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May 21, 2004
Bill Ward Speaks Out Again
Short and sweet. In the wee hours of the morning, I got another statement from Bill Ward regarding Ozzfest 2004. Head on over to Bill Ward's site to check it out.
http://www.billward.com
UPDATE: There is an additional note to Bill's most recent statement, go check out his site for further details.
Posted by Joe Siegler at 8:50 PM
Great Tony Iommi Interview
 There is a really great new interview with Tony Iommi up on the Rhino website. Rhino as you know are the folks who put out Black Box, the totally awesome new Black Sabbath box set.
In this interview which is a streaming media file from the Rhino website, Tony talks about a lot of things. He talks about a few things that most people have heard before (early days, playing the song Black Sabbath for the first time, etc, etc). However, he does talk about a few subjects you don't hear talked about a lot, and some that haven't gotten attention in awhile. Some of the things I jotted down watching the interview myself were:
- The Stonehenge set & Spinal Tap
- Other lineups besides Iommi/Butler/Ward/Osbourne
- Sabbath's Influence on music
- Other guitarists he likes
- What equipment he uses
- His daughter's band
It's a good long interview - you absolutely should check this out. If for no other reason than to hear Tony Iommi say "Britney Spears". ;) Seriously though it's one of the better interviews I've heard in awhile, if for no other reason than to hear them talk about other times in the band's history.
Speaking of Rhino, if you haven't picked up their Black Box set, you really should. Click here to read my review of Black Box, and if you haven't already done so, you can order your copy from Amazon.com right now.
Posted by Joe Siegler at 10:50 AM
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May 18, 2004
Bill Ward Speaks Out on Ozzfest 2004
Earlier today, the news broke that Black Sabbath was to headline Ozzfest 2004, with a lineup of Ozzy Osbourne/Tony Iommi/Geezer Butler/Mike Bordin - without Bill Ward on drums. Here is a statement from Bill Ward about Ozzfest 2004.
"Dear Sabbath People,
This morning I received the very sad news that Mike Bordin is to play drums with Black Sabbath on Ozzfest '04.
Black Sabbath is, and always will be an important priority in my life. I support Geezer's, Tony's and Ozzy's decisions to move ahead into Ozzfest '04 without me. I can appreciate they may not be overjoyed with the decision, and I'd really like to be with them. Nothing would please me more than to be a part of the show.
Last week I did receive a proposal which allowed no room for negotiation. It was a cul-de-sac proposal in my opinion, where the only answer was yes or no. I was asked to respond by Friday. May 14th. I wrote a brief letter of decline on Thursday, May 13th. I answered directly at the proposal, and left out any personal comments, other than I was sad to have to decline. What I did not put in my response was this:
I'm willing to be flexible
I'm willing to compromise
I'm willing to negotiate
I'm willing to play.
I understand and believe in a united front when it comes to Sabbath. I can appreciate the fallout from such a decision will upset some people, and I am so sorry. I'm more than willing to support Ozzfest in any way I can.
I've walked down this street before when Sabbath did the first reunion without me and had Mike Bordin play instead. I want you to know, I'm not being the bad guy here. I'm not trying to hold anyone to ransom. And I'm not trying to reverse my decision to decline in hope of a positive managerial response to this letter.
I'm ready, willing and able to rock. There are some details on the proposal that don't work for me. I guess it's a case of the importance of things on both sides and I think that's all I can say for now."
Bill Ward
5/18/04
Posted by Joe Siegler at 8:55 PM
Black Sabbath to Play Ozzfest 2004 - Sort Of
This morning came some news that a lot of us were waiting for. The Reuters news service is running the following story about Black Sabbath playing Ozzfest...
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - British heavy metal pioneers Black Sabbath will reunite for the first time since 2001 for Ozzfest, which begins July 10 in Hartford, Conn., a spokeswoman for the annual road show said on Tuesday.
Ozzfest co-founder and headliner Ozzy Osbourne will revisit such hard rocking classics as "War Pigs" and "Paranoid" along with guitarist Tony Iommi and bass player Geezer Butler. But original drummer Bill Ward will be replaced by Mike Bordin, who backs Osbourne on his solo gigs.
Along with three-quarters of the original Black Sabbath, Ozzfest will also feature four-fifths of the original Judas Priest, and such acts as Slayer, Dimmu Borgir, Superjoint Ritual (featuring former Pantera singer Phil Anselmo) and Zakk Wylde's Black Label Society.
Black Sabbath, with Ward on board, last played live during the 2001 version of Ozzfest, but plans to play its own shows afterwards were canceled because Osbourne had to finish work on his solo album.
This is news that I'm sure everyone's been wanting to know. Black Sabbath will be headlining Ozzfest 2004. However, and this is important, without Bill Ward. Mike Bordin will handle drums according to this announcement. We've seen this combination of Black Sabbath once already, back on Ozzfest 97, when Bill Ward was not invited to participate. Nothing against Mike Bordin, I'm sure he's a fine chap, but he's not Bill Ward. If they're going to fiddle with the lineup like this.. No, I'm not gonna rant about this - not until I find out more info, but no Bill Ward? What's up with that?
As I write this at 8AM on Tuesday morning, I've not heard from anyone officially about this. As soon as I post this, I will be contacting my contacts at Ozzy's office, Tony's management, as well as Bill's people. If I hear anything more about this, I'll update.
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UPDATE @ 1:15PM: This press release came out later in the morning. I still don't have any word on whether or not the lack of an appearance by Bill Ward was Bill's choice or someone else's.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
BLACK SABBATH TO HEADLINE OZZFEST 2004; FIRST LIVE APPEARANCE SINCE 2001
LOS ANGELES, May 18, 2004 ¯ Call it a mandate from the people. Call it a rumor that just won’t die. Call it what you want, but since the April 27 release of the CD/DVD BLACK BOX: THE COMPLETE ORIGINAL BLACK SABBATH (1970-1978), there’s been enormous public demand for a Black Sabbath tour. Original Black Sabbath members OZZY OSBOURNE, TONY IOMMI and GEEZER BUTLER (as well as Osbourne-solo band member Mike Bordin, on drums) – will storm the U.S., performing 26 shows on OZZfest, starting July 10 in Hartford, Conn.
The reviews of Black Box have been phenomenal: Rolling Stone: “[Black Box] sounds even better... in this eight-CD/one DVD set than it did on vinyl... all the Sabbath you’ll ever need. 4 STARS.” Spin noted, “Black Box collects the first eight albums... all skull-crushingly heavy.” For its part, Details declared: “This is evil,” calling the anthology “a boot crushing a windpipe... teeth on bone.” And Time Out New York proclaimed, “Black Box compiles a body of work more central to modern, popular music than that of any band since The Beatles.”
OZZfest had already unleashed the biggest buzz of the upcoming tour season, with OZZY (now as a member of BLACK SABBATH) to headline the main stage along with a fistful of rock legends, including a reunited Judas Priest, Slayer, Dimmu Borgir, Superjoint Ritual (featuring Phil Anselmo) and Zakk Wylde’s Black Label Society. Fans checking out OZZfest’s Second Stage will get a real treat with a “get close to the fans” set by headliners Slipknot. Hatebreed, Lamb of God, Atreyu and 10 other up-and-comers will keep (hell) fires burning there throughout the day.
Posted by Joe Siegler at 1:15 PM
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May 14, 2004
The "Ozzfest Announcement"
A couple of days ago a note went up on Ozzfest.com saying there was a "major announcement" to be made on the Ozzfest.com website. It was widely speculated that it would be an announcement that the headline act was no longer Ozzy Osbourne, but Black Sabbath. The announcement was finally posted this afternoon (as I write this, it's been online less than 10 minutes).
It's NOT about Black Sabbath. It's about an unknown band. If you go to the Ozzfest news page, you get a link to download a 6mb QuickTime video file. It's got the keyboard intro for Mr. Crowley playing, and there's a bunch of TEXT. No video. Just TEXT. Anyway, here's the text that is on the video.
We interrupt your Friday for a very important announcement
from the Prince of F**cking Darkness..
Do YOU have what it takes?
Are YOU ready for your shot?
I'm giving an unknown band an OPPORTUNITY OF A LIFETIME
To Perform on the main stage at OZZfest 2004 before tens of thousands of people..
And to have your performance filmed and shown before a worldwide audience
ARE YOU F**KING READY???
I CAN'T F**KING HEAR YOU!!!
Full details coming on Thursday May 20, 2004
God Bless.
OZZY OSBOURNE
Stay tuend to OzTV on ozzfest.com
That's it, other than some Ozzfest logos appearing. What's the point of making folks download a 6Mb video file if it's text only? Just to hear Mr. Crowley? I could play the same and get that. If it were Ozzy reading the text, then maybe I could understand making a video download of that.
So the big announcement today is not Black Sabbath playing Ozzfest. Will they play Ozzfest? I genuinely don't have any info that says that - all I know are the rumours you've heard. If something changes, bet your ass I'll announce it here. What's more interesting is that there are two files available for download from the Ozzfest site. The one that is linked on their news page, and this one. The second one has a filename of SabbathAnnouncent.mov - but no mention of Sabbath. I'm not sure where the second one was found, I found that link on blabbermouth, but the first one from their news page is what most people are going to find. What's up with the thing being called Sabbathannouncent anyway?
Posted by Joe Siegler at 8:59 PM
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