BILL WARD: 'I Have 60 Cassettes Of New BLACK SABBATH Songs We've Worked On'

BLACK SABBATH drummer Bill Ward recently gave an interview to the U.K.'s Rhythm magazine in which he discussed the group's early years, his musical upbringing and SABBATH's current status. Asked if there are any plans to make another BLACK SABBATH album, Ward said, "That would be nice. I'd like to. We certainly have enough material. At my house here, I have nearly 60 cassettes of new SABBATH songs we've worked on. It's just stuff we churned out. [Guitarist] Tony [Iommi] and [bassist] Geezer [Butler] have the same amount of tapes. Tony comes up with these riffs, and like we always did, I tried some melody ideas, took them back to Tony, he would come back to me with ideas, same with Geezer. We'd be sending things back and forth. We just share ideas and that makes the songs work, like always. I just love it. I love them all and working with them is so easy. You just have to listen to Tony, see where he's going, and he inspires so much. So we'd like to do another SABBATH album, but Ozzy's [been] on tour. Geezer's in the U.K. Tony is working on projects. We just have to just get together in the same room."

In the same issue of Rhythm magazine, current OZZY OSBOURNE drummer Mike Bordin spoke about filling in for his "hero" Bill Ward for a number of BLACK SABBATH dates several years ago.

"I've been really, really into music since I was about eight years old, but when I first heard a BLACK SABBATH record, that was it — there was nothing else," Bordin said.

"The very next week, on April 6, 1974, I saw them on TV on the 'California Jam'. It was the most compelling, the most exciting, the most physical thing that I had ever seen — it was a revelation. I remember Bill as this big, crazy, giant hairy dude with red tights and no shirt. By the middle of the first song, you couldn't see him — it was just hair and flailing arms.

"When you look at Bill's style of playing, you have to look at it in the context of the giants around him. Geezer, Tony and Ozzy are like forces of nature, and to balance in between them and not be squished, you have to be a giant as well.

"Bill's playing is phenomenally individual and completely unique — nobody can play those songs like him. I was raised on BLACK SABBATH music and it was hugely important to me even before I started playing drums.

"Bill Ward is a prince of a human being and I feel honored to have had a chance to play in BLACK SABBATH with Ozzy, Tony and Geezer. It was my tribute to the man that wasn't onstage, but should have been…"