"At the request of Bill Ward, through his attorney, so as to not give the public the wrong impression about his involvement in the current Black Sabbath lineup, we have temporarily removed Bill Ward's images from the main pages of the blacksabbath.com official website. In accordance with Bill Ward's attorney's request, we are doing so for the duration of the forthcoming shows." -- BLACK SABBATH

I feel sad to see the Sabbath reunion becoming a bit of a soap opera on the internet. It has been a very tough year for us as a band, having announced our reunion plans, only for Tony to be diagnosed with lymphoma, leaving us no choice but to postpone the proposed Sabbath tour, and then for Bill to go public on his site about an un-signable contract. None of us knew how Tony was going to respond to his intensive chemo therapy, and radiotherapy. Ozzy and myself flew to England to be with Tony, and on his "good" days, we'd meet at his home studio and put ideas together for the upcoming album, all sitting down together, no drummer involved, just 3 of us quietly putting together ideas. We thought that when we had enough songs together for a full band rehearsal, we'd move back to L.A and put the whole thing together with Bill. Unfortunately, to our surprise, Bill issued a statement on his site saying he'd been offered an un-signable contract. He hadn't told any one of us he was having contractual problems, and frankly those things are worked out between our representatives, and never between the four of us let alone in public. We had the idea of keeping just one show in this year, hoping that Tony would be well enough for that show, and that things with Bill would be sorted. As you may expect, a one off show at Donnington Festival (Download) costs an absolute fortune to stage, involving over 50 people, transport, air fares, hotels, meals, agents, promotors, accountants, lawyers etc, so none of us, expected to make much money from it- it was a one off Sabbath show for the fans, before we go into recording the new album. Apparently, this wasn't acceptable to Bill's representatives, they wanted an amount that was so unrealistic that it seemed to have been a joke. So we resigned ourselves to doing Download without Bill, hoping he'd change his mind and at least make a guest appearance. We started rehearsals a few weeks ago with Tommy Cluefetos, the drummer who will be on the Ozzy and Friends Tour. Brilliant drummer and good bloke. It was decided we'd better do a warm up show, to break the ice since we haven't played together live. The O2 Academy was available in Birmingham, where we were rehearsing, so we decided on that, and to make a donation to Help For Heroes Charity, since we'd be ironing out any glitches we may have. Then Bill put out a further statement saying he'd been ready to play the Birmingham show , but he was expected to have to do it "for free"- well, I think that's basically how you raise money from gigs for charity - you play them "for free".

All I am saying [again] is that there are two sides to everything. I do hope to play with Bill again some day. For whatever reason; it wasn't meant to be this time. Bill's made his decision, and I have to respect that. Hopefully this painful year will be worth the wait for the new Sabbath album and end in joy and happiness for all.
Stay frosty,
Geezer

photo on Black Sabbath website shot (top) vs. original (below)

another example...

In addition to their recent comments, I guess we now know how Black Sabbath really feel about Bill Ward and his recent statements. Head to BlackSabbath.com to see many more Ward-less photos of the band Oof. (thx Seth)

"We have decided not to make any  detailed  comment  on Bill's latest statement. There are two sides to every story. We have been working hard at rehearsals making excellent progress after Tony's treatments and we have engaged a substitute drummer for the forthcoming shows. See  you at Download." --Black Sabbath, 5/17/12

It's official.

Dear Sabbath Fans and Fellow Musicians,

I sincerely regret to inform you that after a final effort to participate in the upcoming Sabbath shows a failure to agree has continued. At this time I have to inform you that I won't be playing with Black Sabbath at the Birmingham gig dated May 19th, 2012, nor will I be playing at Download on June 10th, 2012. Further, I will not be playing at Lollapalooza on August 3, 2012.

Continue reading "Bill Ward is officially out as drummer for at least part of the Black Sabbath tour"

by BBG

We were saddened to hear yesterday via Facebook that Bill declined publicly to participate in our current Black Sabbath plans...we have no choice but to continue recording without him although our door is always open... We are still in the UK with Tony. Writing and recording the new album and on a roll... See you at Download!!!

- Tony, Ozzy and Geezer

The above statement (in a Facebook post!) comes in response to the public statement that Bill Ward made about not wanting to sign their contract.

Things got a little worse for the reunited Black Sabbath who are already struggling with Tony Iommi's ongoing battle with lymphoma. The band, who is reportedly working on new material and are scheduled to begin touring in May, received an open letter from original drummer Bill Ward who is unahppy with the band's insistence that he sign an "unreasonable contract" (again). He swears though that his "position is not greed-driven." and that he's "not holding out for a 'big piece' of the action (money) like some kind of blackmail deal." Read it in full below...

Continue reading "Bill Ward threatening to back out of Black Sabbath reunion"

Despite what seemed like irreconcilable differences, the original lineup of Black Sabbath will give it another go.

THE most closely guarded secret in rock music can be revealed - the original Black Sabbath line-up is getting back together.

Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward have begun rehearsing for a tour and new studio album.

In June this year vocalist Ozzy and guitarist Iommi wrote new material for a record that will be released next year.

''We're really looking forward to it and I think the stuff we've been writing is really good,'' said 63-year-old Iommi. ''It's more back to the old original stuff.''

He added that the reunion has been kept under wraps for some time....

Iommi said his only concern about the current reformation was the health of drummer Bill Ward who in the past has suffered a heart attack.

''He hasn't been 100 per cent. He had an operation a few months ago, so we'll see how he is.'' -[Birmingham Mail]

Black Sabbath last reunited with Ozzy in 1997 for Ozzfest. They stayed together until roughly 2006. More recently the Dio lineup was back together as Heaven & Hell, though that came to a sad end when Ronnie James Dio left this plane back in May 2010.