Black Sabbath drummer Bill Ward appeared alongside bandmates Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler at an awards ceremony on May 21st – but frontman Ozzy Osbourne wasn’t present.
It’s the first time Ward has lined up alongside his bandmates since their planned reunion collapsed in 2012, leading most recently to a public war of words between him and the singer.
Last month Ward appeared to close the door on a return to Sabbath for their final album and tour after Ozzy rejected his demand for an apology over statements made about his health.
In London he accepted an Ivor Novello Lifetime Achievement Award, presented by Queen’s Brian May. Ward said, “It’s been a good 40 years – at least, I think it has.”
Asked how it felt to spend time with his old colleges again he admitted he’d been “very uncomfortable” because of their continued activity without him. But he added, “I hope that can change.”
At the ceremony, Iommi reiterated Sabbath’s plan to retire following their 2016 farewell project, saying: “We can’t just keep going round like we used to.” He later posted a picture of the trio on Facebook and wrote, “I’m honored that Black Sabbath received a lifetime achievement award at the Ivor Novello BASCA awards. Myself, Geezer and Bill were here in London to accept the award.”
additional source: classicrock.teamrock.com
5 Responses
this is encouraging. I’m glad this picture went public before Sharon could secretly replace bill with ozzy.
and ozzy was where????i guess sharon did not get out his leash and take him for his walk,unreal,these folks should try working for a living,no one is giving out lifetime achievement awards to the guy or gal,that works in a factory or elsewere for most of there lives,and then drops dead thereafter,and the least ozzy had to do was show up for the bullshit award,but noooo he could not even do that,these guys should be walking around life with a smile plastered on there face from sun up to sun down,they should try working for a living getting paid shit,and no one kissing there ass for everything they do,then mabye the would act like adults
Bill and Ozzy need to get together face to face and settle this once and for all, either with words or fists (My money is on Bill if it’s the latter) because this crap has gone on long enough already.
I read that this summer, Sabbath are planning to reissue the first eight albums on vinyl, all with the original LP artwork and layout as well as having a CD of the music included with each vinyl album. As big of a Black Sabbath freak as I am, that’s very cool news. For anyone else that loves classic Sabbath as much as me, check a guy on YouTube named Phil Jakes. He has around 200 videos of him playing classic metal and classic rock fingerstyle on acoustic guitar. He has a ton of Sabbath songs covered. In fact, he’s recorded an entire album of Sabbath covers. He also plays UFO, Judas Priest, Led Zeppelin and many, many more. His version of Sabbath’s “Spiral Architect” alone is brilliant.
Dana, I know you’re a huge Judas Priest fan, so you might like the cool version of “Solar Angels” Phil Jakes does. And yes, Eddie, he does a lot of UFO, including “Love To Love”. I found his YouTube channel by accident and I’m glad I did. Some of his videos are better quality than others, but even the lower quality ones are cool. He plays the chord progressions and the vocal melodies of the songs at the same time. He has two versions of “Spiral Architect” but the better one is the one with the all black background behind him. It’s very cool, so check it out if you have time to.
https://youtu.be/QmLEpwlXdFs
Here’s the YouTube link to the video of the Sabbath cover I was talking about. This guy is very talented.