Black Sabbath drummer Bill Ward shared his feelings about the departure of Ozzy Osbourne during a recent appearance on Eddie Trunk Podcast.
As you might already know, Black Sabbath decided to fire Ozzy Osbourne following the toxic mood inside the band back in 1979, and he was immediately replaced by Rainbow singer Ronnie James Dio.
In the conversation, Bill talked about his feelings about this decision and admitted that it was really dangerous for the band, but he agreed on moving forward afterward.
Additionally, Bill stated that even though he didn’t agree with firing Ozzy, he understood that it was the right thing to do. Later on, he mentioned that he didn’t have any problems with Dio.
Interviewer asked:
“I know it was difficult for you to see Ozzy leave, but did you feel it was the right thing to do at the time? Were you on board with the decision at that time?”
Bill Ward replied:
“No, I didn’t agree necessarily with the decision, but I could understand that it was the right thing to do. Sometimes there’s a difference between doing the right thing and doing the ‘right thing,’ if that makes any sense.
And so I thought it was a very dangerous move – that’s how I felt about it. But you know, I’m a musician, and so I agreed to the idea of moving on.”
He added:
“I found Ronnie to be very friendly, we were pretty good mates, so there was no problems like that. And I did what I’m supposed to do. I’m supposed to play drums, be helpful in any other way that I can.
And I tried to do that the best I could, but deep down inside, I had a lot of reservations about the entire idea of moving on because one of the guys was hurt in battle, and he was having problems.”
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