Tony Iommi rejected the opportunity to make a final Black Sabbath album with the original line-up.
The 78-year-old guitarist has told how music producer Andrew Watt was keen to create a record with him, frontman Ozzy Osbourne, bassist Geezer Butler, and drummer Bill Ward, before Ozzy’s death in July 2025, aged 76.
Watt had produced Ozzy’s final solo albums, Ordinary Man and Patient Number 9, but Tony thought he was “a bit too excited” about making a record with Sabbath.
Speaking to Classic Rock magazine, Tony said: “I’d met Andrew Watt when he was producing Ozzy.
“He was very keen and a bit too excited.”
And Tony “didn’t like the idea” of making another album after 13, their 19th and final studio album, which was released in 2013.
He added: “He [Watt] also didn’t know what it was like working with the original Sabbath, working with Bill.
“Also, we’d done 13, and I didn’t like the idea of, ‘Now here’s another album.’ “
While the original band didn’t reunite for another album, they did get together for a farewell concert.
The quartet joined forces for Back to the Beginning, a one-off benefit show at Villa Park in Aston, Birmingham, in July 2025, for their last-ever performance with Ozzy.
Ozzy passed away just 17 days after the show, and Tony recently revealed the singer told him he felt “tired and really worn out” just hours before his passing.
During an appearance on the Loudwire Nights podcast, Tony said: “I spoke to him the night before he passed. He said to me: ‘I really feel tired and really worn out’.
“I said: ‘Well, you’re bound to really, it’s been a lot of stress and pressure and stuff like that’. And the next thing, the next day, [he’s] gone.”
Tony added of his pal: “It still feels like he’s there.”
The guitarist also admitted the Back To The Beginning concert was difficult because of Ozzy’s declining health – and he wasn’t used to seeing the singer sit down during concerts.
He said: “It was difficult because seeing Ozzy sitting in a throne is not the way I see him. Always [when] we’ve been on stage, he’s been running around, and he’d run up to [bassist] Geezer [Butler] and pull a face jokingly and come over to me and pull a face or the drummer or whatever.
“We always had a little laugh on stage and enjoy when he’d run about.
“But at Back To The Beginning, of course, he’s in a throne, and I couldn’t see him, which felt very unusual. I stood back by [drummer] Bill [Ward].
“But it was a great moment, and I’m really glad we could get the opportunity to do it, because I mean, God, we didn’t know he was going to go that quick.
“But he did … There’s memories that will remain there, from rehearsals to the whole thing … I am glad that we could do that gig.”
