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It all started when Ozzy Osbourne recently made a comment that he’d love to do one final Black Sabbath show with original drummer Bill Ward. Osbourne was complimentary of drummer Tommy Clufetos for playing Black Sabbath‘s final tour, but noted that it “wasn’t really Black Sabbath because Bill wasn’t there.”
Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi then chimed in during an interview with SiriusXM’s Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk, adding: “It’d be a nice idea, but you know, you’re gonna get everybody going, ‘Oh, they’re doing it for the money, they’re doing it for this, they’re doing it for that.’ Well, it wouldn’t be, I mean, it’d be something that… it’d be a nice thing to actually do, but whether it happens will be another thing. But we’ll see. I mean, who knows?”
Then finally we’ve got Geezer Butler weighing in during a brand new interview (also) with Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk, and guess what? He’s down, but he’s also not clear if Bill Ward is down. “Of course there’s an interest [from me to do it], but there’s a big ‘but’ — you’d have to speak to Bill about it. Everybody wants to do it, [but I don’t know if Ward is] capable [of doing those songs live].” Butler later added “I’m definitely up for it, to finish the whole thing off.”
As for Ward‘s capability of playing Black Sabbath or possibly even recording a new song, Butler said: “I don’t think so. Maybe, I don’t know. I mean, the way technical things happen these days, maybe a couple of songs, but who knows? There wouldn’t be any traveling involved. We wouldn’t be actually all in the studio at the same time together. So it could be done that way — maybe.”
For those somehow unaware, Black Sabbath ended with only three-fourths of its classic lineup in tact. Vocalist Ozzy Osbourne, guitarist Tony Iommi, and bassist Geezer Butler recorded their final album 13 and embarked on a farewell tour without original drummer Bill Ward, who quit the band in 2012 due to contract disputes. 13 featured Rage Against The Machine drummer Brad Wilk, while the final shows featured Osbourne‘s solo band drummer Tommy Clufetos.
