Tony Iommi Turned Down Final Black Sabbath Album With Original Lineup Because Producer Andrew Watt Was “Too Excited”

The big-deal producer Andrew Watt got his start working with pop stars like Justin Bieber and Post Malone. In recent years, he has developed a reputation as a kind of legend whisperer, producing albums for aging foundational figures like the Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, and Pearl Jam. Watt worked with Ozzy Osbourne a bunch of times before the metal legend passed away last year. Apparently, though, he missed out on making a final Black Sabbath reunion album because, according to guitarist Tony Iommi, he was "too excited."

Just a few weeks before Ozzy Osbourne passed away, the original Black Sabbath lineup reunited to play an emotional farewell set, headlining an all-day metal festival in their Birmingham hometown. Recently, Tony Iommi announced From The Dark , his first solo album in 21 years, which means he's out doing press now. As Music Radar reports , Iommi recently told Classic Rock magazine that he and Osbourne had conversations about recording another original-lineup Black Sabbath album a few years ago, when Osbourne was first working with Andrew Watt. Iommi says, "I’d met Andrew Watt when he was producing Ozzy. He was very keen and a bit too excited. He also didn’t know what it was like working with the original Sabbath, working with Bill [Ward, drummer]."

Presumably, Iommi means that Watt didn't realize how difficult it would be to work with all these big personalities with long histories, but "too excited" is just a funny thing to say. Black Sabbath's final album was 2013's well-regarded, Rick Rubin-produced 13 , but all four original members didn't work on that record. Bill Ward refused to participate over a contractual dispute with Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne, so Brad Wilk of Rage Against The Machine and Audioslave played drums instead. Instead, the final album to feature all four original members was Never Say Die! , which came out way back in 1978.

In that Classic Rock interview, Tony Iommi says that he hadn't seen Ozzy Osbourne in "a bit" before they played that final show and that "It was difficult seeing him like that." Iommi says that he almost backed out of the performance: "I was concerned he was going to blow himself out, and by the time we came on he’d be struggling... I said to Ozzy, ‘I don’t think we should do it.’ I said, ‘We should just let the other bands play our stuff, and us come out at the end and say thank you.' But it was for a good charitable cause, and eventually we said OK."

Black Sabbath's final performance was only four songs. They also wanted to play the song "Black Sabbath," but Iommi says that they cut it after rehearsals: "We needed to rehearse with Bill, because it had been 20 years and he couldn’t remember how to play some of his stuff. We wanted to do the song 'Black Sabbath' on the night, but it was too difficult for him." Ultimately, however, Iommi is happy that they went through with the set: "The adrenaline carried Ozzy through, and I’m so glad we did it. But of course we didn’t expect him to go so soon."

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