It's Official: BLACK SABBATH To Play This Year's OZZFEST

BLACK SABBATH will reunite for the first time since 2001 for Ozzfest 2004, which begins July 10 in Hartford, Conn., a spokeswoman for the annual road show told Reuters on Tuesday (May 18).

Ozzfest co-founder and headliner Ozzy Osbourne will be joined by guitarist Tony Iommi and bass player Geezer Butler. But original drummer Bill Ward will be replaced by Mike Bordin, who backs Osbourne in his solo band.

Back in late March, BLACK SABBATH guitarist Tony Iommi told Launch Radio Networks that a SABBATH reunion at this year's Ozzfest was not out of the question. "I've heard that rumor as well, and there is negotiations at the moment," Iommi said. "As yet, we've not reached a settlement, but there is talk about it. I think it's great, and I would've liked to have done it last year and the year before, you know, but we didn't."

BLACK SABBATH, with Ward on board, last played live during the 2001 version of Ozzfest.

In a recent issue of the U.K.'s Rhythm magazine, Bordin spoke about filling in for his "hero" Bill Ward for a number of BLACK SABBATH dates several years ago.

"I've been really, really into music since I was about eight years old, but when I first heard a BLACK SABBATH record, that was it — there was nothing else," Bordin said.

"The very next week, on April 6, 1974, I saw them on TV on the 'California Jam'. It was the most compelling, the most exciting, the most physical thing that I had ever seen — it was a revelation. I remember Bill as this big, crazy, giant hairy dude with red tights and no shirt. By the middle of the first song, you couldn't see him — it was just hair and flailing arms.

"When you look at Bill's style of playing, you have to look at it in the context of the giants around him. Geezer, Tony and Ozzy are like forces of nature, and to balance in between them and not be squished, you have to be a giant as well.

"Bill's playing is phenomenally individual and completely unique — nobody can play those songs like him. I was raised on BLACK SABBATH music and it was hugely important to me even before I started playing drums.

"Bill Ward is a prince of a human being and I feel honored to have had a chance to play in BLACK SABBATH with Ozzy, Tony and Geezer. It was my tribute to the man that wasn't onstage, but should have been…"