Bill Ward: “Without Ozzy, the Road Feels Empty” Drummer Steps Away from Touring
BIRMINGHAM For Bill Ward, it wasn’t just the end of a tour it was the end of a lifetime’s rhythm.
Seventeen days before Ozzy Osbourne’s death on July 22, 2025, Ward sat behind his drum kit at Birmingham’s Back to the Beginning concert. The stage lights were warm, the crowd roared, and beside him, Ozzy his friend since they were teenagers in Aston sang like it was still 1970.
But behind the music, Ward’s thoughts were elsewhere. “I kept looking over at him,” he later admitted. “It wasn’t about the show anymore. I just wanted to know he was okay.”
That night, the four original members of Black Sabbath stood together once more Ward, Ozzy, Tony Iommi, and Geezer Butler unaware that this would be their last time sharing a stage. Osbourne, battling Parkinson’s and heart disease, sang from a throne, yet still commanded the room with the same raw power that had carried Sabbath through decades.
When Ozzy passed away less than three weeks later, Ward’s grief poured out in a message to fans:
“Where will I find you now? In the memories, our unspoken embraces, our missed phone calls… you’re forever in my heart. Never goodbye. Thank you forever.”
Soon after, Ward made a decision no more touring. Not because his body couldn’t do it, but because his heart no longer wanted to. “We started this journey together,” he said. “Without Ozzy, the road feels empty.”
To Ward, Ozzy wasn’t just a singer. He was the voice of their youth, the soundtrack to their wildest years, the brother who stood beside him through chaos, reconciliation, and countless nights on stage.
While Ward isn’t leaving music entirely he’s open to recording or intimate collaborations the era of big arenas, long nights on the tour bus, and the thunder of Sabbath drums is over.
For fans, it feels like the final page of a story that began in the smoky clubs of Birmingham more than 50 years ago. For Ward, it’s something more personal: a goodbye not just to the road, but to the man who shared every step of it.
And maybe that’s why he doesn’t call it retirement. In his heart, it’s not an ending. It’s just leaving the stage with the music and Ozzy
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