Black Sabbath announced earlier this week that it will play its final show ever in November at an Ozzfest event in Japan. And if frontman Ozzy Osbourne gets his way, original member Bill Ward, estranged from the band in recent years, will be behind the drum kit.
"Osbourne is [ready] to extended an olive drumstick, and has said he hopes the band's ex-drummer Bill Ward, who pulled out of the reunion tour due to financial disputes, will join them for the show," reported Spin, which added an update to its story to note that Ward's publicist said that Osbourne had yet to extend an official offer to Ward.
In November of 2011, the original members of the band - Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Ward - announced that they would reunite for their first album together since 1978's "Never Say Die!" and a tour. However, Ward would bow out before the album and the tour dates kicked off, announcing in early 2012 that he would "not participate in the reunion unless he is presented with 'signable contract' that 'reflects some dignity and respect toward me as an original member of the band,'" Rolling Stone reported.
The band recorded the reunion album, "13," with Brad Wilk of Rage Against The Machine filling in on drums. For the subsequent tour dates, Tommy Clufetos, who also plays in Osbourne's own band, handled drum duties.
If Ward returns to Sabbath for the heavy metal masters' finale, it wouldn't be the first time. He left the band in the early 1980s after playing on just one post-Osbourne album after Ronnie James Dio replaced the ousted singer. And in 2006, when Dio, Iommi and Butler reformed the Dio-era Sabbath (they would later record and tour under the name Heaven and Hell), Ward was initially onboard but then quit.
"I was uncomfortable with some of the things surrounding that particular project. So, that was it. And I moved out," Ward told the U.K.'s Rock Radio in 2010, according to Blabbermouth. "I thought Vinny [Appice] would be a much better choice, because Vinny is able to do those kinds of things... he's able to accommodate the kinds of things that were being asked, and I'm not. I react. I'm a reactionary drummer, and Vinny plays drums; there's a big difference between us."
Guitarist Iommi has been the only constant member of Black Sabbath, which has undergone a sizable number of lineup changes since the band formed in 1968.
