
BLACK SABBATH Drummer BILL WARD Relaunches Radio Show; Preview Available
May 20, 2025Shortly after the turn of the last century, BLACK SABBATH drummer Bill Ward with his co-host Mike Stark started doing a radio show where Bill spotlighted some of his favorite tunes — much of it metal, but also included many other musical genres. The show continued — usually monthly, unless Bill had commitments with SABBATH or working in studio on his solo music projects. In 2018, they did their last radio show at the LA Radio Studio. The studio was part of a redevelopment project in San Pedro, so they put things on "hold" until a new opportunity arose this year at KLBP. The boys just "got the band back together" and produced what is the first of Bill's new ongoing show as part of the LA Radio Sessions show which airs Sundays at 10 a.m. (Pacific Time) on 99.1 KLBP-FM in Long Beach and also online at KLBP.org. All shows will also be available after they air on Mixcloud.
A preview of the show is available below.
Ward, along with the rest of the original lineup of BLACK SABBATH — singer Ozzy Osbourne, guitarist Tony Iommi and bassist Geezer Butler — will play its final concert this summer. Dubbed "Back To The Beginning", the charity show will be held at Villa Park in Birmingham, United Kingdom on July 5. Support at the gig will come from METALLICA, SLAYER, PANTERA and many more.
Ozzy discussed Ward's absence from SABBATH's final album, "13", during an episode of the new Internet TV show "The Madhouse Chronicles". Released in 2013, it was SABBATH's first LP in 35 years to feature Osbourne, Iommi and bassist Geezer Butler. Ozzy said: "I can't remember why Bill didn't do it. I've gotta be truthful. It wasn't really BLACK SABBATH because Bill wasn't there. I mean, if you had Ginger Baker playing with THE BEATLES, it wouldn't be THE BEATLES."
Ozzy also talked about the final show of SABBATH's "The End" tour, which took place in February 2017 in the band's original hometown of Birmingham, England. Asked if he was glad it was done at that moment, Osbourne said: "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."
Pressed about whether he is happy with the arc of the legend of BLACK SABBATH, Ozzy said: "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."
Back in September 2022, Ozzy was asked by Stereogum if he still feels good about where "13" left things with SABBATH. He responded: "Not really, because, to be perfectly honest, I didn't really get a charge from the album. Although ['13' producer] Rick Rubin is a good friend of mine, I wasn't really… I was just singing. It was like stepping back in time, but it wasn't a glorious period. Though Geezer did a lot of lyric writing for me, which he's very, very good at. It wasn't an earth-shattering experience for me."
As for whether BLACK SABBATH is "totally done" in his mind, Osbourne: "I would like to say it's completely done. I think it's time. The only thing I really regret, to be honest, is that Bill Ward didn't play on the ['13'] album. It wasn't really a BLACK SABBATH album. I'm not saying that one day we might not all go in a room and come up with the perfect BLACK SABBATH album. But I'll say, ['13'] wasn't recorded the way BLACK SABBATH recorded records. We'd gone right back past the point where we took charge, back to when someone else had full control of our recording. Which we never did from 'Vol. 4' onwards."
Ward in May 2012 announced that he was declining to join his former SABBATH bandmates for its scheduled dates, as well as the recording of the new album, due to a contractual dispute. After SABBATH shot down Rubin's suggestion to replace Ward with Ginger Baker (CREAM) ("I thought, 'Bloody hell?'" Iommi told Rolling Stone magazine. "I just couldn't see that."),Rick suggested RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE drummer Brad Wilk.
In March 2021, Bill admitted to SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk" that he no longer had the "chops" and the "ability" to perform with BLACK SABBATH. "I have to be back to 60 years old to be able to do that," he said.
"I would love to do a studio album with SABBATH, with all the original members," he continued. "I'm just saying that — I'm just floating that out there. But I'm not done. So, the other three might be done, and I respect that, but no, I'm not done. I think as long as we all exist [laughs] and we're still breathing in air, I think we have every possibility of making some great music together."
Ozzy told The Pulse Of Radio during SABBATH's last tour that Ward was not in shape to participate. "Bill Ward has got the most physically demanding job of the lot of us, 'cause he's the timekeeper," he said. "I don't think personally he had the chops to pull it off, you know. 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."
It was rumored that SABBATH wanted to bring a second drummer on the road to share duties with Ward, something that Iommi confirmed in 2017 during a question-and-answer session about SABBATH's "Ten Year War" box set.