Despite guitarist Tony Iommi's battle with lymphoma, Black Sabbath has been making good progress with its new album. Frontman Ozzy Osbourne told Britain's New Musical Express that he, Iommi and bassist Geezer Butler have "written about 15 songs so far...You just keep on writing." Osbourne added that he expects the set, Black Sabbath's first of all-new material with Osbourne since 1978, to come out "next year -- 20013 -- is a good clue of what we'll call the album." Butler, meanwhile, said that producer Rick Rubin put the group on track early in the process, explain that, "He sat us down, put the first album on and said 'listen to this,' imagine it's 1969, you've just done that, what would you do next?' " The group -- with Detroit native Tommy Clufetos filling in for original member Bill Ward, who's so far declined to take part in the reunion because of contract issues -- played a theater show on May 19 in its home town of Birmingham, England, and will perform at the U.K.'s Download festival son Sunday (June 10). Sabbath is also playing August 3 at Lollapalooza in Chicago, but Osbourne is doing an Ozzy & Friends tour of Europe, with Butler on board, in lieu of a planned Sabbath tour that was scuttled by Iommi's health issues.