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Bill Ward (musician)

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Bill Ward (born William Thomas Ward, May 5, 1948, Aston, Birmingham, England), is the drummer for the pioneering British heavy metal band Black Sabbath.

In addition to playing drums as an original founding member of the band, Ward sang lead vocals for two Black Sabbath songs; "It's Alright" (from Technical Ecstasy), and "Swinging The Chain" (from Never Say Die!).

Ward's distinctive drumming often closely doubles the rhythms of the bass and guitar riffs, producing a powerful combined effect. An example of this is the song "Iron Man" off the Paranoid album. He is also characterized by playing quick drum rolls in between riffs and his powerful groove. ("Symptom of the Universe" is a good example of his unique style.)

Biography

Prior to the formation of Black Sabbath, Bill Ward and guitarist Tony Iommi played in a band called "Mythology", and joined vocalist Ozzy Osbourne and bassist Geezer Butler, who had played in a band together called "Rare Breed". Between 1969 and 1980, Ward played drums on every Sabbath album. He left the band for personal reasons in August 1980 during a tour for the album Heaven and Hell. He sat out one album (1981's Mob Rules) before returning for 1983's Born Again. He once again left the band following the recording of that album, due to ill health. He was officially back in the band again in the summer of 1984, but the band did not record or tour then.

Before the full-blown reunion, Bill Ward and the original Sabbath had re-united twice for short sets, first for Live Aid in 1985 and then at a Costa Mesa, California Ozzy Osbourne show on November 15th, 1992. Sabbath, with ex-Judas Priest singer Rob Halford replacing the recently-departed Ronnie James Dio, opened the show for Ozzy in honor of it being his last show ever. Then the Ozzy Osbourne band (Ozzy, Zakk Wylde, Mike Inez, Randy Castillo and John Sinclair) did a full set before Ozzy was reunited with Tony, Geezer and Bill for four numbers.

Ward made a brief return to the band for a South American tour in 1994, before finally rejoining the band for the two shows at the Birmingham NEC, England on December 4th and 5th 1997, which made up the 'Reunion' album. (When what was billed as the original line-up reunited for the Ozzfest tour in 1997 Mike Bordin played drums.) Ward then had to skip all but the last two band appearances in 1998 while he recovered from a heart-attack suffered during the tour rehearsals that May. As was the case in 1980, he was again replaced at short-notice by Vinny Appice, although this time it was always intended to be a temporary absence for Ward, health allowing. Thankfully he was well enough to return for good in 1999 and has remained with Sabbath ever since.

In October 2006 news leaked that Ward would be reuniting with Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Ronnie James Dio for a tour though under the moniker 'Heaven and Hell', however, Ward later decided not to participate in the tour, but that he would participate in the tour and new album of the original Black Sabbath lineup in late 2007. Since then, Heaven and Hell have continued to the end of 2007 and drawn up rough provisional plans for 2008. The future of Black Sabbath is at present unknown in light of this.

Bill is a vegan.

Discography

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

Notable Facts and Trivia

Bill Ward sported a beard from time to time during the 70s. While drinking in a bar with the other members one night, Tony Iommi lit it on fire.

References

External links



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Last updated on Sunday March 09, 2008 at 14:22:08 PDT (GMT -0700)
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