We've all heard the rumors that Black Sabbath were recently toying with the idea of recording a new studio album, a potential followup to 2013's successful 13.
Now it turns out it might've been a blues record.
“The follow-up to 13 was going to be a blues album, but the tour got in the way,” Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler told Music Radar.
“It would take something like two or three years to do it properly, and we thought we might not all be here by that time, so it would be better to do this final tour first and then maybe we’ll do a blues record later.” Butler was most likely referring Tony Iommi's headline-making battle with lymphoma.
“You’d have to make [the album] varied instead of doing 10 tracks of the same old 12-bar blues, though,” Butler added. “But even back in the Heaven & Hell tour days, Tony would go up into his lead and we would just jam around blues riffs for eight or nine minutes. And every night was different. So that is a thought.”
Keep in mind that, while Sabbath are through as a touring band, a new album, is still—technically—a possibility. If there's an update, we'll certainly let you know.
Here's a taste of Iommi and Butler (mostly Iommi) with Heaven & Hell in 2009.
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Damian is Editor-in-Chief of Guitar World magazine. In past lives, he was GW’s managing editor and online managing editor. He's written liner notes for major-label releases, including Stevie Ray Vaughan's 'The Complete Epic Recordings Collection' (Sony Legacy) and has interviewed everyone from Yngwie Malmsteen to Kevin Bacon (with a few memorable Eric Clapton chats thrown into the mix). Damian, a former member of Brooklyn's The Gas House Gorillas, was the sole guitarist in Mister Neutron, a trio that toured the U.S. and released three albums. He now plays in two NYC-area bands.
