Founding Black Sabbath drummer Bill Ward took to Facebook two days ago asking for an apology from one-time bandmate Ozzy Osbourne. Yesterday, Ozzy responded, “What the fuck are you on about?” Now today, Ward opens up in a Rolling Stone interview which was took place previous to Ozzy’s statement.
Said Ward about getting a “signable contract,”
“I wanted to earn some better money than we had been in the past for festival gigs. I think it was somewhere like $80,000 for the festivals, which I can hear everybody gasp now, but $80,000 is not a lot of dough when you’re playing festivals. And for all the other gigs in between, I was prepared to negotiate in a correct and proper manner.
And I would like to be included in some publishing and want my name and likeness to have a secure contract because the name and likeness has been a problem in the past. I’m paid a flat fee for my name and likeness on merchandise, and we’ve been fighting with the lawyers to try to have a correct contract to use my name and likeness. That’s been going on for fucking years. Unfortunately, it just didn’t work.”
When asked if he’s been contacted by any of the band members,
“The only person that’s directly contacted me was [bassist] Geezer [Butler], and that was a couple of years ago. He was asking me if he could do one more gig with me, and I basically said, “Well, you better ask Sharon [Osbourne].” That actually was my answer. On my part, it was rather not a very good answer, but at the time, I wasn’t in a very good mood about these things.”
Sharon Osbourne, Ozzy’s manager, probably won’t enjoy reading this interview this morning, but it’ll give her plenty of ammo to drive the wedge deeper between Bill Ward and the rest of Black Sabbath.
(via Rolling Stone)
