My condolences to Arthur Lee’s family, and my thanks to Arthur for all his music. My most vivid memory as a teenager was rehearsing “My Little Red Book” for the local community centre gig and the Friday night gigs (pre-Sabbath) and later (with Sabbath) in Frisco at Fillmore West or Winterland (I’m not sure which venue.) I was honoured to be a part of helping Love’s drummer (at that time, 1970) fix his snare drum, being high as we were in those days, it was a challenging project. Becoming successful, Love continued to play on. Fond memories.

Arthur Lee – certainly original; influential – yes; different – yes; and so soulful. Thank you again, Arthur. You are remembered fondly, and your music will live in my heart forever.

Bill Ward

Thank you, Syd for the brilliant lyrics, melodies and songs.

Like so many you touched, you reached me also and provoked much to contemplate.

Rest in peace, Syd. My condolences to your family.

Syd and Gerald forever.

–Bill Ward (Black Sabbath)

Comment:

It’s plain, if we look at history, that bombing “the enemy” (these days we can include missiles, also) will only unite a country or a city.

Bombing kills and maims and destroys material worth; it scars the hearts of those still alive (like many, my parents were bombed multiple times, I’ve heard their scars.) Eventually bombing/missile attacks will win nothing, in my opinion.

I think the only positive effect that comes from being attacked is the unification of those in peril. It’s well written historically how people of all nations have tightened their belts, dug in and fought for life itself, overcoming anything “the enemy” tried to destroy. From the London Blitz to Stalingrad, Berlin, Vietnam and Iraq, it’s so obvious that the missiles and bombs bring no real solution to anything.

–Bill

P.S. For those glued to CNN, I humbly suggest the following:

1. Educate yourself in the word objectification.
2. Stop using escalating words and statements, i.e. World War III.
3. Have an open mind and maybe don’t gather up all of the world’s trouble spots, potential, or otherwise (media-fanned), and amplified for dramatic effect, to hit yourself over the head with fear. Don’t do that. You’re worth more, way more, than that.
4. Pray President Bush will preside with an open mind and not be one-sided and judgmental to all those in conflict at this time. A humanitarian process to stop the guns and back off, I hope, will be forthcoming.

In addition to the Summer Sale program, Bill is also starting a series of ebay auctions. The first item up for auction at Ebay is an authentic Black Sabbath drumhead autographed by Bill Ward.

This drumhead is a Remo Snare Drumhead played by Bill Ward from 08-06-05 in East Troy, WI and retired after the Cynthia Woods Pavilion concert in Houston, TX on 08-27-05. The drumhead was autographed by Bill Ward on 05-31-06. Here is a picture of the drumhead (click on it for a larger picture):

This auction starts this evening (Fri, June 30th) at 8PM Eastern Time (in the US). Here is a link to the Ebay auction page. Please note it will generate an error until the auction has actually started.

Finally, if you are the winner of this auction, Bill will personalize the drumhead for you!

As Bill mentioned in the latest audio diary a few weeks ago, he’s having a Summer Garage Sale. Several new items are now available to order, plus the items that were already in the merchandise page have had their prices dropped. Here’s a list of the details:

Existing Item Price Drops

• When the Bough Breaks CD, price dropped from $10 to $5.
• When the Bough Breaks Poster, price dropped from $7 to $4.
• Ward One Poster, price dropped from $7 to $4.
• Straws Charities minimum donation dropped from $35 to $10.

New Items for the Summer Sale

• Snakes & Ladders Radio Promo CD – $5
• When the Bough Breaks “Naked” CD – $5
• Snakes & Ladders T-Shirt (M, L, XL) – $10
• Animals T-Shirt (M, L, XL) – $10
• Hate T-Shirt (M, L, XL) – $10
• Tall Stories T-Shirt (M, L, XL) – $10

Pictures of all of these items are available right now on Bill’s Merchandise page, so go check ’em out, and help Bill clean out his garage! Please note however, that orders will not ship until July 10th, so if you place an order right now, that is when they will commence shipping.

Bill has sent in the the 14th edition of his Audio Diary series. This new edition, totaling 33:56 in length is available right now. It was recorded on Saturday June 3rd, but due to some technical problems was not placed online until June 13th. Here’s some of the highlights of what Bill has to say in this edition:

• Updates on his radio show on what’s coming, including some music from LunarMile; the band fronted by Toni-Marie Iommi
• Update on his column for Hails & Horns magazine
• Updates on Beyond Aston, including some track specifics. One is named “Where You Are Is Not Forever”. Bill does play drums on one song, that being “Poppies”.
• Working on creating Beyond Aston from a technical and drumming aspect as well as going into some heavy detail on drumming issues.
• Bill’s attempts at staying fit
• Talks about a summer garage sale he’s planning on selling some memorabilia off, and some special items that will be going on ebay. (Details on this will be posted in the next day or so).
• Talks briefly about Straws (which will is also on sale under the garage sale).

There’s plenty more to hear as well, so make sure to check it all out. Here’s the link to the audio diary:

https://www.billward.com/sounds/diary060306.m4a

(Right click and select “Save As” or “Save Link As” and save the file to your hard drive, don’t just click this)

You need one of any number of free audio players (Winamp, iTunes, or Musicmatch Jukebox) to play this file. Don’t forget about Bill’s Podcast for the diaries, you can get more info on that here.

You can discuss the audio diary in this thread on Bill’s forums here on billward.com. A short note, if you have Windows Media player, you may have to rename the file extension from m4a to mp4 to get the file to play right in that player.

Beginning this month, Bill will contribute a regular column, titled “Forte, Please” to new Metal magazine, Hails & Horns. The June 2006 issue is arriving in stores now and can be purchased at major music retail outlets, including Tower, Hot Topic, Borders, Barnes and Noble, Virgin, Newbury Comics, FYE, Strawberries, and Coconuts. Hails & Horns is a quarterly publication with the second issue due in September 2006.

Here is an excerpt from Bill’s first column:

From the childhood influences of Rock-n-Roll, Jazz and Blues, to Black Sabbath’s embryonic stirrings, past the mayhem of the 70’s to the Sgt. Pepper triumph of the 90’s, Metallica’s “Black Album”, and more recently, to the enlightening “Vol.3: The Subliminal Verses” by Slipknot, I have been immersed in music and, in saying that, I feel incredibly humbled and fortunate to still be a part of all of this momentum. My peers, and there are a lot of them, they too are still above ground, devouring the future with broad strokes of loud guitars, critical drumming and risking their very souls in the harshness and joys of life. I say again, I’m fortunate and delighted. I am a fan – a great place to be at 58 – and based on the above, I guess I qualify on some level as a person who could share something about Metal.

I’ll begin…

Bill has sent in the the March 2006 edition of his Audio Diary series (the 13th overall entry). This new edition totals 32:29 in length. The subjects discussed in this edition Bill speaks at length on, so there’s not as many different subjects as he normally talks about, but what is talked about is talked about in depth. Here’s what’s going on in this new edition.

• Wilson Pickett, who has recently died. He also talks about how it’s not always easy for some older musicians still trying to make a living at their craft.
• Talks a lot about Black Sabbath’s induction into the Hall of Fame; lots of issues relating to the HOF ceremonies and other bands who went in with Sabbath. Bill also talks about his appreciation for Geezer, Tony, & Oz. Loved Metallica, both in their speeches and in their playing of Sabbath songs.
• A small update on Beyond Aston.
• Bill talks about a couple of deaths in his family recently. One was his wife’s grandmother, and the other, unfortunately was the baby that Bill and his wife were expecting.

If you listen to Bill’s audio diary, he talks a lot about the loss of the baby. Bill and his wife had found it was to be a boy, and they had chosen the name Bram, after Bram Stoker. Bill found out about this when he was deplaning from returning from the trip for Sabbath’s HOF induction.

Naturally, as you can expect, it has not been an easy time for the Ward family. In the diary, Bill talks about sending in emails and letters of condolence. Here are the contact details if you choose to contact Bill regarding this matter.

Via Email: astoncrossmusic@aol.com

Via Snail Mail:
Address no longer valid

If you wish your letter not to be opened and read, please mark it “Private” on the outside. Further details on ‘private letters’ and what will happen with all the emails and letters are in the audio diary. Please check it out.

Here’s the link to the audio diary:

https://www.billward.com/sounds/diary032806.m4a

(Right click and select “Save As” or “Save Link As” and save the file to your hard drive, don’t just click this)

You need one of any number of free audio players (Winamp, iTunes, or Musicmatch Jukebox) to play this file. Don’t forget about Bill’s Podcast for the diaries, you can get more info on that here.

You can discuss the audio diary in this thread on Bill’s forums here on billward.com. A short note, if you have Windows Media player, you may have to rename the file extension from m4a to mp4 to get the file to play right in that player.

Just got the shit news that there’s going to be a movie about the asshole who shot John Lennon. As a Lennon fan, admirer, I can’t believe that this film is coming out on general release. I object completely that we have available to us a movie about a guy who robbed millions of people of so much, who stamped out a brilliant mind, and who broke apart a family. When John Lennon died, my heart broke, and I’ve never gotten over his death, and I know that millions of other people got hurt also.

Whoever is responsible for this movie, the money, the producers, the cast, the music, I fail to see how you can participate in anything that could bring more infamy to an already infamous murderer, robber and pain-bringer.

I curse this movie, and hope that it rots in hell. I hope it’s an utter failure. For me personally, it feels like another kick in the balls. It still hurts. He’s been dead now for awhile, but it still hurts. This movie can only open up old wounds. For the sake of what? Truth? I think not.

–Bill Ward

There’s a great new interview with Bill online, and is definitely something you should check out. It’s not the usual interview asking the same 6 questions about Bill’s life in Black Sabbath. This one has some deeper probing questions than the usual interviews do.

It’s over at allaboutjazz.com, and it talks about Bill’s life in Black Sabbath yes, but in a way that’s different than what’s come before. Talks a lot about how Jazz influenced Bill’s life musically.

Aw… just go read it. You’ll be glad you did. 🙂