If he had his way, exiled Black Sabbath drummer Bill Ward says he’d be back behind the kit for the band when they record what’s being billed as their last album and head out on their allegedly final tour. But he isn’t willing to return without what he deems a fairer contract or an apology from frontman Ozzy Osbourne.
Ward delved back into the topic during a recent visit to 106.5 WSFL, responding to a question about the possibility of a reunion by saying, “If everybody could get on the same page – my page. I’ve been quite pronounced about my page, which is a signable contract and an apology over certain issues that Ozzy said about me that weren’t true.”
Having held out that possibility, Ward was quick to concede that the likelihood of those conditions being met seems fairly remote. “[Osbourne] said these things at the public level, so I’d like him to publicly apologize. He’s already responded to that, saying that’ll never happen. So, as long as that’ll never happen, then I probably won’t be joining the band in 2016,” he shrugged. “It’s not nice at all to be in this position, and it’s not an easy responsibility for me to maintain when uncountable amounts of people are angry with my decision-making process.”Reiterating that he continues to be pained by the way this disagreement has divided Sabbath’s fanbase, Ward insisted that if he and his former bandmates could just get past their issues, he’s more than willing to let go of all the resentments that have piled up between them over the last few years: “It’s very sad, but I would love to. If we could get past everything, and everything else, I would love to be a part of it. You know, I love the guys. I mean, I still love Ozzy. Just because we have a disagreement, or there’s a disagreement on the table, I still love him very much.”
