BLACK SABBATH's Appearance At OZZFEST JAPAN Will Be Band's 'Farewell,' Says SHARON OSBOURNE

BLACK SABBATH will play its "farewell" show during this year's Ozzfest Japan, which will take place November 21-22 at Makuhari Messe, outside Tokyo. Also scheduled to appear is KORN.

In a videotaped message, Ozzfest organizer Sharon Osbourne said (see video below): "Ozzfest will be back in Japan on November 21st and 22nd. And this will be BLACK SABBATH's farewell. We're also announcing KORN, who are celebrating their 20th anniversary. Now you can't miss that."

Ozzy Osbourne revealed last fall that BLACK SABBATH will record a new studio album in 2015 and head out on one final tour. Ozzy told Metal Hammer magazine, "The whole SABBATH experience this time around was great. We all made friends, we didn't fuck around, we all knew that we had a job to do, and we did it. It was a lot of fun. So we're going to do one more album, and a final tour."

Although the band had yet to write any new material, Ozzy added, "It'll be sooner rather than later. Obviously a lot of it is coming down to Tony's [Iommi, guitar] health, he's obviously got his cancer treatment, but we'll get onto it next year. I don't know if we'll be writing in England or L.A., but I'll fly to the fucking moon for it if I have to!"

Ozzy said that Rick Rubin, who produced 2013's comeback album, "13", will likely be back for the next project.

"13" was the first SABBATH album in 35 years to feature Ozzy, guitarist Tony Iommi and bassist Geezer Butler together, with drummer Bill Ward the only founding member to sit out the record and world tour.

Ozzy told The Pulse Of Radio why, after two previous attempts in 1998 and 2001, a SABBATH reunion album finally happened. "It was kind of like a case of now or never, because we attempted it on a couple of occasions before and it fell to pieces for one reason or another," he said. "But we knew this was probably our last attempt at doing a reunion album. We had a mission on this album and for whatever reason it worked out great, you know."

"13" went to No. 1 in both the U.S. and the U.K., a first for the band in America and only their second chart-topper in their native country since 1971.

Butler said in a recent interview that the band had four tracks left over from the sessions for "13", which could give them a head start on writing the next album.

Iommi revealed in January of 2012 that he had been diagnosed with lymphoma and had to return to England every six weeks for treatment throughout the course of SABBATH's year-long tour.