Black Sabbath reunites for 2012 album and tour
Here’s another reason to remember 11-11-11.
Heavy metal heavyweights Black Sabbath announced that all four original members of the band including vocalist Ozzy Osbourne are reuniting for a new album and tour.
In addition to Osbourne, who left the band 33 years ago, guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward made the announcement at L.A.’s Whiskey A Go Go where they first played 41 years ago.
According to the Rolling Stone website, the band is set to perform at the Download Festival in Donington Park, England in June. Their new album, which will be released late next year, will be produced by Rick Rubin, co-founder of Def Jam Records and who oversaw the latest albums of Metallica, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Adele.
Why now?
Asked by musician Henry Rollins who played host during the announcement at Whiskey A Go Go why all four members decided to get back together now, Iommi said, "It’s now or never. We get along great. Everything’s really good."
He also said Rubin “phoned us every five minutes.”
Osbourne added, “I’ve known Rick for many years. He wanted to do it a long time ago."
Butler promised, "It’s really back to the old Sabbath style and sound.”
‘True outsider music’
Black Sabbath, which was formed in 1968, is credited with creating heavy metal, which the band’s Facebook page says took “the blues-rock sound of '60s acts like Cream and Blue Cheer and Vanilla Fudge to its logical conclusion, slowing the tempo, accentuating the bass, and emphasizing screaming guitar solos and howled vocals full of lyrics expressing mental anguish and macabre fantasies.”
Rollins, who with Black Flag led one of the defining bands of L.A.’s hardcore scene in the 80s, told Rolling Stone about what Black Sabbath meant to him. “When I heard 'Iron Man,' high school became powerless over me. This is true outsider music," he said.
