BLACK SABBATH bassist Geezer Butler says that the band’s original drummer, Bill Ward, was offered an opportunity to join the group at the final concert of its farewell tour, but that Ward declined, because “he wants to do the whole tour or nothing.”

Ward has insisted in recent interviews that he was quite capable of playing a full concert with SABBATH, despite the bandmembers themselves saying the opposite. Ward stepped away from the SABBATH reunion in early 2012, while the group hinted that he was not in good enough physical shape to either record or tour.

Asked if there is a possibility that Ward could join them for a few songs at their final U.S. concert on September 16 in Phoenix, Butler told Radio.com: “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.