Original Black Sabbath drummer, Bill Ward, has posted the following message on his Facebook page in response to a recent story posted about singer, Ozzy Osbourne, stating that he sad about the percussionist’s absence, on the band’s farewell tour.
Ward writes:
“Ozzy has never reached out since January 26/27 2012 when he called to see when I would be arriving in the UK to join rehearsals for the 13 CD. Since that last phone call, he has never reached out to me, and I have not reached out to him.
Ozzy [says] I’m sad that Bill never came through. Ozzy needs to look to those who stopped me from coming through. The contract was impossible to sign; the group rhetoric of 2012, 2013 and throughout, was fault-finding, condemning and full of dishonest evaluations of me as a person, including my so-called health issues. Had I signed the contract, I suspect I wouldn’t have been labeled as having poor health or having all the other judgmental character references.
As a reminder, in September 2015, we asked a Sabbath representative if there could be an opening to play with the band again. Their representative answered “no.” It’s hard to come through when you receive a “no.”
I love all our Sabbath fans throughout the world, and to toss around ideas that I might play the Birmingham shows, is both emotionally heartbreaking for me and spiteful. I think the Sabbath fans who have loved the original band have gone through enough in terms of disappointment and sadness. For me to play Birmingham only, would, I feel, be discriminating and elitist towards our other fans all over the world. I could never be discriminating or elitist to our fans. It’s been heartbreaking enough not to record and tour and it’ll be heartbreaking not to play to the Birmingham fans.
Please know the prevailing circumstances are not by my design. This is not what I would have wanted or what I have chosen. Had any of you had to choose to sign a contract which undermined and devalued you, I think most of you with some dignity and self-respect would have walked away too. My absence at the current shows and the future Birmingham shows reflects an undeniable and unseen misadventure that my accusers won’t bear. It’s called selfishness and self-centeredness; dishonesty and disloyalty. These are the culprits of Sabbath’s original line-up’s demise.
–Bill”
12 Responses
Awesome. You couldn’t pay me to see Sabbath without all 4 originals. I hate Sharron too. She’s evil and maniacal.
I was not planning but some friends asked me to take their son and offered me a ticket. I will however,enjoy seeing RIVAL SONS. Sad,how money can change people. When is enough enough??
happy to see bill ward stick to his guns.i will crank up the Sabbath with bill on my I phone.went to see Sabbath at the garden in ny,great short show bout an hour n 40 minutes.short set list,not sure bill ward was the problem,maybe ozzy???no Sabbath bloody Sabbath,shame.love me some bill ward on the drums.dont ever cave bill,not to ozzy/ sharon
Though there is really no such thing as an “impossible to sign” contract, I respect his choice to stay true to his terms and not sign because it doesn’t meet them.
I have Ward One on cassette, brilliant album. Truly sad, the ‘drama’ in the Sabbath camp, shouldn’t have come to what it has. I’m not happy with how it’s playing out, but glad I saw at least three of the original band live. Saw Sabbath/Heaven & Hell in ’82 and ’07 and Oz in ’84, but I couldn’t miss out on my only chance to see at least 3/4 of Black Sabbath. Looks like it’s not going to be a complete happy ending to ‘The End’, and that unfortunately, is very sad.
I stand corrected.
On further research, I found out that there is, in fact, such a thing as an “unsignable contract”. It works pretty much the same way as the Sorting Hat at Hogwarts, and if it thinks it isn’t fair it refuses to be signed.
My bad.