BLACK SABBATH REFUSE TO RESPOND TO BILL WARD, SAY THEY HAVE HIRED “A SUBSTITUTE DRUMMER”

Earlier this week, Bill Ward announced via a lengthy statement that he will officially be sitting out the upcoming Black Sabbath reunion; now the band has released an official statement of their own which is, to put it mildly, much, much briefer than Ward’s:

“We have decided not to make any  detailed  comment  on Bill’s latest statement. There are two sides to every story. We have been working hard at rehearsals making excellent progress after Tony’s treatments and we have engaged a substitute drummer for the forthcoming shows. See  you at Download.”

While I understand, on the one hand, that the band wants to avoid a war of words with Ward (say that five times fast) to whatever degree they can, I do think this kinda makes them look bad; there are two sides to every story, and for all we know, the remaining three members of Sabbath are in the right. But this makes them look, well, guilty. Ward says his contract wasn’t satisfactory; shouldn’t they come out and say his demands were unreasonable or whatever?

In any case, now the band has officially hired a replacement. Who could it be? Surely the answer will be coming any day now.

-AR