Black Sabbath will be among a handful of honorees who will receive Lifetime Achievement Grammy Awards.
Variety reports that the highly influential metal act will join eorge Clinton & Parliament-Funkadelic, Billy Eckstine, Donny Hathaway, Julio Iglesias, Sam & Dave and Dionne Warwick in receiving the awards. The ceremony to present these awards will be different from the traditional GRAMMYs show which was announced a few weeks back.
The presentation celebrating the honorees, which includes a ceremony and live concert will take place on May 11, 2019, in Los Angeles, California.
Of course, with Black Sabbath, this opens up a can of worms. Will Bill Ward be present at the award ceremony? Ward sat out of the Black Sabbath reunion calling the contract he received unsignable, and insinuated it was a money issue. Additionally, he and Ozzy were just not getting along.
Iommi and bassist Geezer Butler seemed to remain on good terms with Ward, as the trio accepted a Lifetime Achievement Award together a few years back, but since have traded barbs in the press.
In a recent interview, Iommi said the feud was "over nothing" and that Ward didn't fully realize "how hard [touring] would have been on him." This fight goes back to 2015, when Ward and Black Sabbath were publicly feuding over why Ward wasn't going to be a part of the band's final tour.
Ward addressed Iommi's comments in a rather lengthy statement. Ward says Iommi's statement that Ward doesn't realize how hard touring will be is "undermining," says that his health was fine and he never once needed a backup drummer to take his place whilst in the reunited Sabbath due to his allegedly poor health.
Ward also addresses Iommi's statement that the fight was over nothing, claiming that by "saying it was nothing, dishonours the credibility of our fans, and insults the very heart of what we all clung to, Black Sabbath."
