Estranged Black Sabbath drummer, Bill Ward, has responded to bassist Geezer Butler’s recent statements made during an interview with Radio.com, where he discussed Ward and his absence from the band’s The End tour.

Asked if there was any shot at a resolution with Ward, and if he could perhaps join them for a few songs at their final concert September 16th in Phoenix, Geezer stated: “It’s been mentioned to him. But he doesn’t want to do it. He wants to do the whole tour or nothing. We’d love him to come on at the very last gig and be part of the whole thing, but he didn’t want to do that. And I understand: I wouldn’t want to be asked to come out just for the last gig. It’s a shame, but that’s the way it is.”

Bill Ward has since issued the following: “I must respond once again to inaccurate statements made by Geezer. I never received an offer to play the final show of The End tour with Black Sabbath. When the tour was confirmed, my management reached out to the Black Sabbath management to inquire as to whether or not they would like to discuss my participation in the tour. We were told there was no interest. That is last conversation we had with them regarding the tour.

“I will say that I wouldn’t want to play only one gig when I am completely capable of touring. I would not validate their untrue statements about my health by playing only one gig. Also, I wouldn’t want to show up for only some of our fans and not for all our fans when I could have played multiple shows.”

Black Sabbath kicked off their The End Tour on January 20th at the CenturyLink Center in Omaha, NE. On January 22nd the band performed in Chicago, IL at the United Center. Fan-filmed video is available below, the setlist on the night was as follows:

"Black Sabbath"
"Fairies Wear Boots"
"After Forever"
"Into the Void"
"Snowblind"
"War Pigs"
"Behind the Wall of Sleep"
"N.I.B."
"Hand of Doom"
"Rat Salad"
"Iron Man"
"God Is Dead?"
"Under The Sun / Every Day Comes And Goes"
"Dirty Women"
"Paranoid"
"Children Of The Grave

Geezer Butler tells Rolling Stone that nothing is preventing the band from recording new music.

"There's nothing stopping us from doing another album after the tour,” says Butler. "We just couldn't possibly spend three years in the studio and then do a final tour," he says. Then he adds dryly, "We'll probably all be dead by then."

The band was discussing the possibility of another new record before The End Tour, but Butler was against the idea. “I was just being logical," the bassist says with a laugh. "At the time, we were given six months to write and record an album and I said, 'There's absolutely no way we can do it in six months.'" He laughs. "Then they came up with, 'Well, you can do a blues album,' you know, just eight 12-bar blues songs and that's it. It's like, 'No. This is Black Sabbath. It's not the Earth blues band anymore.' It was ridiculous."

Black Sabbath spent Monday (January 18th) rehearsing for the launch of their The End tour tonight in Omaha at the Century Link Center. Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Ozzy Osbourne also took some time to speak with the media about the tour and the end of the band. MSN Video has posted KETV Omaha’s full unedited interview (7:22) with the trio at this location.

“It's going to be hard at the end to say ‘that's it’ but it has to end someday,” Iommi remarked. “But we're going to enjoy it until then. And given the fact that it's The End tour, we’ve dugout a lot of the classics we haven’t played in a long time.”

When asked if they ever reflect on the mark Black Sabbath will leave on music history Ozzy responded: “When you're on the inside looking out - and I know it's been going on and on for years - you don't really think about it. When we first began I thought this would be great for a couple years, but I had no idea that 40 odd years later, we would still be here. It’s mind-blowing. What a good idea that was.”

Black Sabbath have released the full video taking you behind the scenes of rehearsals for their final tour ever. Check it out below:

On the heels of their much-anticipated performances in North America, Australia, New Zealand and Europe, Black Sabbath will end the epic journey they began nearly five decades ago with another run of North American dates in fall 2016. These shows will follow a mix of summer headlining and festival performances throughout Europe.

The second run of North American dates kicks off August 17th at Jones Beach Amphitheater in New York and includes stops at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles (where the band last performed a sold-out show on their wildly successful 13 world tour in 2014), Chicago, Philadelphia, Toronto, Detroit, and Dallas, among others, before wrapping September 21st at AK-Chin Pavilion in Phoenix, AZ.

The massive 2016 world tour by the greatest Metal Band of all time marks The End for Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler as they close the final chapter in the final volume of the incredible Black Sabbath story with this tour. Black Sabbath's The End farewell tour promises to surpass all previous tours and will feature the band's most mesmerizing production ever. An updated video announcement can be found below.

When this tour concludes, it will truly be The End, The End of one of most legendary bands in rock 'n roll history... Black Sabbath.

Black Sabbath's 2016 Tour Dates are as follows:

January
27 - Winnipeg MN - MTS Centre
30 - Edmonton, AB - Rexall Centre

February
1 - Calgary, AB - Scotiabank Saddledome
3 - Vancouver, BC - Rogers Arena
6 - Tacoma, WA - Tacoma Dome
9 - San Jose, CA - SAP Pavilion
11 - Los Angeles, CA - The Forum
13 - Las Vegas, NV - Mandalay Bay
15 - Denver, CO - Pepsi Center
17 - Kansas City, MO - Sprint Center
19 - Detroit, MI - The Palace of Auburn Hills
21 - Hamilton, ON - First Ontario Centre
23 - Montreal, QC - Bell Centre
25 - New York, NY - Madison Square Garden
27 - New York, NY - Madison Square Garden

April
15 - Perth, AU - Perth Arena
17 - Adelaide, AU - Entertainment Centre
19 - Melbourne, AU - Rod Laver Arena
23 - Sydney, AU - Allphones Arena
25 - Brisbane, AU - Entertainment Centre
28 - Auckland, NZ - Vector Arena
30 - Dunedin, NZ - Forsyth Barr Stadium

June
1 - Budapest, Hungary - Groupama Arena
8 - Berlin, Germany - Waldebuhne
11 - Donington, UK - Download
13 - Verona, IT - Arena Di Verona
15 - Zurich, Switzerland - Hallenstadon
17 - Dessel, Belgium - Graspop
23 - Halden, Norway - Tons of Rock
25 - Copenhagen, Denmark - Copenhell
28 - Vienna, Austria - Stadthalle
30 - Prague, Czech Republic - 02 Arena

July
2 - Krakow, Poland - Tauron Arena
5 - Riga, Latvia - Riga Arena
7 - Helsinki, Finland - Monsters of Rock
9 - Stockholm, Sweden - Monsters of Rock
12 - Moscow, Russia - Olympisky Arena

August
17 - Wantagh, NY - Nikon at Jones Beach Theater
19 - Philadelphia, PA - Susquehanna Bank Center
21 - Washington, DC - Jiffy Lube Live
23 - Holmdel, NJ - PNC Bank Arts Center
25 - Boston, MA - Xfinity Center
27 - Uncasville, CT - Mohegan Sun Arena
29 - Toronto, ON - Molson Canadian Amphitheatre
31 - Detroit, MI - DTE Energy Music Theater

September
2 - Indianapolis, IN - Klipsch Music Center
4 - Chicago, IL - Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre
7 - Dallas, TX - Gexa Energy Pavilion
9 - Albuquerque, NM - Isleta Ampitheater
11 - Salt Lake City, UT - USANA Ampitheater
13 - Portland, OR - Sunlight Supply Arena
15 - Oakland, CA - Oracle Arena
17 - Las Vegas, NV - MGM Grand Garden Arena
19 - Hollywood, CA - Hollywood Bowl
21 - Phoenix, AZ - AK-Chin Pavilion

Details on Tickets, VIP packages and more for the North American shows can be found at Livenation.com.