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For other persons named Bill Ward, see Bill Ward (disambiguation).
William Thomas "Bill" Ward (born 5 May 1948, Aston, Birmingham, England), is an English musician, best known as the original drummer for the 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"[1] from Technical Ecstasy and "Swinging The Chain"[1] from Never Say Die!. Ward's drumming often closely doubled the bass and guitar riffs. An example of this is the song "Iron Man" on the Paranoid album.
[edit] BiographyPrior to the formation of Black Sabbath, Bill Ward and guitarist Tony Iommi played in a band called Mythology,[2] and joined vocalist Ozzy Osbourne and bassist Geezer Butler, who had played in a band together called "Rare Breed".[3] Between 1969 and 1980, Ward played drums on every Sabbath album. He left the band to play in Max Havoc in August 1980 during a tour for the album Heaven and Hell.[2] 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.[4] He was officially back in the band again in the summer of 1984, but the band did not record or tour then. According to Tony Iommi, he and the band would often set Ward's beard on fire and perform other harmful pranks on him. On one occasion, Ward even received third-degree burns.[5] Before the full-blown reunion, 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 15 November 1992. Sabbath, with Judas Priest singer Rob Halford, replacing the recently-departed Ronnie James Dio, opening the show for Osbourne in honour of it being his last show ever. The Ozzy Osbourne band (Osbourne, Zakk Wylde, Mike Inez, Randy Castillo and John Sinclair) then did a full set before Osbourne was reunited with Iommi, Butler and Ward 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 4 and 5 December 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. He was well enough to return for good in 1999 and has remained with Sabbath ever since. Since mid-2002, Ward has done a monthly internet only radio show named "Rock 50" on radio station WPMD from Cerritos College in California. Ward plays a variety of metal, hard rock, and some classic rock.[6] 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.[7] Ward has two sons, Nigel and Aron, and one daughter, Emily. [edit] Discography[edit] 1970s
[edit] 1980s
[edit] 1990s
[edit] 2000s
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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