Ozzy Osbourne says he wants Black Sabbath to do one “last gig” with ousted drummer Bill Ward

Metal veterans parted ways with sticksman in 2011

Ozzy Osbourne has admitted that he wishes Black Sabbath could have finished their recent farewell tour with founding drummer Bill Ward.

The sticksman was due to go on tour with Osbourne, guitarist Tony Iommi, and bassist Geezer Butler, when they announced a final reunion tour in 2011.

But at the time Ward cited an “unsignable” contract, and parted ways with the iconic metal band. They wrapped up their final two hometown gigs in Birmingham, in 2017.

Advertisement

But in an interview with Kerrang!, Osbourne has now said: “I didn’t like the fact that Bill Ward wasn’t there, for a start. People put that down to me, but it wasn’t me, honestly. We didn’t have the fucking time to hang around, we had to get going, but I’m sorry it didn’t work out with Bill.”

He added: “[stand in drummer] Tommy [Clufetos] did great, but the four of us started this, and it should have been the four of us ending it. Those final gigs in Birmingham were bittersweet because you think of how far we came, and how much we did, and it would have been good to have shared that together. Maybe one day there’ll be one last gig, I don’t know.”

Meanwhile, Osbourne recently announced a rescheduled run of shows for 2020, after serious illness forced him to postpone his farewell tour.

The metal icon was forced to postpone dates in the UK, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan in February after he was hospitalised with pneumonia. He then postponed all upcoming 2019 shows due to a subsequent fall.

Advertisement

But after son Jack announced that Ozzy was back to his old self, it was confirmed that he’ll hit the UK and Europe once more.

You May Also Like

Advertisement

TRENDING

Advertisement

More Stories