Source: Blabbermouth.net
Singer Ozzy Osbourne tells the Toronto Sun in a new interview that he feels satisfied that he’s gone full circle with the legendary heavy metal BLACK SABBATH after topping the charts around the world with the group’s reunion album, “13”.
“When we did the album ’13’, if that was going to be the last album I ever did with BLACK SABBATH, it was okay, because before, in 1978 with ‘Never Say Die!’, wasn’t a good time for me with BLACK SABBATH,” he says. “So if we never do another thing together again, we ended on a better note. The only sad thing was that [65-year-old original SABBATH drummer] Bill Ward never played on it.”
Ward was on board for the reunion when it was first announced in November 2011, but backed out soon after due to contractual issues.
SABBATH has used Ozzy‘s regular touring drummer Tommy Clufetos since then for live work. RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE‘s Brad Wilk laid down the drum tracks on “13”, which came out in June 2013.
Osbourne also doesn’t rule out the possibility of more new music from SABBATH, telling the Toronto Sun: “Everybody asks me if there’s going to be a follow-up to ’13’. And all I can say is, ‘I never say never anymore.’ I don’t want to say, ‘Yeah, we’re never going to do another album,’ because if everybody agrees and we don’t take 500 years again to make another album, I’m up for it. I wouldn’t mind doing another SABBATH album.”
BLACK SABBATH guitarist Tony Iommi revealed in January of 2012 that he had been diagnosed with lymphoma, which is described by the Mayo Clinic as “a cancer of the lymphatic system, the body’s disease-fighting network.” He has had to go back to England every six weeks for treatment, forcing him and SABBATH to work around both the treatments and the recovery time needed afterward.
According to Osbourne, Iommi is in good health as far as he knows and playing as strongly as ever.
“I haven’t had one of them dark phone calls so I presume he’s okay,” Ozzy tells the Toronto Sun. “He’s unbelievable. I mean, any of us could be diagnosed with cancer. I always think cancer means death. I didn’t know anybody who’d recovered. My wife recovered from colon cancer and that was the first person I ever knew. But he just accepts it and gets on with it. I mean, it’s got to be worrying. But he’s doing fine, I think, I hope. He’s unbelievable. We all know our job, we all know our craft, but he’s a very talented guy. Considering on his fret hand he’s got no fingertips, he plays with prosthetic fingers at the end. I’ve often said to him, ‘How the hell do you know when you’re touching the strings?’ I don’t know. It’s amazing.”