GEEZER BUTLER Says BLACK SABBATH Contemplated Making Blues Album As Follow-Up To '13'

Geezer Butler has revealed that BLACK SABBATH has contemplated making a blues album as a follow-up to 2013's acclaimed comeback effort, "13".

The original lineup of SABBATH came together in 1969 with Butler, Ozzy Osbourne on vocals, Tony Iommi on guitar and Bill Ward on drums. That lineup recorded and toured through 1978, and periodically reformed through the '90s and 2000s for live work.

They regrouped again in late 2011 for a new album and tour, although Ward dropped out after a few months over financial issues. SABBATH has used Ozzy's regular touring drummer Tommy Clufetos since then for live work. RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE's Brad Wilk laid down the drum tracks on the album "13", which came out in June 2013.

Asked in a new interview with Music Radar if SABBATH has ever considered returning to its roots for a blues project, Butler said: "The follow-up to '13' was going to be a blues album, but the tour got in the way. 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."

When the interviewer pointed out to Butler that it wouldn't take as long for SABBATH to make a blues album if it was done "jam style," Geezer said: "Probably not. You'd have to make it varied instead of doing ten tracks of the same old twelve-bar blues though. But even back in the 'Heaven And 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."

Iommi recently said that he wouldn't rule out BLACK SABBATH recording new material or playing a one-off event.

BLACK SABBATH finished its year-long "The End" farewell tour on February 4 in the band's hometown of Birmingham, England, closing out the quartet's groundbreaking 49-year career with an emotional 15-song set.

The band decided to make this tour its last because Iommi, who was diagnosed with cancer in late 2011 and is currently in remission, can no longer travel for extended amounts of time.

Asked if SABBATH's recording days are truly over, Tony said: "No, I don't think we've ruled anything out apart from me not wanting to tour any more on that scale, but who knows, we may do something. We haven't spoken about it. That's another thing — we haven't talked about anything, really, that's to do with what's going to happen afterwards. But I'm sure something can happen somewhere."

Iommi and Butler haven't announced any specific post-SABBATH plans yet, but Osbourne is reportedly at work on a new album, and already has a pair of solo shows scheduled for this summer.