In 2011 Black Sabbath announced the reunion of the original line-up with Ozzy Osbourne, Geezer Butler, Tony Iommi and Bill Ward. However, the drummer reportedly decided to leave the band when he was proposed to receive a smaller share of the deal the band had for the reunion.
But the band’s management blamed Ward’s health issues that would prevent him to perform a complete concert. Now, in an interview with Houston Press, to promote his autobiography “Into The Void”, the band’s co-founder, main lyricist and bassist Geezer Butler talked about Ward’s absence from the reunion.
Geezer Butler talks about Bill Ward not being on Sabbath’s reunion
“We asked him if he’d do two or three songs a show or whatever he felt comfortable doing. And he said he’d do the whole show or nothing at all. And I totally respect that. If they told me to do two or three songs on bass and go away, I’d have told them where to go!”
“All I know is Bill was in the band, then me and my wife went to Hawaii for a week, and when we got back, Bill wasn’t in the band anymore,” Geezer Butler said.
Butler’s autobiography is already available and the musician also revealed to Houston Press that there were things he wasn’t allowed to put in the book because the publishers were afraid they might get sued.
“The original book was about 500 pages long. But when we sent it to the publisher, they said ‘Oh, you can’t say that!’” Butler says on the phone from his California home. “And I said, ‘I was in Black Sabbath—not the Osmonds!’”
“But unless you can prove something happened with letters or whatever, it couldn’t go in the book. They were afraid of getting sued!” Geezer Butler said.
