Ozzy Osbourne has told Dan Epstein of Revolver magazine (web site) that he has finally found the perfect setting for making records: the newly soundproofed guest house behind his Beverly Hills mansion, which he's outfitted with a mixing desk and a ProTools rig.

"When I made records before, I'd have to get up, get in a cab or car, go to the studio, and wait for everyone to turn up," Osbourne explained. "If you're already inspired before you leave for the studio, you're fucked by the time you get there! But now I have the luxury of working in my own home. I can play the music on my own sound system, and I can lie down in my room and watch my flat-screen TV whenever I like."

Unlike 2001's slickly produced "Down to Earth", the last album of original Ozzy material, the new disc promises to be a rawer and heavier affair. Recorded with the same band that backed Osbourne on his scattered 2006 Ozzfest dates — Zakk Wylde on guitar, Mike Bordin on drums, and former ROB ZOMBIE bassist Rob "Blasko" Nicholson — the album has no official producer, although longtime Mutt Lange protégé Kevin Churko is serving as the engineer.

"Kevin's working the machines and helping me with the songwriting," said Osbourne. "He really knows what he's doing with the ProTools, which is good because I can't work the fucking thing. I can barely work a light switch!"

"We just went in and jammed out the riffs, just like how they made 'Back in Black' and all the SABBATH record," said Wylde. "I don't need Bob Rock there to tell me what to do, like that 'Vagina Monologues' band METALLICA. When you know where you're going, you don't need to ask for fucking directions! It sounds like classic Ozzy — there's piano ballads, there's an acoustic thing, and then there's the heavy shit. From the beginning, Oz kept saying to me, 'Zakk, we need another 'No More Tears' — we've gotta piss all over that fuckin' record. This thing's gotta be able to hang with 'Diary of a Madman'!'"

"I always try to make a great album," says Osbourne. "It's not like I go in there and go, 'You know what? I've had a great run — I'm gonna do a piece of shit for my next album!' But to be perfectly truthful to you, 'Down to Earth' was just a filler album to me. It did well, and some people liked it, and I loved the ballad on it ['Dreamer']. But this album I put in the same league as 'No More Tears', 'Blizzard of Ozz', and 'Diary'. It's definitely my influence of SABBATH coming out, here and there. But then again, I would have liked to see SABBATH put out an album like this at this stage of the game."

For more on Ozzy Osbourne's new solo album, pick up the March 2007 issue of Revolver magazine, set to hit newsstands this coming Monday, January 15. More information is available at www.revolvermag.com.

Source BMM

Recently, Jon Wiederhorn from Revolver magazine has conducted an interview with Ronnie James Dio and Tony Iommi of HEAVEN AND HELL. Few excerpts are follows:

Revolver: Why didn't BLACK SABBATH drummer Bill Ward play on [the new songs that will be included on the upcoming Dio-era BLACK SABBATH anthology, "Black Sabbath: The Dio Years"]?

Dio: Bill was going to do it, but he had commitments that wouldn't allow him, in his mind, to tour. The next logical choice was Vinny, because Vinny popuated more of those albums than Bill did. Bill did the first album, and Vinny did three after that.

Revolver: The Osbourne camp issued a press release that pointed out HEAVEN AND HELL "has nothing to do with BLACK SABBATH" and that "there is only one BLACK SABBATH." Would they rather you didn't tour?

Dio: I don't know. I don't go out and petition for these things, they just sort of happen. And when they do, it doesn't mean there's been a big witches convention someplace in the dark going, "Alright, now we can put pins into Ozzy and Sharon." Because that's not the way it is at all.

Revolver: What brought you back for 1992's "Dehumanizer"?

Dio: I thought we quit way too early. Even after "Live Evil", I thought we'd do another blockbuster album and carry on for the rest of our lives. So Geezer came to me at a show in Minneapolis [in 1990, and came onstage to play "Neon Knights"]. He told me that Tony wanted to do something again, and one thing led to another.

Revolver: Was that album enjoyable to make?

Dio: Not really. It was something we had to really wring out of ourselves, but I think that's why it works. Sometimes you need that kind of tension, or else you end up making the Christmas album.

Revolver: Why did you leave again after "Dehumanizer"?

Dio: I was told in the middle of the tour that we would be opening for Ozzy in Los Angeles. And I said, "No. Sorry, I have more pride than that." A lot of bad things were being said from camp to camp, and it created this horrible schism. So by them agreeing to play the shows in L.A. with Ozzy, that, to me, spelled out reunion. And that obviously meant the doom of that particular project.

Revolver: Can we expect a HEAVEN AND HELL album in the future?

Dio: Well, I'm not going to give up the DIO band. And I think touring for a year with this band will be long enough. But I would hope that we'll still be speaking to each other after that and that some other plans might be able to be made.

Iommi: At this point, nothing is written in stone. Anything could happen.

Revolver's entire interview with HEAVEN AND HELL can be found in the magazine's March 2007 issue, which is set to hit newsstands this coming Monday, January 15. More information is available at www.revolvermag.com.

Source BBM

Billboard reports today that The death of Atlantic Records co-founder Ahmet Ertegun in December put the kabosh on a new Honeydrippers album that Robert Plant planned to record this year.

Plant says he and Ertegun began talking about the project -- a followup to the platinum 1984 EP ''Volume One,'' which featured Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck and Nile Rodgers, among others -- after Plant was part of a tribute to Ertegun last June at the 40th annual Montreux Jazz Festival.

''We agreed to carry on and create a Honeydrippers thing a little bit later on in 2007,'' says Plant. ''He was suggesting material and stuff like that. I knew he was thrilled with the idea of it, and so was I.''

But Plant decided there was no reason to continue the project without Ertegun's involvement. ''I would only do it because I wanted the whole rapport with him and his history,'' Plant says.

The former Led Zeppelin frontman recently did some writing in Wales with his band, Strange Sensation, but he's also been recording in the United States with Alison Krauss and T-Bone Burnett.

''It's amazing. It's otherworldly,'' Plant says of the latter, which also includes guitarist Marc Ribot. ''I don't really know how to describe it. ... It's just very unique and very strong and very emotive.''

Plant would not predict when either project will be released but did say, ''It obviously is not gonna be very long.''

Source Billboard