Andrew Watt clarifies Tony Iommi’s Black Sabbath album comments

In an interview with Brian Hiatt of The Rolling Stone Studio podcast, producer Andrew Watt stated that Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, and Geezer Butler all intended to record a final Black Sabbath album with the original lineup as a successor to the 2013 release “13.” However, this project was never realized due to Bill Ward‘s inability to participate for personal reasons. “13” did not include original drummer Bill Ward, as contractual negotiations had broken down. Although Ward initially agreed to reunite with the band in 2011, he withdrew in early 2012, describing the contract offered as “unsignable” and not reflective of his contributions.

Regarding Iommi’s recent remark that he was reluctant to pursue the final Black Sabbath album because Watt was “too excited” about it, Watt, who produced Osbourne‘s last two solo albums — “Ordinary Man” (2020) and “Patient Number 9” (2022) — responded with his perspective.

That, I think, is taken out of context. You know me. I’m definitely an excited musician, a person. That would be a true statement. But that’s not why it didn’t happen. Ozzy was wanting to continue to work and make stuff, and we were making music, and he had the idea, ’cause we were talking about, ‘Let’s try and do something a little different than…’ The two albums that we made, ‘Ordinary Man’ and ‘Patient Number 9’, were different albums, but they were of the same DNA.

So we’re, like, ‘What could we do that’s different?’ ‘Do you wanna make something with Tony?’ ‘Should we make an Osbourne/Iommi album?’ We were talking about that, and then he was just, like, ‘Let’s make a Sabbath album.’ He’s, like, ‘We didn’t do an album with Bill Ward.’ I think looking back at all the stuff he wanted to do, making an album with Bill was really important to him. And this was before ‘Back To The Beginning’ was happening and everything. I think the idea of doing something with Bill was very, very important, and so one of the first incarnations of that was a potential album.

As Ozzy does, he gave me the marching orders, ‘Call Tony. Then you call Geezer. Then you call Bill.’ So, I called Tony. [I said,] ‘Would you wanna do it?’ [He said,] ‘Yeah, that sounds cool. If Bill would do it, yes.’ Geezer [said], ‘If Billwould do it, yes.’ It was all about, ‘If Bill would do it, yes.’ So then I had to have a conversation with Bill. And that was one of the strangest and funniest and coolest, at the same time, ’cause you’re talking to Bill Ward, conversations. It was a long conversation. He was speaking in tongues, which, now knowing him and being friends with him, makes sense.

Long story short, without going into it too deeply, he was unable to do the album for personal reasons. And there was a nice, beautiful, long e-mail sent to all of us, and I was on an e-mail with the original members of Black Sabbath, which was pretty cool. Then, after we talked and it was, like, ‘Okay, Bill can’t do it, and there’s no reason to do it.’ I’m sure Tony didn’t feel like going into all of that [when he spoke about it in an interview with Classic Rock magazine in September].

Tony’s awesome. He’s a great friend to me. He’s a great mentor. We made a couple songs together on Ozzy’s album and had an amazing time working together. I was definitely excited about the fact that [a Sabbath album was a possibility] and everything, but that wasn’t the reason why we didn’t make the album. I think [Tony] was just taking the piss [in the Classic Rock interview], which, anyone that wants to do that with me, they absolutely should.

When questioned about the existence of unreleased Ozzy Osbourne recordings that might be unveiled in the future, Andrew provided a response.

There are some songs that we made for a specific reason. And, yeah, that’s all I can say. They’re hard for me to listen to. I haven’t listened to [them].

Regarding potential plans for the release of these tracks, Watt offered a statement.

Kind of. ‘Back To The Beginning’, the night before the concert, I actually went in Birmingham with Sharon [Ozzy’s wife and manager] and a couple of people to go get a curry, and I was texting with Ozzy. He was in his hotel room, and he was, like, ‘Come to the hotel, come to the hotel.’ I was sitting with Sharon, and we were both, like, ‘He has a big day tomorrow. Maybe I shouldn’t go ’cause he’ll get excited and everything.’ But he was, like, ‘No, you’re coming to the hotel. You are coming.’ So I went. I brought a curry with me and sat with him. And he was drawing like he usually does, and we sat and we listened to the stuff that we had made and made notes. That and the next day were the last times I got to see him. But we had a beautiful listening session and talked about a lot of stuff.

Additionally, Andrew shared his reflections on his personal relationship with the late Black Sabbath vocalist.

It’s hard to think about, but I miss him every day. He had so many things he taught me about. And if Ozzy Osbourne chose you, he gave you a career. I mean, he did it over and over and over again. I always loved rock music, but I was a pop producer before he chose to let me stand next to him and work with him, and then I got to do all these amazing things after. But he was the first one. And if you look at what he — he chose Randy Rhoads. He chose Zakk Wylde, Jake E. Lee. And then even you get to, like, now currently, Yungblud [British rocker Dominic Harrison]. Yungblud was on an amazing path before the ‘Back To The Beginning’ concert, but Ozzy chose ‘Changes’ for him to sing and loved Dom as a person and what he was doing as an artist and brought him out there. And he sang that song, and it changed his life