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!

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!

H! Everyone.
Happy New Year.

The radio show is on Saturday, January 24th ­ the first show of ¹09. I want to make it heavy from top to bottom. As you know, we play mostly Hardcore Metal from Celtic Frost to Gwar, and Metallica to Opeth. I¹m going to change the format slightly for the January and February shows. I¹m adding in some Classic Metal and Hard Rock. Check us out. If you have comments about the new format, please contact me at bward@billward.com. I would appreciate your feedback.

January¹s show will include Metallica, Slipknot, Dimmu Borgir, Dew Scented, Led Zeppelin, and many more great bands.

Stay strong,
Bill Ward

H! Everyone.

The Christmas Show airs on Saturday, December 6th. As usual, the songs are all brilliant and come from different types of bands and artists. It’s not a Metal show, although we’re featuring some of Metal’s best. The Christmas Show is realistic. I’ve always tried to keep it on the ground in a way that may help those in need, suffering and in hardship. We have uplifting songs ­ strong and hopeful.

Some of the bands/artists we’re playing are John Lennon, George Harrison, Traffic, Type-O Negative, Ministry, Korn, Cream, Slipknot and many, many more. Check us out if you can. Please note we’ll be back in January with our regular abnormal Metal show.

Stay strong. Stay safe.

–Bill Ward

H! Everyone.

This November 15th we’ll be playing our Armistice show on “Rock 50.” Check out the show if you have the time.

Like our 9/11 show, the Armistice show is not 100% Metal. We dedicate the Armistice show to all who have fallen in foreign and domestic wars since November 11, 1918 through and up to today’s wars. November 11th is the official Armistice Day throughout Europe, all over the world, and here in the U.S.A.

We’ve been doing this show for a number of years now, and hope to continue this tradition. Bands appearing: A Perfect Circle, Ozzy, Ministry, Anthrax, Billy Joel’s classic “Goodnight Saigon,” and much, much more.

Stay strong,
Bill Ward

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.

This past Saturday, Bill Ward hosted this month’s edition of Rock 50, his regular radio show. However, this month’s episode was a little different. It was Bill’s tribute to the >September 11th attacks from seven years ago now.

This show started off with a three minute or so speech by Bill Ward about the show. You can download an mp3 of that track here: https://www.billward.com/sounds/Bill_Ward_911_show_intro.mp3

You can view the track listing for the show here, and don’t forget, you can get all the latest (plus all the past track listings) at Bill’s Rock 50 page here:

http://rock50.billward.com

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

Dear Everybody,

This July12th is our summer touring bands show, featuring some great newer bands and some of the older, established Hard Rock/Metal bands – Judas Priest, Metallica, and Testament. At The Gates and Children of Bodom are just a few of a host of Metal¹s Greatest on our playlist. Check out the show if you can. We’ve been around now for a while and deliver consistently good Metal shows each month.

Stay Strong.

Love Live Metal.

–Bill

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!