Black Sabbath to record new album, embark on final tour in 2015, according to Osbourne

 

Black Sabbath apparently have at least one more studio album — and one more tour — left in the tank.
The trio (no word on if they will become a quartet again) will start working on a new studio album in 2015; that album will be followed by a final tour.
"The whole Sabbath experience this time around was great," Ozzy Osbourne 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. I said to [wife/manager] Sharon, '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 anymore. If we're going to do it, I want to do it before I'm 70!' Time isn't on our side! So she made the call and came back and said, 'Yeah, the record company wants another album.' I believe [producer] Rick Rubin is going to do it with us again."
No new material has yet been written for the album, which will be the band's 14th, but Osbourne says sessions will begin early next year.
"It'll be sooner rather than later," he added. "Obviously a lot of it is coming down to Tony [Iommi]'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 L.A., but I'll fly to the fucking moon for it if I have to!"
Butler recently said the trio have a head start on a new record.
"We've still got four tracks left over from [13]. So maybe we'll fill in the other four or five tracks and put out another album — if it's right. We wouldn't do it just for the sake of it, or the money or whatever. But yeah, maybe."
13, the first Black Sabbath album since 1978 to feature Osbourne, Iommi and Butler, reached No. 1 in the U.S., the U.K. and several other countries. Drummer Bill Ward was on board for the reunion when it was announced in November 2011, but he backed out soon after due to contractual issues. We await word on whether or not Ward will be part of the festivities in 2015.