Black Sabbath’s Bill Ward Deserves His Overdue Final Bow

Original Black Sabbath drummer Bill Ward will take one final, long-deserved bow with Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and Ozzy Osbourne at the Back To The Beginning concert, taking place July 5 at Villa Park in Birmingham.

Ward was excluded from Black Sabbath‘s touring and recording for the last few years of their career, which included the band’s final album, 2013’s 13. But later this week, Sabbath’s founding drummer will have his chance to play one final gig with heavy metal’s most influential band.

I interviewed Tony Iommi in 2003 for the liner notes of the Black Sabbath box set, Black Box: The Complete Original Black Sabbath 1970-1978. I was asking him about his relationships with the other founding members of Black Sabbath. For years, Iommi famously prioritized the band over all else and could often be a brutal leader, as evidenced by the revolving door lineup that plagued the group and confused fans for much of the ‘80s and ‘90s.

But by 2003, he changed his priorities somewhat. He said that he now valued his personal relationships with Ozzy, Geezer and Bill more than anything else. “That is very important,” he said. “It’s good now, ‘cause we can call each other anytime.”

Every rock fan knows that bands, like families, are complicated organisms. You can love someone dearly and vehemently disagree with them. And that’s before you get lawyers and managers involved. In 2009, Ozzy sued Tony for partial ownership of the Black Sabbath name (they settled the following year). At around the same time, Iommi and Butler reunited with the early ‘80s lineup of Sabbath – including singer Ronnie James Dio and drummer Vinnie Appice – as Heaven & Hell.

But none of those things affected the band as much as their schism with Bill Ward.

Black Sabbath’s Reunions and the Trouble With Bill Ward

Ward had been excluded from the band’s initial reunion concerts for the Ozzfest tour in 1997. Mike Bordin from Faith No More (Ozzy’s drummer at the time) was recruited for those shows.

In Ozzy’s memoirs, I Am Ozzy, he claimed, “I honestly don’t know why we couldn’t get Bill to play those first few shows. But I was told he’d had a lot of health issues, including a bad case of agoraphobia.”

READ MORE: Black Sabbath Albums Ranked From Worst to Best

In Iron Man: My Journey Through Heaven & Hell with Black Sabbath, Tony Iommi noted that Sharon Osbourne was calling the shots for Sabbath.

“I think she was under the impression that Bill would want to go through lawyers and therefore it would be hard work involving him as well, so she didn’t ask him.”

Similarly, Geezer wrote in Into The Void: From Birth To Black Sabbath and Beyond, “I think Sharon just needed a quick yes-or-no answer, which she thought she was unlikely to get from Bill.”

Happily, Bill Ward returned to the band for two victorious hometown concerts at the NEC Arena right outside of Birmingham.

In the subsequent years, Ozzy, Tony, Geezer, and Bill toured a few times (mostly on Ozzfests) over the next few years, and they even attempted to record a new album with producer Rick Rubin in 2001, which didn’t work out.

Black Sabbath, “Scary Dreams”

Another Reunion Attempt

Ten years later, they announced that they were giving it another shot — again with Rubin — at a much-publicized press conference.

But a few months later, Ward posted to his website that, “I would love nothing more than to be able to proceed with the Black Sabbath album and tour. However, I am unable to continue unless a ‘signable’ contract is drawn up; a contract that reflects some dignity and respect toward me as an original member of the band.”

Brad Wilk from Rage Against The Machine and Audioslave was the drummer on eventual album 13, which topped the charts all over the world. Tommy Clufetos, from Ozzy’s band, was recruited to be their touring drummer.

Mike Bordin, Brad Wilk, Vinnie Appice (who filled in for Ward on some 1998 dates) and Tommy Clufetos all deserve respect for their contributions.

But with all due respect, Bill Ward’s unconventional style is wildly distinctive and was essential to the band’s sound.

Would it have been cool if John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison did a Beatles reunion tour in the ‘70s without Ringo Starr? No. Ringo might not have been the best drummer from a technical standpoint, but he was the perfect drummer for the Beatles. They would not have sounded the same with any other drummer.

The same is true for Bill and Sabbath. Besides that: while Sabbath’s final tours were great, something just felt wrong about Bill’s exclusion.

Together Again… At Last!

It doesn’t really matter anymore what the issues were that kept Bill and Sabbath apart, or whose story you want to believe. This weekend, the four guys will take the stage one more time… and I think this time, this really will be “it.”

How will their performance measure up to the Sabbath of the ‘70s, or even the Sabbath of 1998, 2001, or 2017?

Ozzy has struggled with several health issues in recent years, even canceling his “final” solo tour. As he recently told The Guardian, “I may be sitting down, but the point is I’ll be there, and I’ll do the best I can. So all I can do is turn up.”

A lot of the heavy lifting of the event may be handled by the other artists on the lineup, including Metallica, Slayer, Pantera, Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins, and musical director Tom Morello of Rage Against The Machine.

The show isn’t so much an event to prove that Black Sabbath are as powerful as they’ve ever been; it’s to prove how powerful their influence has been, and still is. It’s really more of a celebration and a wave goodbye.

It’s not a stretch to say that the music that we all love — heavy metal — might not have existed if not for Black Sabbath.

July 5 will be a day to honor that, and to thank them, and to help them raise funds for Cure Parkinson’s, Birmingham Children’s Hospital, and Acorn Children’s Hospice, a Children’s Hospice supported by Aston Villa.

Black Sabbath’s place in history was solidified decades ago. But it’s cool that they are saying one last goodbye and including the four guys who created this music together will be play one final time.