Bill Ward: ‘I’m Quite Capable Of Playing A Complete F—ing Black Sabbath Set’
The Bill Ward vs. Black Sabbath battle continues with a new interview in Rolling Stone. After Ward posted an open letter stating he'd need an apology from Ozzy Osbourne, among other things, in order to join Black Sabbath once again, the drummer has now elaborated on many issues.
Ozzy Osbourne has publicly stated that he'd like Bill Ward to return, but also commented on Ward's physical condition. Ozzy believed Ward was too overweight to play a full two-hour set, and the former Sabbath drummer heard Ozzy loud and clear.
"The truth is that I was overweight for playing onstage, but I wasn't overweight for the studio," Ward tells Rolling Stone. "I could cut tracks with the weight that I arrived at. All of those guys know that I have a really rigorous exercise regimen. In August 2011, I started to drop weight because, at that point, I thought, "OK, we're probably at five or six months away from actually doing a tour." When we were in England, I was walking six miles before breakfast, I was doing bench presses, I was walking possibly two to three miles in the evening, and I was playing, like, three to four hours a day."
Ward continues, "I'm quite capable of playing a complete f---ing Black Sabbath set. So this health thing has been bandied around, and it's true that I have heart disease, and it's true that I did get sick a couple of years after the fact. But when the health card is being thrown around, the bottom line is that I really tried to take care of myself. Every day, I always look at the day and say, "Could I have played a gig today no matter what's going on with me?" And the answer is always, 'Yes.' I'm much harder on me than those guys could ever be … "I went through the loss of a dear friendship [with Ozzy]. I actually grieved the loss of his life in my life. It was f---ing terrible. I cried. It was really horrible. I thought, 'My God, I don't even know who this person is anymore.'"
This interview with Bill Ward was conducted after the drummer's public statement earlier this week, but before Ozzy Osbourne answered with a very unapologetic response. Rolling Stone reached out to Ward to gather a reaction to Ozzy's newest statement, but the drummer declined to comment.
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