Only Heavy Metal

BLACK SABBATH members Ozzy Osbourne (vocals), Tony Iommi (guitar) and Geezer Butler (bass) took part in a press conference yesterday (Friday, June 6) before their performance at this year's edition of the Sweden Rock Festival in Sölvesborg, Sweden. You can now watch video footage of the question-and-answer session below.

Asked about the band's recent concert in Moscow when technical issues prevented BLACK SABBATH from playing "Paranoid" as an encore, Geezer said: "It's probably one of the very few times that we haven't [that song during a SABBATH concert]. But it wasn't our fault, because it was the hard disk in the P.A. system went down. And you can't just replace it. You have to reboot the whole system, and it takes 24 hours, I think." Tony added: "We were all ready to go on, and then suddenly it went off."

Regarding BLACK SABBATH's plans for the future beyond the band's current tour, Ozzy said: "We haven't really discussed it. It is possible there's gonna be another album. But we haven't really sat down and decided what we're gonna do yet. We just wanna finish this tour and then we'll see."

Asked about Tony Iommi's recent remark that their upcoming concert in London's Hyde Park could be their last, Ozzy told Guitar World, "If it's goodbye, we're ending it on a high note… But I'm up for another BLACK SABBATH album and tour. If we can, great. If not, I'll just carry on doing my own thing."

According to The Pulse Of Radio, Butler, meanwhile, thinks that the threesome already have a head start on a new record, explaining, "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."

Ozzy added, "I never say never. I never thought after 35 years I'd [be back with BLACK SABBATH], have a No. 1 record and a sold-out tour."

"13", the first SABBATH album since 1978 to feature Ozzy, Butler and Iommi, was No. 1 in the U.S., the U.K. and nearly a dozen other countries.

Iommi, who has battled cancer since 2012, said recently that the massive July 4 gig at London's Hyde Park could be the band's last because the touring can be tough on him.

Iommi, who is in remission, admitted, "To be honest I don't want to be touring to this extent too much longer, because it makes me feel so bad."

The Hyde Park show will feature SOUNDGARDEN and others in addition to the headliners.

Ozzy reveals that the Godfathers of Metal will make one more album, and undertake one final world tour.

Black Sabbath are to record a final album together, Ozzy Osbourne has exclusively revealed to Metal Hammer.

The heavy metal legends will team up with producer Rick Rubin once again to record the follow-up to 2013's hugely successful 13 album.

Speaking to Classic Rock at the end of 2013, Ozzy, Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler were hesitant about the possibility of making one final Sabbath album - "I don't know if it would be the right thing to do," Iommi admitted. "But who knows. The history of this band has taught me to never say never" - but frontman Ozzy now says that the band will begin work on the album next year.

"The whole Sabbath experience this time around was great," says Ozzy. "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 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 any more, if we're going to do 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 Rick Rubin is going to do it with us again."

Although the trio have no new material written for what will be their fourteenth studio album, Osbourne anticipates that sessions will begin early in 2015.

"It'll be sooner rather than later," the singer insists. "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!”

Sharon Osbourne says November show will be band's last

Sharon Osbourne says Black Sabbath's appearance at Ozzfest Japan in November will be the band's "farewell."

In a message to Japanese fans, frontman Ozzy Osbourne's wife and manager says: "Ozzfest will be back in Japan on November 21 and 22. And this will be Black Sabbath's farewell. We're also announcing Korn, who are celebrating their 20th anniversary. Now you can't miss that."

Despite previous reports, Black Sabbath will not appear on this year’s Ozzfest Japan, the show will instead feature the festival’s namesake, Ozzy Osbourne (and friends).

Ozzy Osbourne has confirmed that BLACK SABBATH will embark on one last tour in 2016 before calling it quits. "The plan is that next year [we'll do] the final BLACK SABBATH tour and then it's over," Ozzy said (see video below) during an April 24 press conference in in São Paulo, Brazil, where he performed as part of this past weekend's Monsters Of Rock festival. He said that the plans "could change," and added: "We all live in different countries and some of them want to work and some of them don't want to, I believe. But we are going to do another tour together."