Longtime Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler has joined former bandmates Ozzy Osbourne and Tony Iommi in expressing his desire for one last show with original drummer Bill Ward.
Butler – who co-founded Sabbath with Osbourne, Iommi and Ward in 1968 – added his voice to the call for a comeback on Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk yesterday (May 28), but admitted the reunion is unlikely.
“Of course there’s an interest [on my part to do it],” Butler said (per Blabbermouth), “but there’s a big ‘but’ – you’d have to speak to Bill about it.”
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The bassist added: “Everybody wants to do it [but I don’t know if Ward is] capable [of pulling it off].”
Sabbath deactivated in 2017 following a farewell tour, but Ward departed the band in 2012, saying the contract he was offered to continue with the heavy metal pioneers was not “signable”.
Talk of a Black Sabbath comeback with the original four members was started when Osbourne discussed the idea positively on his podcast The Madhouse Chronicles.
Asked if he was happy with Sabbath’s career, Ozzy said: “No, because it wasn't Black Sabbath that finished it. It’s unfinished.
“If they wanted to do one more gig with Bill, I would jump at the chance. I was sad that Bill wasn’t there. I mean Tommy Clufetos, my drummer [who replaced Ward from 2012], did a great job. But he ain’t Bill Ward.”
Trunk asked Iommi last week whether he’d be keen for a Sabbath reunion featuring Ward. Though the guitarist called it “a nice idea”, he expressed doubt over the possibility of it happening.
“It’d be a nice idea,” said Iommi, “but you’re gonna get everybody going, ‘Oh, they’re doing it for the money. They’re doing it for this, they're doing it for that.’
“Well, it wouldn't be. I mean, it’d be something that’d be a nice thing to actually do, but whether it happens will be another thing. But we’ll see. I mean, who knows?”
Iommi finished: “It’s a funny old thing, really. I mean, God, we’ll be 90 by the time we do that.”
Osbourne, Iommi, Butler and Ward played their final full-length Sabbath concert together at the Sound Advice Amphitheatre in West Palm Beach, Florida, on September 4, 2005.
