Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne’s Again To The Starting farewell present greater than lived as much as musical director Tom Morello’s billing as “the best day in heavy steel historical past”.
However whereas the godfathers of steel have formally retired for good this time, does that imply Ozzy, guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Invoice Ward are carried out with music too?
Fortunately, that’s not totally the case – it seems that there could possibly be extra music to return from at the very least a number of the members. That is what the 4 members of Black Sabbath are doing subsequent.
Ozzy Osbourne
Again To The Starting marked Ozzy’s official retirement. He’s made it clear that he’s by no means going to play stay once more and definitely not tour. Earlier this 12 months Sharon Osbourne instructed Basic Rock: “He’s carried out. Actually after this, we’re going to go dwelling and shut the door.”
However that doesn’t imply he’s stopping for good. Whereas there are not any plans for a brand new album, Ozzy instructed Basic Rock earlier than the gig that he might nonetheless be tempted into the studio for the suitable undertaking.
“So far as recording goes, I nonetheless take pleasure in doing my very own work,” he stated. “I additionally take pleasure in singing on different individuals’s work. For the foreseeable future I’ll carry on recording, if the tasks curiosity me.”
One factor that’s positively within the pipeline is a brand new autobiography, Final Rites, as a consequence of be revealed later this 12 months. The comply with as much as 2009’s I Am Ozzy, it reportedly focuses on the final seven years, together with the assorted wholesome points he’s handled.
“Folks say to me, if you happen to might do all of it once more, figuring out what you recognize now, would you modify something?” says Ozzy of the ebook. “I’m, like, ‘Fuck no. If I’d been clear and sober, I wouldn’t be Ozzy. If I’d carried out regular, wise issues, I wouldn’t be Ozzy. Look, if it ends tomorrow, I can not complain. I have been all world wide. Seen quite a lot of issues. I’ve carried out good… and I’ve carried out dangerous. However proper now, I am not able to go anyplace.”
Tony Iommi
The guitarist has been engaged on his first solo album since 2005’s Fused.
“It’s actually approaching now,” Iommi instructed Basic Rock forward of the farewell present. “I’m going in on a Monday or Tuesday with [producer] Mike Exeter and we put concepts on the tracks.”
Having enlisted an all-star array of vocalists for 2000’s self-tiled solo album and labored with ex-Deep Purple/onetime Sabbath singer/bassist Glenn Hughes on Fused, he’s cagey about who will deal with vocal duties on the brand new album.
“I used to be going to make use of totally different singers, then I used to be going to do instrumental stuff, I’ve acquired stuff with only one singer,” he instructed Basic Rock. “We’ll see which manner it goes.”
Geezer Butler
In comparison with Iommi and even Ozzy, Geezer Butler’s future plans are obscure. He instructed Basic Rock that he was nonetheless writing music, however he had no plans to launch it.
“I’m at all times fiddling about in my dwelling studio, however primarily for my very own enjoyment,” he stated. “If I ever did write some stuff that I believed ok for anybody else to listen to, then I might launch it, however I am fairly blissful simply fiddling about. It is good for the previous mind cells.”
Invoice Ward
In distinction to Geezer, drummer Invoice Ward is sitting on a pile of unreleased music. In 2023, he instructed Basic Rock that he had a complete of seven unreleased albums. One in all these, Past Aston, was begun within the early Nineteen Nineties and completed in 2019. “It sounds unimaginable. A fucking masterpiece, regardless that I say so myself,” stated Ward, whose final solo album, Accountable Beasts, got here out in 2015.
He added that the hold-up was looking for somebody who would launch the albums in bodily codecs. “It’s not for lack of attempting,” he stated.
Extra not too long ago, he revealed that two of these albums “are almost completed”. He instructed Lengthy Seaside radio station 99.1 KLBP-FM: “We’ve been within the studio. We’ve been dwelling within the studio, is what we’ve been doing. And we’ve acquired two albums which are almost completed. And we’ll put them out. And we’re ending up.”
Concerning what his new efforts will sound like, Ward stated: “I’ve simply let the whole lot go. I principally don’t give an ‘F’, and I feel it reveals up within the document. I don’t have something to swagger about. I needed to play one thing that performs in my coronary heart after which comes out of my soul. I needed to play some issues that hold me awake at evening.”