In a recent interview with Jonathan Clarke, host of “Out Of The Box” on New York’s Q104.3 classic rock station, BLACK SABBATH bassist Geezer Butler reflected on the band’s final tour, “The End,” which concluded in February 2017 in their original hometown of Birmingham, England.
“It was great,” he said. “I mean, we knew that physically it was becoming a hard, especially [since] Tony [Iommi] had cancer at the time and he just said, ‘I think I’ve got one more tour left in me and that’s it. That’s all I can do.’ And so we put that two together as the final thing. We all would have loved to have Bill [Ward, original SABBATH drummer] with us, but Bill‘s a proud guy. He’s had heart problems and everything. And we said, ‘Well, just come out and do, like, three songs or something,’ and he said, ‘No. I either do the whole thing or I’m not doing any of it.’ And so, fair enough. And so we just carried on to the end, and that was it.”
When asked about SABBATH singer Ozzy Osbourne‘s recent comment expressing his desire for the original band, including Ward, to reunite for one final concert, Butler responded: “Yeah. Ozzy desperately wants to do, ’cause of his health conditions, he desperately wants to do a final Ozzy Osbourne [solo] concert. And he said to me, ‘I’d love SABBATH to do a couple of songs, two or three songs, as the final show ever’ — Ozzy‘s final show and SABBATH‘s final show. And I said, ‘Yeah, I’m up for it, definitely.’ But I’m not sure what the others are up to. Me and Ozzy, we’re up for it. But whether Tony and Bill would do it, I don’t know.”
On the May 28 episode of SiriusXM‘s “Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk,” Butler discussed whether he believes Bill could play a few songs, either in a concert or as part of a new SABBATH recording project. He responded:
“I don’t think so. Maybe, I don’t know. I mean, the way technical things happen these days, maybe a couple of songs, but who knows? There wouldn’t be any traveling involved. We wouldn’t be actually all in the studio at the same time together. So it could be done that way — maybe.”
Referring back to Ozzy‘s remark about wanting to play a final SABBATH show in the band’s original hometown of Birmingham, United Kingdom, Geezer said: “Ozzy was hoping to finish it all off next year back in Aston, at the Aston Villa [football stadium in Aston, Birmingham, United Kingdom]. I’m definitely up for it, to finish the whole thing off.”
When asked whether there have been any discussions among all the SABBATH band members about a final show or if it’s just Ozzy mentioning it in the media, Geezer said: “Me and Ozzy have agreed, but I’m not sure about anybody else.”
Ozzy recently said that he would love one more SABBATH concert with Bill Ward while discussing the final concert of SABBATH‘s “The End” tour, which occurred in February 2017 in their hometown of Birmingham.
When asked if he felt relieved it was over at that point, Osbourne replied: “Yeah, but I was sad that Bill wasn’t there. I mean, I mean, Tommy [Clufetos], my drummer [for my solo band], did a great job [stepping in for Bill], but he ain’t Bill Ward.”
When asked if he is satisfied with the legacy of BLACK SABBATH, Ozzy responded: “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. Do you know what would be cool? If we went to a club or something unannounced and we just got up and did it. We started up in a club.”
BLACK SABBATH played their final concert on 4 February 2017 in Birmingham. The final song was streamed live on the band’s Facebook page and fireworks went off as the band took their final bow. On 7 March 2017, SABBATH announced their disbandment through posts made on their official social media accounts.
Reeder, the visionary behind Metal Addicts, has transformed his lifelong passion for metal into a thriving online community for metal aficionados. As a fervent devotee of black metal, Reeder is captivated by its dark, atmospheric, and often unorthodox soundscapes.
