Ozzy Osbourne had a bit of a health scare earlier this year, and perhaps it's forcing him to look at life a little differently. In a new interview with he now expresses regret that drummer Bill Ward was not a part of the final Black Sabbath reunion shows.
In 2011, Black Sabbath announced they would be reuniting for a new album and tour. Not too long after, Bill Ward bowed out of the reunion citing financial reasons. The band went on without him, recording a new album and hitting the road and generally doing fine without him.
However, frontman Ozzy Osbourne seemed to take a swipe at Bill any chance he got during interviews. He's said that Bill was too fat to play in one interview, that he showed up "terribly out of shape" in another interview, and in general just couldn't shut up about what a fatty Ward allegedly was.
Then, once the promo cycle was wrapping up and talk began of a new album, Ozzy said he hoped Bill Ward "gets his stuff together" before the final Sabbath album. Ward noted he would do it if Ozzy apologized and Ozzy responded by doing the exact opposite.
That was all about three or four years ago, so maybe Ozzy's feelings have changed? Ozzy tells Kerrang!:
“I didn’t like the fact that [original Sabbath drummer] Bill Ward wasn’t there, for a start. People put that down to me, but it wasn’t me, honestly. We [Sabbath] 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. Tommy [Clufetos, Ozzy’s drummer, who played with Sabbath on their farewell tour] 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.”
To me, this just sounds like talk. Obviously, the big hold up for Ward was money and that's something I can't imagine Ozzy or "his team" would agree on.
