"I can’t go out and do a two-year tour" — Tony Iommi reacts to Ozzy Osbourne’s request for Black Sabbath to reunite for a final show

Tony Iommi recently reacted to Ozzy Osbourne's wish to reunite and play a final Black Sabbath show with drummer Bill Ward. Iommi weighed in on the possibility, while talking on the SiriusXM radio program Trunk Nation with Eddie Trunk, and shared that there is no confirmation about a reunion as of now. The English musician, however, confirmed that he wouldn't be up for a long tour.

During the conversation, he said,

"I have to look at it realistically at my age. I can’t go out and do a two-year tour like we were doing before. And to put something together like the original Sabbath or this or that or the other, you’ve gotta do it a long time because of the cost of everything."

According to Iommi, it would be great if a one-off show happened where the rock band would be reunited. The band formed in 1968 played its last show in 2017. Post the split, Tony Iommi and Ozzy Osbourne have been seen performing together occasionally.

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Black Sabbath guitarist and co-founder Tony Iommi reacted to Ozzy Osbourne's plead to Bill Ward for a reunion

On an episode of The Madhouse Chronicles, earlier this month, Ozzy Osbourne shared his desire for a reunion of his rock band Black Sabbath. Osbourne added that he would be eager to have one last show and pleaded to Bill Ward to be a part of it. In the reunion of the band that happened in November 2011, Ward was a part of it. However, in 2012, he exited the event citing an "unreasonable contract".

While Ward didn't respond to the request, Tony Iommi has reacted to it. In a recent interview, he said that while many people believe that the band would now only play together for money, that wasn't the reality for them. He also added:

"That’d be a nice thing to actually do, but whether it happens will be another thing. But we’ll see. I mean, who knows?"

The musician further stated that he wouldn't commit to a lengthy tour, keeping in mind his current age. According to Iommi, presently, it is not possible to go on a tour covering a year or two.

Earlier this year, Sharon Osbourne, Ozzy's wife revealed to journalist Jane Moore that he was planning to do two more shows before his permanent retirement from doing live shows. She added how Ozzy wanted to say goodbye to his fans through his last shows. She additionally said,

"His voice is still absolutely perfect. And all the time he has been off he still does his singing lessons. Even if you don’t like his music, you can’t not like Ozzy."

Just at the beginning of this month, on his podcast The Madhouse Chronicles, Ozzy Osbourne spoke about the best guitarist he had played with in his entire life, and according to him, it had to be Tony Iommi.

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Iommi had also spoken about the re-discovery of a 1983 album by the band

In the recent conversation on SiriusXM's Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk, he further expressed his take on how fans recently are giving so much attention to the 1983 album Born Again. This was one of the last albums which had Bill Ward as the drummer for the band. Iommi added:

"Yeah, it's funny. That does happen. And it's the same as the Tony Martin stuff as well. People didn't know of it at the time, and then it's word of mouth that gets around and the Internet."

Tony Iommi also collaborated with Armenian-American musician Serj Tankian for an album called Deconstruction, which was released in December 2023. The proceeds were supposed to make it to the Armenia Fund’s Artsakh Refugee Initiative.

According to NME, Tankian then spoke about this collaboration and said that it was a "dream come true".

Fans have to now wait to see if a possible reunion of the rock band which was also a pioneer in heavy metal music, is going to take place.