Ozzy states saddest thing about Black Sabbath’s ‘The End’ is not working things out with Bill Ward

Ozzy states saddest thing about Black Sabbath’s ‘The End’ is not working things out with Bill Ward

Black Sabbath‘s three remaining original members — lead vocalist Ozzy Osbourne, guitarist Tony Iommi and bassist Geezer Butler — were recently interviewed by RollingStone on the occasion of the release of the CD/DVD The End.

Osbourne reminisced on what he was the most proud of but also the saddest moment as he stated: “What I was really proud of was we were four guys from a place called Aston, Birmingham, and it opened the doors to the best fucking gig that anyone could ever have… And to boot, sitting here nearly 50 years later, we’re looked at as one of the icons of our time. I have a problem getting my head around that. It sometimes seems like my time with Sabbath was longer than my time on my own. As I get older, time gets faster for some reason. The saddest thing was it didn’t work out with Bill Ward. I would have loved that, but hey, it’s done now.”

Apparently, not everyone wanted to call it a day as Butler advised: “If it were up to me, we’d still be touring now… It was because Tony‘s illness that we limited it to 81 dates. I would have gone on forever, if I was allowed to. If a one-off worked out, I’d be on board. Otherwise I’m happy to let things lie.”

In terms of how they selected the songs to play on The End tour, Iommi stated: “You can only do what Ozzy can do… because a lot of the old songs were really high, so doing those is impossible. There’s no point in putting down ‘Symptom of the Universe’ and ‘Hole in the Sky.'” Osbourne added: “I have to get my balls in a vice to do them songs [laughs]… My range hasn’t gotten any higher over the years. Some songs are too low, some are too high. When I listen to a song like ‘Hole in the Sky,’ I go, ‘What the fuck was I thinking?'”

You can read the rest of the interview with Black Sabbath at RollingStone.