New Zealand Herald: “It’s a really weird thing,” says the singer, who turns 64 next week, “because what we did, we just did. We didn’t go, ‘Oh, we’re going to write this way, and we’re going to record that way, and it’s going to come out like this’. And 45 years up the road who would have thought it’s still going to be current and people were going to look upon it as the foundations of heavy metal?”
But then Osbourne, who’s in a chatty mood on the phone from Los Angeles ahead of Sabbath’s return to New Zealand next April for the first time in 40 years, is also still trying to get his head around that term “heavy metal”. He can’t stand it. “Because not everything Black Sabbath did was about the devil, or about heavy metal because Changes was a beautiful song. But all they ever remember is that I sing about the devil and Iron Man, you know.”
On new Sabbath material: “It’s been more than 30 years since I really seriously worked with the guys. We had a try a few years back but nothing came of it. But for some reason the timing is right and we’ve done about 15 songs. Black Sabbath is very unique in the respect that nothing is formulated. It’s very unpredictable. I just hope the people who have waited all these years aren’t disappointed.”