Ozzy Osbourne could be forgiven if he's having a bit of déjà vu.

Black Sabbath with Ronnie James Dio.

His Black Sabbath bandmates said today that they are planning a tour early next year without him, hooking up instead with onetime Sabbath frontman Ronnie James Dio, who replaced Osbourne during two stints in the 1980s and 1990s after he was ousted for his prodigious drug abuse.

But the band--Dio and Sabbath members Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and Bill Ward--will tour as Heaven and Hell, named after the band's 1980 hit. Heaven and Hell will launch an international tour in 2007.

"The fans have been wanting to see this for years and years. Now was just the time," publicist Maureen O'Connor told the Associated Press.

But this doesn't mean Ozzy has been ousted for a third time. Ozzy's reps issued a statement saying, "There is only one Black Sabbath. Ozzy, Tony, Geezer, and Bill will be touring late next year along with [the] new Black Sabbath album. However, Ozzy wishes Tony and Ronnie much success in their project together."

Dio and Iommi have reportedly been writing songs together in England. After Dio's stint as the frontman for Sabbath in the early 1980s, he reportedly complained there were not enough photos of him in the artwork of a 1982 live album. Iommi allegedly referred to the diminutive Dio as a "little Hitler" around that time.

Dio went on to start a 1980s metal band bearing his last name, but briefly rejoined Iommi a decade later to front Sabbath, of which Iommi was the only founding member at that time.

Ozzy and his bandmates reconciled in the mid-1990s for a successful series of tours, although plans for a new album never came to fruition. After years of being snubbed, they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame earlier this year.