Bill recently did a couple of interviews with a few magazines, and we want to make sure you see them, as there’s some cool stuff to read.

First up is an interview with ‘Sup Magazine.  This one is titled “Invasion Meets Sabbath“, and covers a wide range of topics from the much trodden ground of Sabbath’s beginning to the kind of tunes that Bill listens to and is into today.  It was originally conducted in the Summer of 2009.  Here’s a bit from that interview:

I’d agree that Metallica definitely picked up your baton in 1983 and they and Black Sabbath are easily the best metal bands ever for me. It feels to me there are lots of good new bands who understand what you were about back in the ‘70s, and I think that the next decade is going to be really exciting for metal. I guess Geezer wrote a lot of your lyrics, but you had this power and intensity. Where did you pick that up from?

Bill: Part of it came from our predecessors. There were great bands in the ‘60s. A lot of bands were referencing flower power and peace. I want to make it clear that I’m not being negative about that whole movement, but we were from Aston and there wasn’t much of a hippie era going on there. At least 50 percent of our day was spent looking at the guy across the street to see if he was going to run over and kick you in the head. That was our reality.

There still is a sense of counter culture in there though “Sweet Leaf” and “Children Of The Grave” and other antiwar songs.

Bill: Well, we were pissed off, you know? “Sweet Leaf” is a very aggressive song when we do it live. “Sweet Leaf” and “Iron Man” were the rallying points for all the young men coming back from Vietnam. And when I think about it– to be quite honest with you, Marek–I start to cry because life is precious and I can still see the audiences when we played those songs. All the vets were up the front, so all we could see were the vets. When those songs came on, they were trying to get out of their wheelchairs. They came to hear those songs. We’d give them our all. They were men that didn’t want to go to war. They were pushed into it and nobody thanked them when they came back.

The second of the interviews is a new interview from February of 2010 with the “Stay Thirsty Media” site.   This interview, entitled “Never Say Die!” has some tidbits which will be of particular interest to fans.  Here’s some tidbits to whet your appetite.

THIRSTY: What are you currently involved in musically? Does the Bill Ward Band still participate in the modern music scene?

BW: Oh yea! This year I’ve worked nonstop. I’m in the process of finishing up three albums, which are ALL my albums. When I write songs, I usually write everything (tracks), so I compose in guitar, bass, keyboards, melody arrangements, the vocals…just everything really. So I’m really active inside my own music…

THIRSTY: And how about playing live? Has the Bill Ward Band, or any other projects you may be affiliated scheduled an upcoming tour?

BW: I haven’t played live at all in a long time. The last time I played live was with ‘The Sabs’ (Black Sabbath) which was about four years ago. I’ve been really active in the studio, writing and spending time with a lot of musicians.

THIRSTY: On these upcoming albums, are you the sole musician or do you have a group accompanying you on the tracks?

BW: When I say I write, I write the parts and so forth, but I have other players that play the music. On the newest work, that’s coming out in the spring, Keith Lynch (Bill Ward Band veteran) is playing guitar. Paul Ill is playing some bass and then I have a couple of other guys that will play bass as well. Paul’s also from early years of the Bill Ward Band. And then I have my own drummer, Ronnie Ciago who’s playing on several tracks. I’m playing drums on several tracks too, so it’s pretty much a band album if you’d like. There are some guests coming onto the following two albums after the spring one, but it’s all under wraps right now [laughs]. They’re rock and rollers man…so they agreed to do it but now let’s get them all together in a room and nail it!

The Thirsty interview also talks about other things too, like Bill’s relationship with Ronnie James Dio, the early days with Tony Iommi in 1966, Jimi Hendrix, Michael Jackson, online music piracy, and of course Black Sabbath.   You won’t want to miss this one for sure!

Once there is some more concrete information about these albums (plural!) from Bill, we’ll be sure to pass it on.

As you may or may not know both Geezer Butler & Bill Ward are vegans. Geezer has done spots for PETA, and while Bill doesn’t do that kind of thing too much, I did just run across a cool article about Bill’s diet called “Bill Ward – The Heavy Metal Vegan Pt 1“. It talks about his food choices, what he makes, and what it’s like being a vegan where he lives. There’s also a recipe available for “Bill Ward’s Enchilada Pie“. It actually looks good, I might have to try making it myself. This is part of a larger site (which is newly launched) called “The Rock & Roll Cook“.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Photo is (c) 2009 Christopher Wagner.

Bill’s recent interview with clashmusic.com details his six steps on how to survive the biz side of the music industry, which can be a “writ” (har har har). Anyway, Bill’s steps are:

1. You Don’t Have to Be Cool
2. You Don’t Have to be Fit
3. Cherish Your Band
4. Read your Contracts
5. Power to the People
6. Have a Laugh

It’s a pretty cool article, where Bill talks about such concepts as letting the audience react, not carrying around a lot of angst & pain like some musicians do, and to just have fun. Check out the whole article here.

A couple of new “behind the scenes” type pictures have been put on the website. They’re both from the July 2009 Rock 50 episode. One shows Bill in the Rock 50 studio, and the other is a picture of Bill arriving at the studio with friend Richard Johnson. You can check them out at the Bill Ward photo gallery here.

Well, they’re new to the web, the pictures themselves are on the average a couple of years old. The majority of them are from the recording sessions for Bill’s long delayed solo album, “Beyond Aston”. You can check them out here, or via the slide show below. There are two others not from the sessions which you can view here and here.

This coming Saturday night the 4th of April, Bill will be on the XFM Radio show with Ian Camfield from 10PM till 2AM in the UK.

If you are in the UK, you can listen to Ian’s show on 104.9 FM, on digital radio, and anyone in the world can listen online at http://www.xfm.co.uk! Make sure to tune in and check out Bill’s latest appearance!

With a new website comes new stuff, right? While Bill is still not ready to present any new music, we had a quick look around into the archives and found a couple of small nuggets we wanted to throw out there. First is a picture (shown here) of Bill from 2005. This was taken inside his trailer while on Ozzfest 2005. He’s also wearing a T-Shirt from one of his favorite bands, “In Flames“.

The second is an mp3 of an interview Bill did several years ago with Craig Nunenmacher of Black Label Society. This was going to be the launching point of a series of interviews that never got off the ground, but we thought now was a good time to get the interview out there. If you listen to it, the interview refers to itself as “Part 1”, and said there was going to be a “Part 2”. Part 2 never happened. 🙂

Anyway, you can download the mp3 here, or you can listen to it via the embedded player here in this post. Enjoy!

Thanks to all of you who sent in questions for Bill’s year-end Hails & Horns column. Be sure to pick up a copy of the Nov-Feb double-issue when it hits the stands to see if he answered your question. In the meantime, you can check out Bill’s current column “The Royal Iris” in the Sept/Oct issue on newsstands now.

Calling out to all the inquisitive!

I’ve been reminded that I’m not answering the mail as we have in the past. So, for the next Hails & Horns column, send in your questions – any subject – except sex – I don’t go down that street. I know…”Boo, ya bastard.”

We will take questions between September 4 and September 24. Please send the questions to: bward@billward.com with “Hails & Horns Question” as the subject line.

OK. Rules:

No Stupid Questions, e.g. body part sizes; favourite food; vegan: Asian; times married (4). Why didn’t you play the first Reunion Tour in 1997? I wasn’t asked. What was it like to be sober again in’84? Terrifying! Personal questions about Ozzy, Geezer, Tony, and is that you singing on “Planet Caravan?” No, that’s Ozzy.

OK. Enough. I hope you know I love you all, and I’m fucking around. Send in music questions, drum questions, or send anything you want. Even “Hey, Bill, Fuck off,” will work!

Hey, stay strong. Stay safe.

–Bill Ward

If you’re a regular listener to Bill’s appearances on the Rock 50 show, then you know that the most recent episode (from early May) was a special one. It was a show where Bill celebrated his 60th birthday by playing basically whatever he wanted.

There was one unplanned moment though where instudio Bill was surprised with a birthday cake on the air. We’re bringing you a small two minute download where you can check out Bill’s surprise at the cake. He also tells a short story about how when on tour by himself or with the Sabs, how a Rainbow song is instrumental in his touring routine. Check out the audio file here:

https://www.billward.com/sounds/bills60thcelebration.mp3

Additionally, the Rock 50 page has been updated. The next show date has been posted, as well as the playlist archives for April and May now both being available.

Thanks for listening!