Gary Graff of Billboard reports:
The drummer issues on Black Sabbath’s new album, 13, apparently ran deeper than co-founder Bill Ward’s decision to drop out of the reunion over what he said were contractual issues.
Tommy Clufetos, the drummer in Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne’s own band, was targeted to take over the stool, but producer Rick Rubin ultimately selected Rage Against The Machine’s Brad Wilk — which Osbourne tells Billboard left him “pissed off.”
“The way it was dealt with wasn’t very fair on Tommy. Rick Rubin just didn’t want to work with him for reasons I don’t know. He’s a great drummer, and he’s been with me for awhile now and I just felt that nobody discussed the decision about Brad to me, and it’s not fair to Tommy. Tommy was promised the album… It’s not because he was my drummer and my ego wanted him. It was just the fact the way it was dealt with. It just got me a bit, it got me pissed off about it. It’s alright now. He’s a great drummer. I don’t know what the problem was.”
Osbourne does, however, feel that Wilk “did a good job. I don’t have anything bad to say. He’s a very nice guy.”
Via e-mail, Rubin explained that “Brad is a muscular drummer with great feel and understands the groovy nature of their music — Rage Against the Machine is a groovy rock band, not a metal band — so it was worth a try. When they played together the first time, it was obvious he would do a great job in the seat Bill left vacated. Bill’s a great drummer and I’m sure it would have been an amazing album with him. We all wanted him to participate.”
Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith — who’s played on Rubin-produced sets by the Dixie Chicks, Kid Rock, the Avett Brothers, Jake Bugg and the upcoming solo debut by Sugarland’s Jennifer Nettles — says he was also hoping for a shot on “13.”
“When Rick didn’t call me for the Black Sabbath thing, I gave him a hard time about it,” Smith says. “I was like, ‘Come on!’ He’s like, ‘No, I got Brad Wilk from Rage playing on that.’ I had to tell Brad I was a little jealous, a little drummer envy that he was playing with Sabbath. But I heard the record. It’s really good, fuckin’ heavy as fuck. Brad did a great job, I have to say. He did a great job. The band’s swingin’.”
source: billboard.com
16 Responses
Everyone shut up about Bill Ward already!!!! Yes, he’s a gentleman, but he wasn’t man enough to admit in public that he can’t play at that level anymore! Instead he had to put out a lame “un-signable contract” excuse…
And I’m glad that Brad Wilk played on this album instead of Tommy Clufetos. Any of the footage I’ve seen of them playing with Tommy, he’s the one dragging the bands tempo down!
Ward sucked on the last Sabbath tour. I saw it twice. Dio ran him off before he could flame out on his incarnation hiring Appice to road it out. He’s another Peter Criss 2013. Smith would have been amazing.
Ill be the first to admit that I didn’t see this as a reunion without bill ward.but now that I have played the album multiple times I have to say its awesome and I don’t even notice bill missing.in fact the moment I heard ozzys voice and iommi s riff age together It was a black sabbath album..I don’t even care about geezer…so I owe an apology to black sabbath
I’m getting tired of looking at every post about lately and seeing no bill ward=no black sabbath. Sure bill played on the classic albums and absolutely should be a part of the sabbath reunion but he’s not and I’m fine with that. I’m only 18 so I didn’t get to live the 70’s when sabbath was a Huge band but I’m just happy that I got to witness Sabbath reunite and release a tremendous come back album even if bills not on it. Bill said himself he didn’t think the money he was offered was sufficient to play for sabbath. So brad will comes in and fills bills shoes perfectly. We couldn’t ask for a better replacement and the album hit #1 on the charts taking out “bands” like lady gaga and one direction. So let’s just be happy for what we have and stop putting it down. I’d rather have this version of The Mighty Sabbath then no version at all
long live my boys in sabbath the cd kicks ass all day long don’t even give a shit about what people say as long as im rocking like the old days pass never say die rock on baby