BILL WARD: I Wanted BLACK SABBATH To Go On

April 11, 2004

BLACK SABBATH drummer Bill Ward recently spoke to Classic Rock Revisited about the possibility of the band reuniting for a future tour and studio album. Asked if it ever gets frustrating that SABBATH is not out there, Bill said, "It is frustrating. On the last tour we did, we all worked so hard. I became frustrated and a little bit angry and disappointed at the end of the touring period because the band was sounding so hot. It made no sense to me to stop at the last gig. My chops were tight with Geezer and Tony. I was just learning what I had forgotten! I felt that I could go on for years but we had to stop and pull the plug. That is where commercialism comes in over musicism. However, we still sounded great and we were having a blast and I just wanted to go on. We could have gone around the world. Those were just my expectations and I could understand things from a business point of view but it was kind of sad."

In the same interview, Bill spoke about his substance-abuse problems that almost caused him to take his own life in the early 1980s.

"I came off the road from the 'Heaven & Hell' tour because my addictions were so strong at the time that the most important thing to me was getting high. It had reached such a point that I was just out of it all the time. I didn't know what was going on. I was completely fucked up, period. Booze became the most important thing in my life. It was more important than my children, my wife and even myself. I went on a downward spiral in 1980. By the time 1983 came I had already been in several detoxes. It was getting worse and worse all the time. On January the 2nd or the 3rd 1984, I finally relinquished and went into a hospital. This was after my final suicide attempt. I could not stand the idea of being sober. I had over a year sober at the time of my suicide attempt but I couldn't stand being sober so I decided to kill myself. . . I started getting sober in 1981. I would go a month or two and then drink again and then do the same thing over and over. If you add it up then it would have been about a year. On January 22, 2004, I celebrated my 20th year without any drinking and dope."

Read Ward's entire interview with Classic Rock Revisited at this location.

Find more on
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • reddit
  • email

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).