Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi clarified the status of the band's new album in an interview with The Blairing Out With Eric Blair Show. Although it has been reported that the band has recorded 15 songs, Iommi explained, "That's wrong . . . We've written 15 songs and we've played them all. But now, at the moment, we're recording them. We recorded them at my house first, in England, just as demos, but now we're doing them for real. So we're about six tracks in now, at the moment."

• Iommi, Ozzy Osbourne and bassist Geezer Butler are recording their first album together under the Sabbath name since 1978's Never Say Die.
• The drums on the disc are being handled by Tommy Clufetos, who has replaced founding drummer Bill Ward due to a contractual dispute between Ward and the rest of the group.
• Asked if there is any chance of Ward rejoining the band, Iommi said, "We'll always have a heart for Bill, but I think it's gone past that now, because it's gone on so long that I don't see that happening at the moment. Maybe at some point we might (play together again)."
• Meanwhile, Sabbath has announced an Australian tour for next April and has also revealed that it will headline the first-ever Japanese version of Ozzfest on May 11th and 12, with Slipknot also on the bill.
• Iommi told us a while back how difficult it is for Sabbath to prepare a set list: "There are so many tracks that it's really difficult what to pick, because there's always somebody gonna go, 'Oh, why didn't you play that one? Why didn't you play this?' you know. And there's only a limited time you can play as well, so you've gotta work out a set that everybody wants to do without upsetting the people that say, 'Oh, I wanted to hear this. I wanted to hear that,' you know? But you've gotta drop some to put new ones in, and it's hard."

SIDE NOTES: Iommi was interviewed by Blairing Out at the Ronnie James Dio Stand Up And Shout Cancer Fund's second awards gala, where he was honored with the "King of Rock 'n' Roll Award." Speaking about the fund in light of his own recent cancer scare, Iommi said, "Well, I'm a survivor up until now. I'm still very new to it. It's great that there's somebody doing something about it and trying to get rid of this awful disease. You can't praise it enough. Things like this is what is needed to make people aware of what is going on."

CHECK IT OUT: Watch Sabbath's full concert at the Download Festival in the U.K. earlier this year:

Black Sabbath's Tony Iommi On Putting Together A Set List

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