Like most things that happen with Sabbath, it happened all of a sudden. I was intending on doing some recording, but out of the blue, Sharon called up and said she wanted us to do these gigs with Ozzy. I said that if everybody else was up to it then I would love to do it.

I still think the best metal bands have a blues feel. The first Black Sabbath album is kind of a bludgeoning of blues. Deep Purple also started out as a blues band.

Black Sabbath was written on bass: I just walked into the studio and went, bah, bah, bah, and everybody joined in and we just did it.

I was so frustrated in Sabbath after the last few albums. I just didn't like the musical direction Sabbath was going in.

I never picked a bass up before Sabbath started.

I never try and sound like Sabbath.

To me, Sabbath was always JUSt a really heavy blues band. That s all we were. We just took those blues roots and made them heavier.

Toward the later days of Sabbath, instead of going in and knocking out what songs we did in rehearsal, we would polish them to death.

To do the Ozzfest again would be great. I'd like to finish with a final Sabbath album. You always feel that it is still a challenge.

Sabbath - a weekly festival having its origin in the fact that God made the world in six days and was arrested on the seventh.

Then as I got older, I always gravitated towards the hard stuff, Born To Be Wild, then Black Sabbath.