Bill Ward's Absence From Black Sabbath Reunion Was Unexpected, Geezer Butler Recalls

Geezer Butler finally revealed his thoughts about Bill Ward missing Black Sabbath's final reunion.

More than a decade ago, Black Sabbath planned its final album and reunion tour with its founding members. Fans were hopeful to see them complete again as they all appeared in late 2011 when they shared the announcement.

However, Ward missed it "suddenly."

Geezer Butler Shares Details About Bill Ward's Absence

The Black Sabbath bassist recently sat down for an interview with Houston Press to promote his upcoming autobiography, "Into The Void: From Birth To Black Sabbath - And Beyond." Elsewhere in the discussion, he revealed that he had no idea why their original drummer was not able to join them in the final album and reunion tour.

According to Butler, Black Sabbath asked Ward to play two or three songs a show, at least, or whatever he wanted to do. At that time, the drummer reportedly said he would do the whole show or nothing at all.

"If they told me to do two or three songs on bass and go away, I'd have told them where to go," he recalled. "All I know is Bill was in the band, then me and my wife went to Hawaii for a week, and when we got back, Bill wasn't in the band anymore."

However, multiple news outlets cited Ward's statement at that time, saying he refused to join the band due to "unfair contractual terms." A decade after the project happened, he told SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk" that he would need to be 60 years old again to be able to perform with the band again.

Black Sabbath Members Thought Bill Ward Was Too Sick To Join Them

Far from what Ward initially explained, Black Sabbath members said in other interviews that they were aware the drummer was not physically well to play with them.

Osbourne said during Black Sabbath's last tour that his bandmate was not in shape to be on stage again.

"I don't think personally he had the chops to pull it off, you know," the rocker said. "The saddest thing is that he needed to own up to that, and we could have worked around it, whether we had a drummer on the side with him or something."

Due to Ward's absence, there were rumors that the band planned to bring in a new drummer - and Tommy Iommi confirmed it years later.