Bill Ward recalls the feeling of playing one last time with Sabbath

After two decades, the original Black Sabbath drummer Bill Ward had the chance to play again with the band but it was for the last time. He would initially be part of their reunion in the last decade but he didn’t agree with the deals which were proposed later on and left the band.

But he finally had the chance to say goodbye to fans alongside the late Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler during their final show in the beginning of July at the Villa Park in Birmingham, their hometown. In an interview with 99.1 KLBP-FM, the musician recalled the feeling of playing with his bandmates one last time.

Bill Ward recalls the feeling of playing one last time with Sabbath

“My feeling, at that point, was really to get off the drum (riser). Really, that’s what I was thinking about, and to see if Ozzy was okay. That’s what I was thinking about. And making sure Geezer and Tony are heads up. And then I wanted to see the audience, so I went out and I applauded the audience. So that’s what was on my mind.”

“And I looked behind me, and my family was there, and I applauded my family and people that were around me on the stage. I had a lot of staff members there, and I applauded them. So it was about just basically honoring all the people that had been listening. That’s exactly what I was doing. It wasn’t really anything that was deeper or mature or anything. I just wanted to say thanks to everybody.”

“There was a lot of musicians there that I know, and I was applauding them as well. I love them very much. As you know, we’ve had our radio show for many, many years, so we’ve met a lot of artists,” Bill Ward said (Transcribed by Blabbermouth).

During the Black Sabbath reunion tour which happened in the 2010s, he was replaced by the Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave drummer Brad Wilk on their final album “13”. On the tour it was the Ozzy Osbourne drummer Tommy Clufetos who occupied his place.