Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler says the band’s reunion album with Ozzy Osbourne is the most professional studio project they’ve done together because they are all sober and he’s revealed that the record might not be called 13 despite official announcements stating that would be the title.
Butler tells KCALfm, “None of us have been drinking or doing drugs or anything. It’s a bit more professional in that way. We stuck to a schedule: every day we’d go in at one o’clock and finished at six. Five hours a day and that’s it. It’s got the feel of the first three albums, back to the basic rawness. The lyrics are about life, death, doom and everything else. You get Prozac with each album…”
Of the title he explains, “It was sort of a temporary name, so we had something to refer to. It kinda stuck – but I don’t know whether that’s going to be the final title or not.”
The number didn’t just come up because of the year, “Originally we were going to put 13 tracks on the album,” Butler says. “We ended up doing 16, but I’m not sure what’s going to be on the album or what isn’t.”
With the absence of original Sabbath drummer Bill Ward, the band hired Rage Against The Machine’s Brad Wilk for the recording-a move that surprised some fans. The bassist says it was producer Rick Rubin’s suggestion, “He didn’t want a typical heavy metal drummer on the album because it’s not really a heavy metal album. It’s more heavy rock. Rick suggested Brad because he’s more in the vein of Bill Ward. We jammed with him and he sounded great with the stuff, so we went with that. We’re sort of back to the way we used to be in the 70s and that’s Brad’s feel – a sort of jazzy, bluesy feel.” No word on whether or not Wilk will join the band on tour.
Meanwhile, Butler says guitarist Tony Iommi is continuing to respond well to cancer treatment after 14 months – and the bassist reports Ozzy is getting better after being injured in a house fire last week, “He burnt his hand when he was putting the fire [out]. He’s got it in a plaster cast. He’ll be alright.”
Black Sabbath’s 19th studio album is due out in June.
additional source: classicrockmagazine.com
6 Responses
Im a bit confused here. Geezer says Rick didn’t want a heavy metal drummer because it isn’t a heavy metal album. Well Geezer said “It’s got the feel of the first three albums, back to the basic rawness. The lyrics are about life, death, doom and everything else. You get Prozac with each album…”
lol. i coulda swore them 1st 3 Sabbath albums were heavy metal.
Im all confused now. lol
Anyway i’ll be buying it the 1st day!
What a shame it can’t be the original band, because of selfish money, just like Kiss.
Sober? Sober? Sober!
It is a shame that bill ward is not envolved,It is not a reuion,they should of put the project on hold until bill was onboard,come on trunk you ought too know theirs nothing like the original group.
Personally, I think that short of Bill Ward, this is the best possible outcome. I am so glad to hear that they are acknowledging it as a heavy rock album and not heavy metal. Although we refer to BS as heavy metal, they were not the heavy metal we refer to today on those early albums. Bill Ward used to play with a “swing” feel on so many of those songs, and I was fearful that element would be missing from this new album. The last thing we need is a busy drummer on this album trying to make it sound “heavy”. The space and silence between the notes and riffs was a signature element of early BS albums; an element often overlooked when describing the BS sound. This interview has me very stoked that we will get everything we could have hoped for in a killer reunion album!