Black Sabbath reformed?

Wed 17th Aug, 2011 in International News

In August last year Ozzy Osborne claimed that a Black Sabbath reunion wouldn’t “happen for at least a year or two because I’ve got my tour and an album to do.” And then an article published in the Birmingham Mail yesterday featured a quote from guitarist Tony Iommi that seemed to announce that that original line-up of the band – Osbourne, Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward – had reformed and have begun rehearsing for a forthcoming tour and new album.

Iommi was quoted as saying that: ‘‘We’re really looking forward to it and I think the stuff we’ve been writing is really good. It’s more back to the old original stuff… ‘It’s all been very hush-hush. Ozzy’s been the worst at trying to hold it back. He’s doing a lot of TV and he’s being asked stuff about a reunion and he’s going ‘well I never say never’.”

However, Iommi has followed up with a post on his official website that declares that he’s “saddened that a Birmingham journalist whom I trusted has chosen this point in time to take a conversation we had back in June and make it sound like we spoke yesterday about a Black Sabbath reunion. At the time I was supporting the Home of Metal exhibition and was merely speculating, shooting the breeze, on something all of us get asked constantly, “Are you getting back together?” Thanks to the internet it’s gone round the world as some sort of “official” statement on my part, absolute nonsense. I hope he’s enjoyed his moment of glory, he won’t have another at my expense. To my old pals, Ozzy, Geezer and Bill, sorry about this, I should have known better.”