Speculation is rising about one last Black Sabbath concert, with drummer Bill Ward revealing he’s “open-minded” to the topic of a reunion.
Back in February of 2017, the world formally said farewell to the great Black Sabbath, who performed the final show of their ‘The End’ tour in their hometown of Birmingham.
Days after their performance though, Tony Iommi noted that the band might not be over after all, explaining that he was “sure it’s not going to end like that,” and claiming that “we might do a one-off show somewhere.”
Soon, the band’s official Facebook account confirmed that the group had formally reached its end, with Iommi later explaining it was “highly unlikely” the band would play again, but didn’t explicitly rule it out.
“You can never say never, because we’ve done it,” he stated in 2018. “I would hope we could do some one-offs, but we’ll never tour the world again as we did, because it really is exhausting.”
Check out ‘Paranoid’ by Black Sabbath:
Back in May though, Ozzy Osbourne opened up about the absence of founding drummer Bill Ward in the band’s final years, noting he’d love for Ward to sit behind the kit again and help the band close the book properly.
“I didn’t like the fact that Bill Ward wasn’t there, for a start,” Ozzy explained of the final shows. “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, drummer] 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,” he added. “Maybe one day there’ll be one last gig, I don’t know.”
Now, Bill Warm himself has added fuel to the fire, noting that he hasn’t ruled out the idea either.
A quick update. pic.twitter.com/qWMSTWeCs9
— Bill Ward (@billwarddrums) July 3, 2019
Taking to Twitter recently (via Blabbermouth), Bill Ward shared a brief video in which he gave a quick update in regards to the state of speculation.
“Hi everybody. My name is Bill Ward, and I wanted to say that I love Tony, Geezer, and Ozzy very much,” Ward explained in the video.
“I’ve loved them for a long time, and I still do. And I would be very open-minded to any ideas about playing together in the future. That’s it. Love you all. Thanks.”
At this stage, the other members of Black Sabbath haven’t responded to Bill Ward’s message, but fans are undoubtedly hoping that this might result in the group getting back together for one final show at least, sending the band off in the same way that it began.
We can only hope.