The four original members of Black Sabbath might work together one final time, Ozzy Osbourne said in a recent interview. It all depends on whether drummer Bill Ward is up to the challenge.
"I hope Bill Ward can get his stuff together to do this, because one of the biggest things I'm proud of in my life was that Black Sabbath wasn't a band that was created by some business mogul in London or New York — that we were four guys who had a great idea and it worked from Record 1," Osbourne told Esquire.
Ward was supposed to join original members Osbourne, bassist Geezer Butler and guitarist Tony Iommi for last year's impressive release, 13, but the drummer pulled out over contract disputes. Osbourne went on to claim that Ward was not up to the task of playing and touring with the band, Ultimate Classic Rock reported.
The pair's friendship has been questionable ever since.
Osbourne spoke to Metal Hammer last month and announced that the band would be putting out one more album with the help of Rick Rubin, followed by a farewell tour.
"What I'm really happy about is, if this is Black Sabbath's last hurrah, then we'll have ended it on an up note rather than when I left in 1979 and everybody was fucked up on one thing or another and I was marked out as being the worst, you know," Osbourne told Esquire. "It ended on a bad note."
The album 13, also produced by Rubin, featured Rage Against the Machine drummer Brad Wilk along with the three other original members.
"Above all, this reboot shows that the genre Sabbath helped birth remains timeless, insofar as the devil remains gainfully employed on Earth, and heavyweight rock shredding still kicks ass," Rolling Stone wrote about the album.
