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Black Sabbath Pen 15 Songs For First Ozzy Album Since ’78

Ozzy Osbourne / Photo by Getty Images

The Black Sabbath reunion that at one point comprised all the band’s original members may have lost drummer Bill Ward due to contract disputes, but they’re still trudging forward to a new album. The Rick Rubin-produced LP will be the band’s first with frontman Ozzy Osbourne since 1978, and will reportedly be ready for release next year. “We’ve written about 15 songs together so far,” Ozzy Osbourne revealed in an interview with NME (you’ll have to head over there to see video proof). “Whether they all get on the album, I don’t know; we just keep on writing.” The new material, he mumbled said, attempts to answer the question, “Where would we be now, musically, if we’d stayed together?” He also none-too-subtly “hinted” that the record itself will probably be appropriately titled 2013.

“The friendship never goes away, no matter what’s going on,” guitarist Tony Iommi added in a thinly veiled reference to the Ward situation after explaining how their first reunion gig at Birmingham’s O2 Academy last month lifted his spirits in the face of his continuing cancer battle. “Even if we’re suing each other, we’re still friends! It’s weird. This band is really strange like that.” He said it, we didn’t.