"It's just not going to happen": Geezer Butler shares his doubts about a final Black Sabbath show

Black Sabbath at the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2006

Black Sabbath's original lineup at the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2006 (Image credit: Scott Gries via Getty Images)

Nearly 20 years on from their last performance together, a possible final show from Black Sabbath's original lineup remains a hot topic. But just weeks after bassist Geezer Butler told Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk that all the band members wanted to play such a show but that it was "unlikely", he's dampened expectations further.

Butler – who co-founded Sabbath with Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi and Bill Ward in 1968 – now tells BraveWords that "it's just not going to happen."

In an interview to mark the publication of the paperback edition of his autobiography, Into The Void: From Birth To Black Sabbath - And Beyond, Butler says, "Ozzy has been texting me about doing one final show with Bill and that's it, but it's just not going to happen. But I always said that the original Black Sabbath would never get back together.

"So you say these things hoping if a miracle happens, that would be great to do it. But but it's up to everyone’s health, but I can't see it happening. I'd love it to happen, even if it was one final song with the original four of us, with Bill on the drums. Even if it's just one song."

Drummer Ward wasn't involved in Black Sabbath's final tour after being fired during the recording of Sabbath's 2013 album 13, and Butler says he still doesn't know why Ward was let go.

"Me and my wife went to Hawaii and when we came back we found out that Bill had been fired," he says. "And we were like 'Why, what’s going on?’ To this day we still don't have the answer to who fired Bill and why. There's been rumours about his health and that kind of thing. I was listening to the 13 stuff we did with Bill on that album and I loved it. It really did sound like the old Sabbath. Like the first three albums, the drumming on it. I love that kind of thing. Maybe it was the producer… I don't know."

Osbourne, Iommi, Butler and Ward played their final full-length Sabbath concert together at the Sound Advice Amphitheatre in West Palm Beach, Florida, on September 4, 2005.

Artists

Online Editor at Louder/Classic Rock magazine since 2014. 40 years in music industry, online for 27. Also bylines for: Metal Hammer, Prog Magazine, The Word Magazine, The Guardian, The New Statesman, Saga, Music365. Former Head of Music at Xfm Radio, A&R at Fiction Records, early blogger, ex-roadie, published author. Once appeared in a Cure video dressed as a cowboy, and thinks any situation can be improved by the introduction of cats. Favourite Serbian trumpeter: Dejan Petrović.