sexagenarian band-members have high hopes. Only Ward, their drummer, is suffering with health issues. “He hasn’t been 100%,” Iommi said. “He had an operation a [heart] few months ago, so we’ll see how he is.”
Black Sabbath have sold more than 100m albums worldwide. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006.
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