OZZY OSBOURNE, METALLICA Rumored For Sweden's HULTSFRED FESTIVAL

According to an article in the Dec. 29, 2006 edition of the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, OZZY OSBOURNE and METALLICA are strongly rumored to have been booked for this year's Hultsfred Festival, which is scheduled to take place June 14-16 in Hultsfred, Sweden. The first official artist confirmations are expected to be announced on January 22.

Osbourne's wife/manager Sharon Osbourne revealed during an appearance on the "Dr. Phil" show on Dec. 14 that Ozzy is "getting ready to tour next April" in support of his new solo album.

Osbourne was previously said to be working on two brand new studio CDs. The first album is tentatively set for release this spring. Most of the music was recorded before Ozzfest in May 2006 with Mike Bordin (drums),Rob "Blasko" Nicholson (bass) and Zakk Wylde (guitar). Wylde announced last fall that he had to cancel three tour dates in October with his band BLACK LABEL SOCIETY to finish up obligations in the studio in connection with the new album. The second effort will be the soundtrack to Ozzy's musical about controversial Russian politician Grigory Rasputin. The album will be released first, and then the play will debut on Broadway or as a touring show according to Osbourne.

In a 2006 interview, Ozzy said, "We wrote a song called 'Rasputin' (for the 1995 'Ozzmosis' album),but then it never got used, you know, and then every now and again I'd try to find this tape of songs. We wrote a bunch of songs, and I put this tape on and thought, 'You know what? That would be a great musical.' It kind of grew on its own. It's the traditional 'Fiddler on the Roof'-type of music, plus the kind of BEATLES-y kind of influence. There's this wonderful song that goes, 'How dark it is before the dawn, the day begins, a child is born.' It's beautiful. I'm really happy about it. I hope the rest of the world is. I spent 10 years of my f—king life in this thing."

Launch Radio Networks reported in early December that METALLICA has written about 25 songs for its ninth studio effort and is now concentrating on trimming that list to one album's worth of material, which it will begin recording later this month. Ulrich told Launch on December 5 that the band's summer European tour, on which METALLICA played its classic 1986 album "Master of Puppets" in its entirety, paved the way for the sound of the new album. "What I hear sounds very lively, very spunky, got a lot of energy," he said. "I think that the shows we played over the summer, we were definitely leaner and kind of in better shape than we've been in a long time. I mean, having to deliver 'Master of Puppets' for three months this summer definitely revitalized some of that stuff in us, and it's been kind of fun having that in the back of our mind as we've been going through this process. I don't know what else to say. It's a little early to put it into a one-sentence soundbite on Blabbermouth, if you know what I mean."

Referring to the controversial, low-fi production on 2003's "St. Anger", Ulrich said that he's "taken the drums out of the cardboard boxes" this time, and that lead guitarist Kirk Hammett will lay down guitar solos on this record.

The new disc will be produced by Rick Rubin and is expected out by late 2007.