Black Sabbath reunite with Bill Ward at Grammy event

Tony Iommi, Bill Ward and Geezer Butler attend the Ivor Novello Awards in London in 2015 (Image credit: Dave J Hogan - Getty)

Bill Ward and his old Black Sabbath (opens in new tab) bandmates Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler were reunite in Los Angeles on Saturday night for the first time since 2015.

The trio were attending the Grammy Salute To Music Legends ceremony at the city’s Dolby Theatre (opens in new tab), where Black Sabbath were honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Grammy by the Recording Academy.

Rival Sons performed for Sabbath on the night, with the annual award given to artists who have "made outstanding contributions of artistic significance to the field of recording.” 

Iommi later posted a picture of himself, Ward and Butler, saying: “Another Grammy! Great performance from Rival Sons yesterday, thanks guys.”

Butler also posted a couple of images from the evening on his Twitter account.

Ward bowed out of the Sabbath’s reunion back in 2011 – just months after it was announced. He said he hadn’t been offered a contract he regarded as “signable” which led to a war of words, between him and frontman Ozzy Osbourne, who at one point suggested the drummer wasn’t healthy enough to play his role.

However, back in 2017, Ward said he held no grudges, telling Rolling Stone: “I’m at peace with those guys.”

Meanwhile, a Black Sabbath exhibition is set to get under way in their home town of Birmingham next month.

Black Sabbath 50 Years will run from June 26 until September 29 at the Museum & Art Gallery (opens in new tab) and will look back at their history, celebrate their contribution to British music, and explore the history between the band and their fans.

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Scott Munro
Louder e-commerce editor

Scott has spent more than 30 years in newspapers and magazines as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. After initially joining our news desk in the summer of 2014, he moved to the e-commerce team full-time in 2020. He maintains Louder’s buyer’s guides, scouts out the best deals for music fans and reviews headphones, speakers, books and more. He's written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog and has previous written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to video games, travel and whisky. Scott grew up listening to rock and prog, cutting his teeth on bands such as Marillion and Magnum before his focus shifted to alternative and post-punk in the late 80s. His favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Ned's Atomic Dustbin and Drab Majesty, but he also still has a deep love of Rush.