Black Sabbath drummer Bill Ward shared with fans that he’s been using a wheelchair to get around as of late — but that he’s not going to let it stop him from doing what he does best.

“I’ve reached a place where publicly more and more I need to use a wheelchair, mostly in airports, or public events,” he wrote in an Instagram post shared on Thursday. “I can still walk, let there be no doubt, but I can’t walk very far without needing to rest, meaning I need to sit down.”

Ward revealed that he first started using the chair “about 18 months ago,” first mainly at airports, and then increasingly so. He added that his physical setbacks haven’t stopped him from enjoying his music, telling fans that at 78 years old he can still “play pretty good.”

“My talents and ambitions, and my unyielding need to be artful, and to play drums, is still as strong as it was so many years ago now,” he wrote. “I’m just saying if you see me in a wheelchair, I’m just catching a ride, I’m not in retirement or ill or giving up, or any of those thoughts that ignite when we see people in wheelchairs.”

Ward went on to encourage fans to treat him as they always have, adding that they should still come over and say hello if they spot him in public.

“I don’t bite, I’ll just look different, as pictured here,” he said in his post, which also included a photo of him sitting in the wheelchair. “Much love to you all and I’ll keep rocking until I’m dead. Rock forever and ever.”

The news comes just less than a year after Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne’s death. He died in July 2025 of a heart attack at age 76. According to his death certificate, coronary artery disease and Parkinson’s disease were also contributing causes.

Just weeks earlier, Osbourne performed his final show in his hometown of Birmingham, England, where he was joined by Ward and the rest of his bandmates.

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