With the excitement around Black Sabbath's final The End tour, the classic metal group had every intention of releasing one last studio album, 13, before it was eventually scrapped. Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi recently divulged that the band had a prosperous writing session for the album, where they "wrote a whole load" of riffs.
"I've got so many riffs," he told Q (via Blabbermouth). "I wrote a whole load of stuff for another album, and we met up in L.A. but the others ... well, Geezer [Butler] didn't particularly want to do another album." Last month brought the disappointing news that the Paranoid musicians would no longer record and release their Universal studio record.
The 67-year-old guitarist continued to explain the rationale behind abandoning their last LP, mentioning that it's difficult to figure out which direction to go in after you already notched a No. 1 album. When questioned if he pondered the thought of halting playing guitar, Iommi quickly shot the idea down. "It's the touring, really [that's hard]," he said. "I'd love to do something with the guys. But, whatever happens, I will do something."
Back in September, front man Ozzy Osborne told Metal Hammer that he, Iommi, Bill Ward and Geezer Butler would make their way to the studio one last time and at the time, wanted to get it done "sooner rather than later" but they would have to work around Iommi's lymphoma treatments. "I don't know if we'll be writing in England or Los Angeles, but I'll fly to the f*cking moon for it if I have to," the outspoken singer said.
Instead of releasing the album, Black Sabbath have put all their attention on their The End tour, which launches on Jan. 20 in Nebraska and closes in New York City at the end of February. A second leg of the tour will commence in August through the end of September.
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