Tony Iommi has explained why he rejected the chance to record a further Black Sabbath album featuring the band's original line-up. The guitarist told Classic Rock that producer Andrew Watt, who worked on Ozzy Osbourne's final two solo records, had approached him keenly about the idea, but Iommi felt he lacked understanding of what it was really like working with the original members, including drummer Bill Ward, and that he had no appetite for simply following up 2013's '13' with another album.

'13', the band's nineteenth and final studio album, featured Iommi, Osbourne and Geezer Butler alongside session drummer Brad Wilk, and topped both the UK and US charts while winning a Grammy for Best Metal Performance. Although Osbourne once suggested a further album might follow, he later said in 2015 that the idea had been dropped in favour of a farewell tour, given the years it would take to make. The original line-up eventually reunited for one last time at the 'Back To The Beginning' show in Birmingham in 2025, just weeks before Osbourne's death in July that year at the age of 76.