Bill Ward, who has been selling used gear by Black Sabbath, has responded to the comments made by Tony Iommi’s subject of his absence from the band during their final tour. It was last month that the guitarist spoke about the link between Ward’s health and his lack of involvement on the last tour.

Through the Q&A, according to ThePRP, the guitarist said that due to Ward’s health condition, the band believed that a replacement was necessary because of the possibility of Ward not being able to complete the task and the number of fans that came to the show. He states “I don’t think he quite realizes how hard it would have been on him. So we wanted to bring another drummer just in case Bill ended up saying ‘I can’t do it’ for a couple of days or whatever. It’s too risky to go out and then have Bill say ‘I can’t do it,’ and you have to cancel [a show] on seventy thousand people, or whatever it might be. It’s very hard, and it’s not fair on the fans and it’s not fair on him.”

Even though Iommi says this was the case, Ward has defended his position through a statement on Facebook. With this, he has also stated multiple times that his offer by the band during that time was not fair. In the statement, he places his position against that made by Iommi and Ozzy due to the idea that it ” bring fault to my character as a person and a musician.” He says that, in 2011, he was not spoken to about “being alarmed by my playing or my health.” He continues to talk about his feeling of being judged even though he was ready to perform. Referencing Tony’s comment about how hard it would be on him, he continues to talk about his readiness to perform and how the band felt they needed to do this even though there was only one health issue that interfered with touring, being the European tour in 1998 due to a heart attack.

Ward commented on Ozzy saying that he needed to own up to the situation in 2011, saying that there was nothing to own up to when he was sick. In the end, he states that he regrets the loss of Ozzy and Tony’s friendship and he is honored to be a part of the band.