There was almost one more record from the original Black Sabbath lineup. Producer Andrew Watt says Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler were all willing to make a Black Sabbath final album with Bill Ward, “if Bill would do it.” According to Watt, Ward said no for personal reasons, in what Watt called “a nice, beautiful, long e-mail” to his old bandmates. Watt’s account doesn’t match the explanation Iommi gave last month.
Watt spoke with Brian Hiatt on The Rolling Stone Studio podcast. The quotes here come from Blabbermouth’s transcript, published Oct. 17. SDMETAL has not heard the audio.
How the Black Sabbath Final Album Came Up
Watt produced Ozzy’s last two solo albums, Ordinary Man (2020) and Patient Number 9 (2022). He said the Sabbath idea grew out of looking for something different to do next. He and Ozzy talked about working with Iommi, maybe an Osbourne/Iommi album, until Ozzy said, “Let’s make a SABBATH album.” In Watt’s words:
“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.”
Watt said this was before the Back To The Beginning farewell concert was in the works. Then came the calls about the Black Sabbath final album, which Watt said Ozzy told him to make in order: Tony, then Geezer, then 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 Bill would do it, yes.’ It was all about, ‘If Bill would do it, yes.'”
Watt described his talk with Ward as “one of the strangest and funniest and coolest” conversations he’d had, and said Ward “was speaking in tongues, which, now knowing him and being friends with him, makes sense.” The outcome: “he was unable to do the album for personal reasons.” Once Ward was out, Watt said, “there’s no reason to do it.”
Watt did not say what Ward’s personal reasons were for passing on the Black Sabbath final album, and SDMETAL is not guessing.
Two Versions of the Same Story
Iommi told it differently. In September, Blabbermouth reports, he told Classic Rock that Watt approached him in the early 2020s about a record with the original lineup:
“He was very keen and a bit too excited. He 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.'”
Watt says Iommi’s comment about the Black Sabbath final album was “taken out of context.” He admitted he’s “definitely an excited musician,” but said “that’s not why it didn’t happen.” He suggested Iommi “didn’t feel like going into all of that” and “was just taking the piss.” He also called Iommi “a great friend” and “a great mentor.”
So the two accounts differ on why the Black Sabbath final album didn’t happen. Watt says it was Ward’s decision. Iommi pointed to Watt’s enthusiasm, the challenge of working with Ward, and his own reluctance after 13. SDMETAL found no response from Iommi or Ward to Watt’s interview as of Oct. 18.
Why Bill Ward Mattered
The idea of a Black Sabbath final album with Ward has a long history. Ward was part of the 2011 reunion, then stepped away in early 2012 over what he called an “unsignable contract.” 13 was released in June 2013 without him, with Rage Against the Machine’s Brad Wilk on drums. It still gave Sabbath their first U.S. No. 1 album.
Ozzy said in a 2022 Stereogum interview, quoted by Blabbermouth, that his one real regret about 13 was “that Bill Ward didn’t play on the album. It wasn’t really a BLACK SABBATH album.”
There was never a Black Sabbath final album with Ward, but the original four did play together one last time: the Back To The Beginning charity show at Villa Park in Birmingham on July 5, 2025. Ozzy died on July 22, 2025, at 76.
Unreleased Ozzy Songs: “Kind of”
Asked about unreleased Ozzy material, Watt said, “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.” Asked whether there are plans to release them, he answered, “Kind of.” He then described listening to the tracks with Ozzy and taking notes in Ozzy’s Birmingham hotel room the night before the farewell show.
That is not a release announcement, and those songs aren’t the Black Sabbath final album either. No title, format, date or label has been named. Whether those songs ever come out is unknown.
On Screen Before Any New Music
The next official Sabbath release is the film. Back to the Beginning hits theaters Oct. 28, and it’s the best way to see that last Villa Park show on a big screen. For more on where heavy music stands now, see our state of metal in 2025 report and our piece on what metal lost with the decline of physical formats.
For now, the Black Sabbath final album is a record that never got made, and the two people closest to it remember it differently.
SDMETAL