Two years on from the final performance of Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne has hinted that the group might have another one left in them, noting he hopes to see Bill Ward behind the kit once again.
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 Black Sabbath’s ‘Sweet Leaf’:
However, any hopes of a reunion seemed almost dashed last year, when frontman Ozzy Osbourne noted in October that he “wasn’t allowed to have fun” while on Black Sabbath’s final tour, seemingly indicating he wouldn’t want to return to the stage with the band again.
“It’s not allowed to have fucking fun with Sabbath,” he revealed to Rolling Stone. “It’s too serious. Tony [Iommi] was trying to have a go at me, saying, ‘Don’t fucking talk over my solos.’”
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“I go, ‘OK, are you sure? ‘Cause most of the fucking song is solos. The intro to the song is fuckin’ five minutes and then I sing for about two seconds and then it’s another one.’”
However, it appears that Ozzy Osbourne might indeed have softened in his views to Black Sabbath, explaining to Kerrang! that he would like to see one final show with Bill Ward on the drums.
While drummer Bill Ward helped found Black Sabbath back in 1968 when they were still known as Earth, Ward was absent from the group’s final years, citing a contractual dispute between members.
While Rage Against The Machine’s Brad Wilk sat behind the kit for Sabbath’s final album, 13, Tommy Clufetos stepped up to perform percussion duties on their final tour.
Now, despite Ward stating he had “lost a friend” in Osbourne due to their disputes, Ozzy seems prepared to put the past behind him.
Check out Black Sabbath’s ‘War Pigs’:
Speaking to Kerrang!, Ozzy Osbourne was asked about his statement regarding Black Sabbath’s final tour, and asked what it was that he specifically didn’t like about this tour.
“I didn’t like the fact that Bill Ward wasn’t there, for a start,” he began. “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] 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.”
While Bill Ward and other Black Sabbath members are yet to respond to Ozzy’s comments, it does make us wonder whether or not the heavy metal pioneers might indeed hit the stage at some point again in the future.
Check out ‘Paranoid’ by Black Sabbath:
