With a third album currently being written by Butler and guitarist Pedro Howse, Geezer appears hungrier and more certain of his own talents than at any point in the ´80s when he admits he was busy “getting sober and dealing with the end of Sabbath..”
Bill Ward too has managed to conquer his addictions, leaving Sabbath after Heaven and Hell and finding his own peace of mind while living in California.
In ´89 released his debut album Ward one- Along the way on the Chameleon label wich featured quest appearances fron Ozzy. And Cream man Jack Bruce amoung others, and showcases the man´s considerable vocal and composing talent. Since then he´s recorded a follow- up, When the bourh breaks, wich was released on his on humungous shine company and wich is currently set to receive a worldwide release. Over the years Ward – like Butler- has attempted to rejoin Sabbath, notably during the recording of the Born again album. “I´ve tried being in the band a few times but I´ve realised over the years that I can´t be in Black Sabbath without Ozzy, “ admits Bill. “The four of us are the band. When I was on the Heaven and Hell tour with Ronnie in the band we used to do the song Black Sabbath and it felt wrong to me , it was terrible and that´s why I dropped out.”
Ozzy himselfis equally outspoken about the situation. “A lot of people have played classic Sabbath stuff- including me!” he laughs. “But there´s really only four people that can get it to sound right and that´s the line- up that includes Tony, Geezer, Bill and Ozzy. When one of us is missing it doesn´t sound right.” If this realisation has taken nearly 20 years to sink in, it also explains how the original line- up have managed to overcome their differences. “
“It ´s like a familly, “ offers Tony. “You get on well sometimes and other times you don´t , but every time we´ve seen each other over the years there hasn´t been any bad vibs, despite what people might think.”.