BLACK SABBATH's OSBOURNE Explains Why Drummer TOMMY CLUFETOS Doesn't Play On '13'

June 12, 2013

Kory Grow of SPIN.com recently conducted an intervow with BLACK SABBATH members Ozzy Osbourne (vocals) and Geezer Butler (bass). A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

SPIN.com: Rumor has it that [producer] Rick Rubin made you all listen to your self-titled debut album before recording "13". Did that make you cringe?

Osbourne: I remember going to [Rubin's] house, and he was going on about the first album. I was like, "What the fuck's the deal, man? Why the first album? We've all done a billion albums since then." He goes, "You're not a heavy metal band. The first one was a blues album." And I go, "Yeah." And he goes, "That's what I'm looking for." I said, "A blues album?! You want us to do a blues album?" I didn't know what the fuck he was on about. I thought he was fucking nuts. But I got the fucking punch line three weeks later. It wasn't that he wanted a blues album so much as he wanted the blues feel from us.

SPIN.com: [Drummer] Bill Ward didn't play on "13". Let's set the record straight: What happened?

Osbourne: To be absolutely truthful with you, I can't really remember. It was such a long time ago. There was the business side of it and the money side of it. We just didn't have the time to keep the people waiting another fucking ten years. The drummer thing was a pain in the butt. We would have loved Bill Ward to step up to the plate, but it never worked out. I still love him to death. It's sad that it didn't work out. But hey, we've got an album, we're all really happy. I don't suppose Bill is that happy.

SPIN.com: Was Brad Wilk [RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE] your first choice to replace Bill [during the "13" recording sessions]?

Osbourne: I don't really want to go into it. We had Tommy [Clufetos, SABBATH's touring drummer and member of Ozzy's solo band] on hold. And it just didn't work out. The way it was dealt with was wrong, because you can't keep people waiting for nothing. We were going to use Tommy at the beginning, and Rick was against it. And then it turned out that it wasn't dealt with professionally and I got a bit pissed off. Anyway, Tommy's doing a great job on the road with SABBATH.

Read the entire interview at SPIN.com.

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