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."

"We're nearly there. I just want to finish it" laughs Bill, "because I've been working on it for the last three years. And also, I don't want to go into a major touring situation wondering about 'cut five, did we do the Protools? Did we cut out A and B during the Protools session?' I don't want to have those kinds of numbers in my head. I'm going out there to rock and to drive Black Sabbath, and that's my total intention and to do that I have to have focus and an absolutely clear head. So no, the whole reason why I'm kind of working a little harder in April is to make sure my decks are cleared so that when we go on that stage I know exactly where I am, best as I can be. So I wouldn't do things that would either jeopardize my energy for my own album or jeopardize my energy for Black Sabbath."

It seems that Ward's found an even keel with his health and that there's been no question of other drummers for the upcoming tour, Geezer emphatically reiterating that "oh for sure, there's only one Black Sabbath and that's the four of us together. He's always had stamina; that was never a problem. I don't know where he gets it though (laughs)."

"Yeah, I'm good. I totally stopped smoking cold," notes Bill. "And I'm vegan now, although saying that on one hand, I still like to have a piece of cheese every once in awhile. And I like that Starbucks coffee too (laughs). Even though it's non-fat milk, it's not really vegan. I'm probably not exercising as much as I'm supposed to. But I do, yeah. I work out on the exercise bike and I walk. Yesterday I walked five miles."

And how are the chops these days? Have you added anything to your drum style in the last few years?

"I'm trying to (laughs). I think I have, actually. I'm trying different things. I think I've improved a little bit between my feet and my arms and my head. I'm trying to put extra little things in. By the time when we finished with the Sabbath tours and the Ozzfest tours in 1999, I felt pretty good about my drumming. I felt that it was starting to awaken. And I thought, well, you know, you're having a good time here because I was starting to put some jazz chops in between all the hard rock. So I was enjoying doing that. I don't think the audience could ever hear it, but I was having a blast doing it. It just kept everything nice. So when we start rehearsals for the coming tour of America and of England on May the 12th, I'm kind of hoping to come out of the gate pretty hard and heavy. We've been rehearsing for six weeks already so my chops aren't too bad."

Ward has also scrapped for now plans to reissue Ward One: Along The Way, with or without the Ozzy tracks, with or without re-recording the entire album, an idea which was bandied about over the years as an additional disc completing a two disc set.

And here's Geezer on the progress of his third solo album (one song title for you: 'The Ultimate Ghost'). "I'll work more on my album when I get back from the tour. I've got about twelve songs done. It encompasses everything I've done. Right now Clark Brown has done all the vocals and I'm working with Pedro Howse again who was the guitarist on my last two albums."

Anything from your files that might make it over to the Sabbath camp? "Yes, there's a really doomy one that Bill wants to snatch for the Black Sabbath album (laughs). As well, Tony likes one of them."

And here's Geezer with a few impressions of the Sabbath material. "We just wanted to see what we could come up with. We came up with about six or seven songs. No song titles yet, but it's back to the roots, back to the old '70s, early '70s sound. It's nothing like the Reunion tracks. That was done on Protools. Bill and myself weren't even there until the songs were done. This time we did it exactly the way we did the first three albums, just sit in the studio and jam together and record everything and then listen back to it all and then take the stuff that we like and work on it. And Ozzy would come up with the vocal melodies which is never a problem. So it's very much a group effort. And I'm not the designated lyricist anymore. Ozzy might write something or Bill or Tony. We're writing the way we used to on the first three albums. We all have to like it. If only two of us like it, then we don't keep it. And we're working up in Wales again, where we did the Reunion rehearsals."

Did you get these tracks anywhere near a finished state?

"Some of them, sort of. There are no real lyrics yet. That's always the last thing that we put on. But there are about three of them that we're probably ready to record. And all we need now is about twelve others as good as that and we'll be fine (laughs). There's one really strange one, sort of like a ballad, very radio-friendly, and that was the first one to be dumped (laugh), very commercial. We're not going to rush the album because if it doesn't sound right, if it's not up to scratch as an album, then we won't put it out."

And here's Bill's impression of the songs thus far. "I think that they're pretty melodic, definitely hard rock. I think that they're a good start in a sense that they are from four guys getting together who haven't actually written anything together for a long, long, long time. I feel that the beginning shows incredible potential and promise. There are some slower songs which actually have some jazz and real melodic feels and there's a real melodic one that I was going to say is almost like 'Changes', but in a rhythm sense it's nothing like 'Changes'. It really compliments Ozzy's kind of lament voice. I don't know, there's something that is just totally awesome about his voice when he sings sad songs; it just turns out great. So we have something in that range, and then we have something that is just so tight and uptempo and total f**king metal, so the range is quite wide. We've just started to tap the mother lode. I don't know, but there's potentially enough material to go for a long, long time, not just for one album. But it's very exciting. There are a lot of different ideas."

In terms of producers, Geezer offers that "we've talked to Rick Rubin. He wants to do it. And that's all we've spoken to so far." In terms of obscurities we might hear from the band on their Ozzfest jaunt, Geezer says that "we'll likely play one of the new ones. As well, we're working on 'Hand Of Doom', 'National Acrobat' and 'Back Street Kids', but that one's not working out so well."

Work will likely continue on the Black Sabbath album when the American Ozzfest tour is over, although the band is getting pressured to continue Ozzfest into Asia and Australia.