Special Report by Martin Popoff
Here's an update for y'all from Geezer and Bill on happenings in the Sabbath camp, and there's a lot, or nothing at all, depending on whether you see life as a journey or the sum of one's completed projects. Fact is, Ozzy, Geezer and Bill all have albums in various states of undress, and Sabbath themselves have worked up about six or seven new songs, at least one of which should debut on the upcoming Ozzfest tour, which Sabbath is of course headlining.
First of all, it looks like Ozzy's album won't be out before the tour begins about a month from now with one English date. His most recent collaborations have been with Zakk. No Sabbath members are involved with his record and it isn't looking to get finished any time soon. "He doesn't talk about it much," says Geezer, "It's been six years now so his record company isn't too happy (laughs)."
The album furthest along is Bill Ward's. Entitled Beyond Aston, it will be mixed while Bill is out rocking with the Sabs through the summer. Bill gives us the lowdown. "I'm going to try finished it by May 3rd. I'm down to overdubs. I've got an accordion, a choir, a couple of 12 string guitars; we've got to put an orchestra on one song and a couple of vocals and pretty much that's it. So it will be ready. It's going to be mixed while we're doing Ozzfest, so I won't actually be there during the mix. But it's in capable hands. So it will be ready for release, although I don't have a label right now. I'm not really bothered and haven't been thinking about it. I'm just trying to get the album done. I'd like it to come out on a good label if possible. With respect to the title, Aston is where we all grew up. There are some songs on there that are reflective of my life there, from being brought up in Aston and continuing on from there. And I wrote 'Beyond Aston' basically for Ozzy. But he hasn't heard the song yet, and I wrote it for him about ten years ago."
Black Sabbath - Four Unfinished Albums and a Baby Tour Page 2