There’s a recent audio interview with Bill Ward out and about. If you missed it when it was first published a few weeks back, you should give it a listen. It’s Episode 24 of “Shockwaves Skull Sessions”. The specific episode title is “Ozzy & Black Sabbath”. You can check it out here:

http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/music/view.aspx?songID=2495

Here’s a description of the episode from their site:

This episode features a 4-way discussion with legendary Black Sabbath drummer Bill Ward, Roadrunner Records VP of A&R Monte Conner, and metal enthusiast David Tedds as they join Skull Sessions host Bob Nalbandian in this mesmerizing and historic exploration into the first decade of Black Sabbath, commonly referred to as the “Ozzy-era.” The four discuss the entire catalog, from Sabbath’s groundbreaking 1970 debut leading up to 1978’s Never Say Die release. This is perhaps the most compelling Skull Sessions discussion yet. A MUST LISTEN for any Sabbath fan!

The latest edition of Bill’s monthly Rock 50 radio show happened a few weeks ago. We hope you had a chance to listen in. If you did not (or if you did anyway), the track listing from the show is now available. You can check it out here.

In addition to that, we have an mp3 widget available where you can listen to sound samples from all the songs Bill played this month. That is available at the bottom of this news story (save for two that weren’t available in mp3 format).

FREE MP3 BONUS: One of the tracks Bill played in the June show was “More than Meets the Eye” from the band Testament. The Amazon.com MP3 store, which we link to for mp3 purchases is offering this mp3 for free. It is unknown how long they will be doing that, so if you’re interested in a free legal copy of this song, click this link to be taken to the song in Amazon.com’s MP3 store.

If you have any comments on the tracks Bill played this month, please let us know by commenting on this story. You can do that by clicking the “Leave a Reply” link at the bottom of this story.

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.

H! Everyone,

I wanted to let you know that in our radio show Rock 50 this month (June 20th) besides the Hardcore Metal we normally play, I’m starting a show within a show. The show within the show will be called “The Classics,” and if the idea works, I’ll feature it each month in the second hour of the Rock 50 Hardcore show.

Metallica and Rob Halford will kick off “The Classics” portion. “The Classics” portion will be about 20 minutes long.

Other bands featured this month will be Machine Head, Ministry, Exodus, Lamb
of God and Rob Zombie.

Check us out.

Stay strong,
Bill Ward

This Monday, 13th April, you can hear Bill talk about the recording and re-release of Paranoid, what the album means to him and the history, and possible future of the mighty Black Sabbath. That’s the BBC Radio 1 Rock Show with Daniel P Carter on Monday 13th April at midnight to 2am.

You can listen live in the UK on 97-99FM and online worldwide at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/listen/index.shtml

And listen back from Tuesday AM, all week, on the link on the Rock Show homepage; http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/rockshow/

There’s another cool audio interview with Bill online now. This one comes from 106.1 Rock Radio in Manchester. You’ll want to check it out and give it a listen to hear what Bill has to say.

Bill Ward made an appearance on the Kerrang! Video Podcast where he mostly talks about the re-releases of the first three Black Sabbath albums as enhanced versions. But more importantly he talks about those red tights on the Sabotage album cover! 🙂

Check it out…

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!

The latest edition of Bill’s monthly Rock 50 radio show happened this past Saturday. We hope you had a chance to listen in. If you did not (or if you did anyway), the track listing from the show is now available. You can check it out here.

In addition to that, as part of the new feature set here on Bill’s website, we have an mp3 widget available where you can listen to sound samples from all the songs Bill played this month. That is available at the bottom of this news story.

In addition to that, Amazon.com is currently running a promotion where you can download one of the tracks that was played in this month’s episode for free. In their MP3 store, you can download the track “More than Meets the Eye” from Testament legally for free by clicking here. Check out all the tracks available for purchase here.

If you have any comments on the tracks Bill played this month, please let us know by commenting on this story. You can do that by clicking the “Leave a Reply” link at the bottom of this story.

This mp3 widget requires Flash to work, and if you have ad blocking software, please disable it for this site. We run no ads here, and ad blocking software can block features from working here.

Hello gang. A hearty welcome to the freshly overhauled Official Bill Ward Website!

As long time visitors of this site know, the previous “look and feel” had grown stagnant to the point of looking really old fashioned and behind the times. It needed to be thrown out and overhauled. That’s exactly what has happened. You’re looking at the all new site, with some new additions, some subtractions, and a fresh coat of paint thrown in for good measure. This message is to detail the changes.

• First off, we’ve lost the frames structure. That was great a decade ago, but over time, that concept of website design became cumbersome. Especially when people linked to direct pages, it made the site look bad.
• A few options from the old site menu are now gone. Sounds & Pictures have been combined into a new “Media” option. Links has been moved to the bottom of the page.
• The forums are gone. When originally instituted, it was thought that Bill would interact with the fans directly through the forums. However, as time went along, we realized that wouldn’t be happening, so it was decided to remove the forums from the new website. However, individual stories will have comments open, so you can now leave feedback to individual stories going forward.
• The Rock 50 page has been expanded somewhat to include some streaming versions of selected old shows.
• The Rock 50 archive pages starting in January 2009 are going to be more enhanced. If you look at one, you will see what I mean. You will now be able to click through to Amazon.com and buy individual mp3’s of the songs Bill plays. On top of that, there will be a widget which allows for sound samples of all the songs (when available). We think this will greatly increase the usefulness of the Rock 50 archives. We’ve included a widget in this news story to show you an example of what it will look like.
• There is also a streaming media player permanently on the website now. It will include selected songs of Bill’s. Right now it has some live tracks from Rock 50 performances, a track from the Beyond Aston sessions, as well as a single track from both Ward One & When the Bough Breaks. These streaming tracks will be rotated out over time so you can hear more of the music from Bill’s first two albums.

Oh, a quick note. If you run ad blocking software in your web browser, disable it for Bill’s site. There are no advertisements here anyway, and the ad blockers can prevent some of the new features from working right.

If you have any questions about the new website, it’s layout, or where content might have gone, drop Joe Siegler an email at siegler@billward.com. We’ll be glad to answer your questions.

Welcome back!