Black Sabbath Reveal Final Album, World Tour Plans

Prince of Darkness and Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne has confirmed the heavy metal legends will record a follow-up to last year’s acclaimed 13 and embark on a final world tour. Speaking in a recent interview, Osbourne said Rick Rubin will return to helm what will be the band’s final studio effort.

“The whole Sabbath experience this time around was great,” Ozzy told Metal Hammer. “We all made friends, we didn’t fuck around, we all knew that we had a job to do, and we did it. It was a lot of fun. So we’re going to do one more album, and a final tour. Once the dust settled after the last tour we started discussing the idea, because we were getting asked about it all the time,” the metal icon continued.

“I said to Sharon [Osbourne, wife] ‘What’s going on? Because if there’s no more Sabbath I want to get on with my own thing again’ and she came back and said ‘Let me look into it.’ Three weeks later I asked her about it again, and she said ‘Oh, I still have to talk to so and so…’ and I said ‘Sharon, I ain’t fucking 21 any more, if we’re going to do I want to do it before I’m 70!’ Time isn’t on our side!” Osbourne recounted.

“So she made the call and came back and said ‘Yeah, the record company wants another album.’ I believe Rick Rubin is going to do it with us again.” According to the singer, no new material has been written for the band’s 14th studio album, but Osbourne predicts sessions will begin early next year.

“It’ll be sooner rather than later,” Osbourne told the magazine. “Obviously a lot of it is coming down to Tony’s health, he’s obviously got his cancer treatment, but we’ll get onto it next year. I don’t know if we’ll be writing in England or LA, but I’ll fly to the fucking moon for it if I have to!”

Osbourne’s comments come as a surprise to many Sabbath fans after months of conflicting statements. Late last year, bassist Geezer Butler cast doubts on the possibility of a new album, though Osbourne later told a press conference that new music was “very possible“. Meanwhile, back in May, guitarist Tony Iommi speculated that the band’s then-upcoming Hyde Park performance would be their last ever.