REUNION NEWS

Hey all. I picked this tidbit up off the Wall of Sound News Site:

OZZY SAYS BLACK SABBATH IS COMING TO CD AND YOUR TOWN

Heavy metal godhead Black Sabbath is set to roll in a big way in 1998. The reunited hard rockers_featuring the original lineup of Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and Bill Ward_are planning the late summer or early fall release of a live album from their shows last December in Birmingham, England. The set will also include two new studio recordings, tentatively titled "Pyscho Man" and "Selling My Soul." They’ll also tour in the fall, and Iommi is currently at Osbourne’s house in the Los Angeles area writing songs for a planned Sabbath studio album.

"It’s like I never left," says Osbourne, who quit Sabbath in 1979. "It’s better than ever. The only problem I’m having is Tony comes up with about four songs a day, and I can’t keep up with him. Tony is full of riffs_not just mediocre, but great, great riffs_and I want to put something great on top."

The Sabbath reunion has been long in coming. It was first attempted in 1985, following a one-off performance at the Live Aid concert, and again in 1992. But both of those efforts crashed, with Osbourne and Iommi blaming each other. The first steps toward the current reunion were taken last summer, when Osbourne reunited with Iommi and Butler as Black Sabbath for the OZZfest tour. At that time, Ward was excluded because he was judged to be not in appropriate touring shape, but he was back on board by the time of the Birmingham shows.

Osbourne, who’s in the midst of preparations for the July 3 start of OZZfest ’98, says he plans to continue his solo career but feels that Sabbath is on a good track_particularly now that he and Iommi are working together. "He’s here as we speak," Osbourne says. "Regardless of what we’ve said about each other and what we’ve done to each other_and what we haven’t done to each other_I’ve always maintained there’s not a man in this world [who] comes up with such great riffs. I love working with him. Some of the bad stuff’s there, but I don’t harp on it."