Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne has once again let rip at the band’s original drummer, Bill Ward, during an interview with Classic Rock. The iconic vocalist revealed he wasn’t happy when Ward requested he receive an equal split from the band’s latest tour, of which he had no part.
As he mentioned in a previous interview, Ozzy was very much concerned with Ward’s current physical state, apparently anything but road-ready. Ozzy, who works out and stays fit, was not impressed when Ward rocked up to initial discussions:
“Here’s the bottom line. Being a drummer is the most physical part of any band. And when Bill turned up, he looked like an old guy. I don’t think he had the stamina to play for an hour or so on stage. If I’d had a heart attack like Bill had, I’d go, ‘Fuck, I’m going to lose some weight.’ I train — I work my arse off.”
On that basis alone, the rest of the band deemed it unacceptable to allow Ward an equal split of the profits. As Ozzy adds, there was no ulterior motive:
“So you can’t expect someone who’s been sitting on their fucking arse, eating shit, to come along and go, ‘equal split’. It’s insane. I honestly don’t know what went down with that deal, but I suppose it’s something along those lines. There wasn’t any other reason. We didn’t gang up on him. And it wasn’t like, ‘Bill’s just the drummer.’ I didn’t go, ‘Oh, if Bill’s not here, I get more money.’ I don’t fucking need any more money, man.”
In a separate interview with Chicago Sun-Times, the band’s bassist Geezer Butler has explained just how important it is to the band to be able to maintain high standards in their live performance, going as far to say that this will “probably” be the band’s last tour for fear of growing too rusty:
“I’ve always said, as long as I can play, as long as I can do it to a good level, then I’ll keep doing it because I still really enjoy playing. I’ll know when the day comes I can’t do this anymore, can’t play to my usual standards. That’s when I won’t go out anymore. I won’t do that to me self. But at the moment, I just love playing with the band. It probably will be the last time, will probably be the last tour. But I want to go out on a high. The band is playing really well at the moment.”
However, Butler did not rule out another album from the band in the near future. In the meantime, the band is looking towards their run of headlining shows through out the UK this December.
(Via Metal Hammer)
