Clufetos on drums for Sabbath's The End tour

Black Sabbath have released a short video from their rehearsals for The End tour showing Tommy Clufetos on drums.

As widely expected, the clip seemingly confirms that original Sabbath drummer Bill Ward will not take part in what will be the band’s last ever live shows. Clufetos played with Sabbath on their shows in support of last album 13.

Ward dropped out of the band’s 2011 reunion and subsequent album, saying he hadn’t been offered a “signable” contract. The disagreement later exploded into a war of words between him and frontman Ozzy Osbourne.

Guitarist Tony Iommi said last year that a return to the lineup for Ward looked highly unlikely, while Ward himself said he thought the standoff between him and his former bandmates was “very sad.”

Ward repeated his demand for a public apology from Osbourne over claims that the drummer was not fit enough to tour. Asked if he would return, Ward added: “If everybody could get on the same page – my page. I’ve been quite pronounced about my page, which is a signable contract and an apology over certain issues that Ozzy said about me that weren’t true.”

The End tour sees Sabbath play around the world as a farewell to the fans. They’ll headline the Download festival on Saturday, June 11.

Last October, Osbourne confirmed that Sabbath won’t record another album.

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Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.