Bill Ward (musician)

Bill started to play drums as a child, listening to the big bands of the 1940s; his early major influences were Gene Krupa, Buddy Rich and Louie Bellson.

Later he was influenced by drummers such as Larrie Londin, Bernard Purdie, Joe Morello, Keef Hartley, Hughie Flint, John Bonham, Ringo Starr, Jim Capaldi and Clive Bunker.

William Thomas Ward (born 5 May 1948 ) is an English musician.

He was a co-founder and the original drummer for the heavy metal band Black Sabbath.

In the mid-1960s Ward sang and played drums in a band called the Rest, before he and guitarist Tony Iommi played together in a band called Mythology, and upon that band's dissolution joined vocalist Ozzy Osbourne and bassist Geezer Butler, who had previously played together in a band called Rare Breed.

The new band called themselves Earth, but were soon renamed Black Sabbath.

Ward's drug and alcohol use increased throughout Black Sabbath's heyday.

Ward helped found Black Sabbath in 1968 alongside bandmates Ozzy Osbourne (lead singer), Tony Iommi (guitarist) and Geezer Butler (bass).

By the late 1970s he was drinking during gigs, something he had never done before.

He also began experiencing panic attacks.

Iommi claims that Ward almost died after a prank-gone-wrong during recording of Vol. 4 in 1972.

The band were renting a Bel Air mansion belonging to John DuPont of the DuPont chemical company.

The band found several spray cans of gold DuPont paint in a room of the house; finding Ward naked and unconscious after a night of heavy drinking, they thought it would be funny to cover the drummer from head to toe in gold paint.

Ward soon became violently ill and had a seizure and an ambulance had to be called.

The paint had blocked all of Ward's pores, which his bandmates were subsequently informed can be fatal.

Ward has said he cannot remember the recording of the 1980 album Heaven and Hell due to his alcohol abuse.

According to Black Sabbath bandmate Iommi, Ward disappeared on 21 August 1980, without saying goodbye, other than a telephone call to then-Black Sabbath vocalist Ronnie James Dio informing him "I'm off then, Ron."

He then briefly played in a band called Max Havoc.

After a few years in hiatus, Ward decided to return to playing music in the late 1980s.

He sat out one album (1981's Mob Rules) before returning to Black Sabbath for 1983's Born Again album.

Ward once again left for health reasons before the band toured in support of Born Again.

He again rejoined Black Sabbath in 1984 to record new material with David Donato but after several demo tapes, he once again left Sabbath.

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.

In an interview with Guitar World, Iommi described it as follows:

"Bill and I were in the studio rehearsing one day and out of the blue I asked him, "May I set you on fire, Bill?" And he said, "Well, not now, not now." And then I forgot about it. Later on when the day ended, he said to me, "Well, I'm going home now; you still want to set me on fire or what?" And I said, "Sure." So I took a small can of lighter fluid and sprayed it on him, lit a match, and whoomph. He was wearing these polyester pants so they burned really quickly and he was on the floor screaming and crying. I could not help him because I was so busy laughing. It actually turned out to be quite serious. I felt really bad for him. He was sent to the hospital. Later on, his mother called me on the phone and said, "You barmy bastard, it's about time you grew up.

Our Bill is going to have his leg off." But things like that always happened to Bill."

In 1989 he went to work on a solo album, which featured a huge array of guest musicians, including former Black Sabbath bandmate Ozzy Osbourne and his guitarist, Zakk Wylde.

Released in January 1990, Ward One: Along the Way showcased Ward's versatility in musical tastes and abilities; he even sang vocals on some of the songs.

Before the full Black Sabbath reunion, Ward and the original Sabbath had reunited 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 Ronnie James Dio who had recently left the band, opened the show for Osbourne.

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.

It would be seven years before he released his second solo album, When the Bough Breaks, in 1997.

Ward made a brief return to the band for a South American tour in 1994 with Tony Martin fronting, 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 was forced to skip all but the last two Black Sabbath appearances in 1998 while he recovered from a heart attack suffered during the tour rehearsals that May.

As the band rehearsed, Ward stopped and asked if he could lie down for a spell.

He then asked for his assistant and informed the band that his arm had gone numb.

In 2002 he released the song "Straws" as a single for charity.

The song would reappear on his 2015 album Accountable Beasts.