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" from Technical Ecstasy and "Swinging the Chain" from Never Say Die!. He also coined the term "downer rock." Ward's drumming often c...
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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" from Technical Ecstasy and "Swinging the Chain" from Never Say Die!. He also coined the term "downer rock." Ward's drumming often closely doubled the bass and guitar riffs. An example of this is the song "Iron Man" on the Paranoid album.
Before 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 to play in Max Havoc in August 1980 during a tour for the album Heaven and Hell. He sat out one album (1981's Mob Rules) before...
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