Ozzy Osbourne would “jump at the chance” to perform with Bill Ward again.
The 75-year-old rocker feels there is still “unfinished” business with his former Black Sabbath bandmate after the drummer – one of the group’s founding members – opted out of their reunion tour in 2012, with Tommy Clufetos stepping in for both those concerts and the final ‘The End Tour’ in 2016-2017.
As a result, Ozzy would love to get the band back together to end on a high.
Appearing on ‘The Madhouse Chronicles’, Ozzy and his friend Billy Morrison watched footage of the group’s final show at Birmingham’s Genting Arena on February 4, 2017.
Billy asked: “That must have been cool for you? How did you feel? Were you glad it was done?”
Ozzy replied: “Yeah, but I was sad that Bill wasn’t there. I mean Tommy Clufetos, my drummer, did a great job. But he ain’t Bill Ward.”
The ‘War Pigs’ hitmaker was then asked if he was content with the “arc of the legend of Black Sabbath?”
He replied: “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 somewhere unannounced and we just got up and did it. We started up in a club.”
Ozzy himself has been unable to perform live in recent months due to a string of health issues, including Parkinson’s disease and problems with his spine, but his wife and manager Sharon Osbourne recently revealed he is keen to say goodbye to fans with two special shows.
Speaking at her live show at London’s The Fortune Theatre in January, Sharon said: “He won’t tour again but we are planning on doing two more shows to say goodbye as he feels like, ‘I have never said goodbye to my fans and I want to say goodbye.’
“His voice is still absolutely perfect. And all the time he has been off he still does his singing lessons. Even if you don’t like his music, you can’t not like Ozzy.”
Sharon also dropped a huge hint that Ozzy will play the two gigs in Aston, Birmingham, at Villa Park, the home of Premier League giants Aston Villa.
She said: “We will do it in Aston Villa where Ozzy is from.”