Music

Bill Ward officially out of upcoming Black Sabbath reunion

by Tyler Munro

After four months of money disputes and he said/she said’s, Bill Ward announced in a statement yesterday that he’s officially out of Black Sabbath’s upcoming reunion.

In the statement, which you can and should read in full over at his website, Ward outlines the circumstances that led to the dispute in the first place. Among them, he says, that he was only originally offered the opportunity to participate “minimally” in the band’s first gig at Download 2012.

“I believe I’d been offered no more than three songs to play while another drummer presumably played the rest of the show with Black Sabbath,” he says. “I was not willing to participate in that offer. I was not prepared to watch another drummer play a Sabbath set, while I was to play only three songs.”

He goes onto say that he was offered the “chance” to play a free gig “and see how it goes” in Birmingham.

“Playing for free would not have been a problem for me,” he says. “But ‘seeing how the first show goes’ left an element of risk which could have affected Download.”

“My ideal thought was to play in full the Birmingham show, in full Download, and in full Lollapalooza,” he continues.

Regardless of how everything went down, it’s a sad situation for all parties involved, especially those who’ve already invested huge chunks of cash to see heavy metal’s first born band take the stage once more. Plans of a full tour were put on hold when Tony Iommi’s health regressed back in February, but Sabbath is still planning to play Download and record a new album.