Sick Drummer Magazine caught up with original Black Sabbath drummer Bill Ward to talk about his fine art project and new music. Read about Ward’s new music below.
SDM:…Will we maybe be able to hear you behind the drums again anytime soon, regardless of who it may be with?
BW: I think the soonest it’s going to be is probably on an album we are trying to finish right now. We’re in the final mix and some of the tracks are mastered. It’s an album called Accountable Beasts and I’ve been working on and off with it for about five years. I play seven or eight of the drum tracks on it, have put a lot of really hard work into it and I wrote most of the material. I am quite pleased with the amount of work I’ve put into the album to date and I’m hoping it will come out at some point in the near future. I can’t say definitely, but I can say that we are working on the final mix and I kind of have a goal behind that, which is let’s get this thing finished and mixed as soon as possible. We are working on that right now, in fact this very day, to go into the studio and so on and so forth. Setting up our dates, studying my mix sheets, and working out final over-dubs if any need to be done. We have some of the material which is already what I like to call “master-mixed”, it’s board mixed and we don’t need to touch it, it just goes to mastering. There’s nine songs on the record I believe, so that would be the first time you’d get to hear me drumming again, at least at this point. We have other projects that are going on as well, but it’s a bit too early to tell yet.
SDM: You said you wrote most of the material, would that be guitar as well?
BW: Yes. Well, I don’t play guitar but what allows me to be able to work with guitar is that I have an incredible guitar player. He’s so open-minded that when I take my keyboard notes to him, I’ll just play a little bit of the melodies and such. I love working with melodies and I can work out a lot of the different parts, so when I do that my lead guitar player is extremely amicable. We put our ego’s outside the door and it’s like… ok! let me see what we can achieve here. Let me see if I can produce these things you’re trying to get at. It’s a very good working arrangement and he sounds absolutely great on the record, he’s fuckin’ rock-n-rolling! I mean, it’s really good! I obviously like it and I hope everybody else will, but it’s definitely a good piece of work.
Read the entire interview at Sick Drummer Magazine.
source: sickdrummermagazine.com
43 Responses
Instead of trying to take sides in an argument that I know none of the parties in, I’m just gonna wait until the album comes out and see how it is. The truth about all this back and forth garbage between Bill and Sabbath is probably a bit of both – maybe Bill has lost some thunder and it was a crappy deal too. For what it’s worth I never thought Ozzy was a great singer either, but it never stopped me from listening to him. The music was still good and he wasn’t ruining it, so it was fine with me. I won’t argue that the drummer’s job is overall the most physical in the band, but I’d stop short of saying that an older guy just can’t do it anymore IF he (or she) is willing to be disciplined and put in the work to keep up with it. Nicko McBrain was a good example. Neil Peart is still slamming away. Joey Kramer. Those are just some of the guys that come to my mind that still get it done at “advanced” age. Granted, it wouldn’t necessarily be fair to assume that anyone could do that. Some of these guys (and not just drummers) are getting around to the age where joint replacements are a real possibility!
Niko wasn’t shown the door a few gigs into a major tour 33 years ago cause he couldn’t hack it like the Wardster. Ozzy didn’t want this Criss-like train wreck on a very important record and tour. In ’13 you can pro-tools/punch in tom-tom breaks and sound like ’72. File under Chiller Convention guest with Ace. Drumheads are an extra fee to sign.
I have no idea what you just said.
Sad. Black & Blue Tour in ’80, Ward was replaced by Appice cause he was worse than Ozzy drinking. Niko at Ward’s age in ’80 and now kicks ass. Criss was axed for the same reason. In 2013 a child could drum like Ward ’72 with studio hi-jinks. Ace signs stuff at horror conventions, Ward soon.
I think Bill Ward must have failed to yield to Lee in merging traffic. He really hates the fucking guy. I mean this is like personal. If someone backs Ward, he responds with another attack. HOLY SHIT! Stay away from Bill Ward s house. He seems like an alright guy. The other day, Lee s psychiatrist showed him one of those WARSHACK tests, Lee s responce: BILL WARD COVERED IN BLOOD. You say Ward is a good drummer, Lee say s 45 years ago he missed a drum beat that MOTHERFUCKING COCKSUCKER. CALM DOWN! Lee, you re a great blogger but let this one go before Bill Ward ruins your fucking life.
P.S. The Chiller Convention reference is not lost and You gotta let me borrow that going forward.