They chose Rage Against The Machine drummer Brad Wilk to take the stool for recording sessions after Iommi's concerns over time, dictated by his cancer treatment, prevented him from continuing talks with Ward over his contract.

Before Wilk was chosen, producer Rick Rubin put Cream icon Ginger Baker forward for the role. But Iommi tells WWeek.com: "We put a stop on. We didn't think Ginger would have been� we didn't want to go into the studio and have, um, problems.