BLACK SABBATH's GEEZER BUTLER Apologizes To BILL WARD

January 28, 2016

BLACK SABBATH bassist Geezer Butler has apologized to Bill Ward for saying the band's founding drummer was invited to take part in SABBATH's final show.

Earlier this week, Geezer Butler told Radio.com that Ward was offered an opportunity to join the band for the final U.S. concert of its farewell tour, but that Ward declined because he wanted to do either the whole tour or nothing at all. But Ward fired back, saying he "never received an offer" to play the last SABBATH concert in the States, which is scheduled to take place on September 16 in Phoenix.

Now Butler has tweeted: "It appears Bill Ward was never invited to do a last show – my mistake. Sorry @billwarddrums."

The members of SABBATH have maintained all along that Ward — who has sat out the band's reunion since early 2012 — was physically incapable of playing a full tour, an assertion that Ward has denied. Asked about the possibility of Ward joining the band for at least a few songs in Phoenix, Butler told Radio.com: "It's been mentioned to him. But he doesn't want to do it. He wants to do the whole tour or nothing. We'd love him to come on at the very last gig and be part of the whole thing, but he didn't want to do that."

SABBATH singer Ozzy Osbourne added: "If he's there, he's welcome [to play]."

Ozzy's solo drummer, Tommy Clufetos, is again handling the drums on the farewell tour, which kicked off last week.

Ward issued a statement after Butler's comments appeared online, saying: "I never received an offer to play the final show of 'The End' tour with BLACK SABBATH. When the tour was confirmed, my management reached out to the BLACK SABBATH management to inquire as to whether or not they would like to discuss my participation in the tour. We were told there was no interest. That is last conversation we had with them regarding the tour."

Ward added: "I will say that I wouldn't want to play only one gig when I am completely capable of touring. I would not validate their untrue statements about my health by playing one only gig. Also, I wouldn't want to show up for only some of our fans and not for all our fans when I could have played multiple shows."

Ozzy told The Pulse Of Radio during SABBATH's 2013 reunion tour that Ward was not in shape to participate. "Bill Ward has got the most physically demanding job of the lot of us, 'cause he's the timekeeper," he said. "I don't think personally he had the chops to pull it off, you know. The saddest thing is that he needed to own up to that, and we could have worked around it, whether we had a drummer on the side with him or something."

Butler told Classic Rock Revisited earlier in the month about why SABBATH was unable to come to terms with Ward in order for the drummer to participate in the group's farewell tour, saying: "It's beyond the money thing. It is not really anything to do with that. It is whether he's capable of touring or not. He hasn't been well for a long time. He's had a couple of heart attacks."

Ward has insisted that his health is good and that he has been capable of performing, but was not offered a "signable" contract by SABBATH.

Find more on Black sabbath
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • reddit
  • email

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).