Tony Iommi on the Awkward Making of Black Sabbath’s 13

Tony Iommi has described the making of Black Sabbath’s 2013 album 13 as “awkward,” in an interview with Planet Rock. The record featured Iommi, Ozzy Osbourne and Geezer Butler, with Bill Ward absent after negotiations over his contract broke down. Rick Rubin produced.

According to Iommi, Rubin’s communication style shaped the sessions. “Rick wouldn’t talk to the others,” he said. “He talked to me and I’d have to tell them. I don’t know what happened there.” Iommi recalled one episode in Los Angeles when Rubin called on a Friday and asked him to write a song in the vein of “Planet Caravan” for Monday. The rest of the band knew nothing about it. When they arrived, Rubin announced they would record the new song. Butler, Iommi said, did not know what it was or what key it was in. “We ended up putting it down,” Iommi said. “But it was such an awkward situation.”

13 was a commercial success, reaching Number One in both the US and UK. Its reception inside the band has been more ambivalent. Ozzy Osbourne said in 2022 that he “didn’t really get a charge” from the album and called it “like stepping back in time, but it wasn’t a glorious period.” Geezer Butler described it as “a weird experience,” adding that Rubin told them to forget they were a heavy metal band and to imagine the record as a follow-up to Black Sabbath’s first album.