Tony Iommi has confirmed that he appears on one song on the upcoming studio album from his BLACK SABBATH bandmate Ozzy Osbourne. “I wrote the whole track and played on it and played the solo on it,” the guitar legend told Rolling Stone in a new interview. “It’s horrible, really. … No. I’m joking. No, it’s good. It’s really good. And I like what Ozzy sang on it. I think he did a really good job. And I think they had Chad [Smith, RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS] play drums on it. I’ve left it in their hands now.”
Asked how frequently he keeps in touch with Ozzy, Tony said: “We’re in touch quite a lot. We don’t really speak because we are useless on the phone, the pair of us. I think we stopped that when he used to phone me at 2 o’clock in the morning and I’d go, ‘Oz, it’s 2 o’clock in the morning.’ ‘Oh, oh, sorry. All right. Bye.’ He forgets about what time it is in England, and of course when the phone goes at that time of the morning you think, ‘Oh, Christ. What’s that? Somebody’s died or something has happened.’ And of course it’s him going, ‘Oh, oh, oh, oh, sorry. I didn’t know it was that time.’ So we tend to sort of just text now.”
Ozzy recently confirmed that 15 songs have been recorded for his follow-up to 2020’s “Ordinary Man”. He is once again working with producer Andrew Watt on the “work-in-progress” effort, which will include additional guest appearances by Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Robert Trujillo and Zakk Wylde.
Last month, Ozzy told Metal Hammer magazine that his new album will be “similar in tone to ‘Ordinary Man’, but I can’t describe it completely. I’ve not heard it for a while because it keeps going over to the next person to add their parts — we’re fucking around with it all the time,” he said.
Watt connected with Osbourne after meeting Ozzy‘s daughter Kelly at a friend’s party and pitching her on the idea of Post Malone and Ozzy collaborating together.
In December 2020, Watt told Guitar World that he and the BLACK SABBATH legend were “halfway through” the new LP. “There’s some songs on there that are like eight or nine minutes long that are these really crazy journeys. I’m really excited about it,” he said.
Like “Ordinary Man”, which featured Watt on guitar, Duff McKagan (GUNS N’ ROSES) on bass and Chad Smith on drums, Ozzy‘s next album will feature guest appearances by a number of other notable musicians. “There’s a bunch of people involved,” Andrew told Guitar World. “I can’t say for sure until the end, but I started doing a bunch of basic tracks with Chad and Robert Trujillo, who used to play in Ozzy‘s band. And Taylor Hawkins [FOO FIGHTERS] also came in and played a bunch on the record as well, which adds a different flair — it kind of harkened back to Ozzy‘s ’80s era, in a great way. And I think it’s so cool for a rock fan to be able to listen to half an album with Chad Smith on drums, and then you flip it over and you get to hear Taylor Hawkins. And you know, the last album was really special for everyone involved. And so there was no point in Ozzy or me doing this again unless we thought we could bring something new to the table. And I feel like we’re achieving that.”
