Black Sabbath’s long and confusing farewell has been given another lease of life by Ozzy Osbourne, who says the band will tour for the last time in 2016, and release a final album. The singer was speaking at a press conference for the Monsters of Rock festival in Brazil, where — Metal Hammer reports — he said: “The plan is that next year we’ll do the final Black Sabbath tour and album. I’m not stopping ... my wife spends all my money, so I can’t.”
In March it was announced that Sabbath would play a final show at Ozzfest in Japan on 22 November. Just weeks later it was announced that the band would not be playing that show — Osbourne would play as a solo artist. That led to speculation that the “final show” announcement from Sharon Osbourne had been a misunderstanding, and that she had merely meant it would be their farewell to Japan.
Certainly, Ozzy’s new announcement makes plain that any Sabbath farewell would not be a single-night affair. He said of the band: ”We all live in different countries and some of them want to work and some of them don’t want to, I believe. But we are going to do another tour together.”
The remarks about members not wanting to work might be a reference to the band’s estranged drummer Bill Ward, who was excluded from the band’s recent reunion tour and album on grounds of his health. Ward posted an angry message to Osbourne on his Facebook page on 17 April, in which he insisted: “I was ready and in shape to record. I knew I would need to get in better shape for the gigs -same as I have needed to do and have done in the past. I was beginning my workout regime to get “tour ready.” I knew what I needed to do to play the gigs, and I was confident I would be ready. I would not commit to an extensive tour without believing I could go all the way with it. I wouldn’t do that to our fans ... Sorry I can’t love you back, Oz. I put my love for you somewhere safe inside my heart in 2012 when your stories started showing up. It’s hard to love someone who thinks he’s telling the truth by making false claims, elitist comments and just plain rude statements.”
