Bill has sent in the the latest in his Audio Diary series (the 11th). This new edition, totaling 25:10 in length is available right now. Here’s some of what Bill had to say in this edition.

* – Black Sabbath & UK Hall of Fame, and some events in his life surrounding it.

* – Some of the other artists he ran into and the lack of “rock star bullshit”.

* – His Diabetes & More on Vegan Food Issues.

* – Problems getting Beans & Toast from the rudest woman in England.

* – Some thoughts on this Christmas season.

Here’s the link to the audio diary:

https://www.billward.com/sounds/diary121205.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.

Bill Ward will be on VH1 in the US this coming Saturday with Black Sabbath as part of VH1’s coverage of the UK Hall of Fame.

The ceremony will air on VH1 this Saturday, November 26th at 10/9C PM with an immediate rerun right after the first showing. Further repeat showings will be on VH1 Classic starting on November 27th at 8/7C PM as well as on VH1 itself. Please check your local listings to confirm the date/times from your provider.

If you want to see more information from VH1 about this program, check out their page for the program.

Newsflash for this Saturday’s Rock 50 radio show by Bill Ward…

The final 30 Minutes of Saturday¹s ³ROCK² 50² show are going to be dedicated to UK Music Hall of Fame Ceremony Bill will breakaway from the usual hardcore format during the final 30 minutes of this Saturday¹s ³Rock 50² show to highlight the UK Music Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Tune in while Bill shares his thoughts on the event and pays tribute to his fellow nominees, including Pink Floyd, The Who, The Kinks and Jimi Hendrix.

For more info about Rock 50 and Bill Ward, check out the Rock 50 page here.

Bill has sent along a few words about next week’s induction of Black Sabbath into the UK Music Hall of Fame..

‘Wow, I¹m shocked,’ was my first reaction. Then, ‘This feels pretty good. What a nice surprise, Black Sabbath being honoured in the U.K.’

Yes, I think that¹s a really cool thing to happen for us. Thanks U.K. Hall of Fame. –Bill Ward/Black Sabbath

Bill has more online to say about the Hall of Fame next week in his latest edition of his online diary. Make sure to check that out.

Bill has sent in the the latest in his Audio Diary series (the tenth). This new edition, totaling 20:22 in length is a little shorter than some of the others he’s done, but this one has a lot of really good information in it. Here’s the bullet poiints…

* – Details about the special Christmas episode of his Rock 50 radio show

* – A few thoughts on the induction of Black Sabbath into the UK Hall of Fame

* – Jack Bruce & Cream

* – A huge update on the status of Bill’s long awaited third solo album, “Beyond Aston”. Bill uses the phrase “light at the end of the tunnel” in his update, so you definitely do not want to miss this.

Bill refers to a few things in this diary, and I wanted to make sure that everyone knew how to reach them.

1) You can download the song “The Dark Half Hour” from the sounds page here on this site. The Dark Half Hour is a song from Beyond Aston that Bill has made available as a free, legal download from his website.

2) Straws. While the free download of Straws was withdrawn awhile ago, you can still obtain it by donating to one of several charities that Bill has teamed up with. You can get more information on the Straws charities here.

3) Rock 50. Here is the page with further information about the Rock 50 show.

Here’s the link to the audio diary:

https://www.billward.com/sounds/diary110705.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.

H! Everybody!

Bill Ward here.

I wanted to drop in a brief message about what’s in store for our November 19th and December 10th radio shows.

First, I’m still celebrating/acknowledging that it’s Sabbath’s 35th Anniversary in the U.S., so there will be Sabbath music and some pre-recorded well-wishes. There are two interviews in the November show, Shadows Fall – great band – Jason & Jon talking backstage, and also, recently I interviewed Matt McDonough of Mudvayne, particularly about their last CD “Lost and Found” (check out the October show Mudvayne track “Pushing Through,” incredible song). Matt’ s interview is great. So if you can, check out these guys, Matt McDonough of Mudvayne and Jason Bittner and Jon Donais of Shadows Fall. All most talented musicians.

On the November show, I finally get to catch up since coming off tour with the Sabs and play some more GZR as promised back in the early summer. If you’ ve not heard this CD or GZR period, then go buy their CD. The album’s superb. Try not to miss them on our November 19th radio show.

Other tracks being played in November: Soilwork, Fear Factory, Foo Fighters of course, Darkest Hour, possibly Soulfly (an incredible album) and surprise tracks. Surprise tracks are tracks I’ve not chosen yet, so it’ll be a surprise for you and me, hopefully. In any event, if you like hard rock and metal with some Pavarotti, blues and jazz thrown in from time to time, then check us out.

Our December show is kind of like my “Best of” show I do in one of the summer months, except I play what I think is cool for Christmas. Rather than playing Bing’s “White Christmas,” our mascot song pretty much is Type O Negative’ s “Red Water (Christmas Mourning)” which upon first hearing, I fell in love with, and I’ve been playing it ever since. There’s a brief interview with Johnny Kelly (drummer, Type O) who sets up the “Red Water” track. Again, there are pre-recorded Happy Anniversary messages for Sabbath.

I mentioned earlier the summer “Best of” show I do. It’s not necessarily slamming all the way. I go across the board, playing stuff from all musical paths. The Christmas show is like that, too. We don’t slam all the time. Those listening know that “Rock 50” plays 70% of what I consider hardcore metal, not to be confused with the corporate retailers’ version of “hardcore,” although what I call hardcore often intertwines with that latter definition. I digress.

My point is, we deviate from our normal programming for Christmas. At times, I’m tempted to put the Barking Dogs barking “Jingle Bells” next to Killswitch, but I’ve not done so yet. Songs featured so far for December are probably Killswitch, and possibly Spineshank’s version of George Harrison’s “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” We’ve played that version many times on “Rock 50.”

Speaking of George Harrison, I’m checking out some Bangladesh cuts. U2 have what I consider a great Christmas song, “Crumbs from Your Table.” I may play “Welcome to the Strange” (Murder Dolls), but we always play that on our ” Best of” show. Maybe we won’t play the Foo Fighters, that’ll be different.

I love doing the Christmas show. We’ll make it rock. Again, check it out, guys.

Long live music and the freedom to express exactly, precisely, what’s in the heart.

“Place your head upon whatever you’ve been chosen to call bed.” “Ward One: Along The Way

Thanks,
Bill

P.S. Big News: In Flames interview on the January “Rock 50” show and track glimpses from their brand new CD.

For more on Rock 50, please visit the Rock 50 page here at billward.com

A special thanks go out to Richard Johnson, who provided Bill with several behind the scenes pictures he took during several Ozzfest 2005 gigs. There’s plenty to check out, so click on the thumbnail below to view the photo gallery.

There’s a new interview with Bill Ward online now. It’s with the website allaboutjazz.com, and you should definitely check it out, as Bill talks about his career playing the drums and how it felt to be influenced by the blues growing up in Birmingham, England. Here’s a few quotes from the article:

AAJ: At what age did you start playing?

BW: I think I might have been about four, four or five, because my mother told me that they thought there was something wrong with me because I continually kept tapping on furniture. They thought I had something which, in Birmingham where I was born—or actually I was born in Aston which is in Birmingham—they said that I had Saint Vitus’s Dance, and Saint Vitus’s Dance is a common term in the midlands for somebody who can’t sit still.

AAJ: How would you say the group’s creative approach differed in the early days as compared to later albums?

BW: That’s a tough question actually. I think it comes in several parts. The first three albums or four albums, for me at least, I felt like they came out of big jams because we literally would sit in a room and just jam and a song would come from that. Giving credit where credit is due, I think that Tony would jam a little bit more than everybody else [Laughs], definitely work more on the arrangements and spend a lot more time with the song.

“Being influenced by dynamic music, I felt quite suited for blues and jazz which is pretty much what we really liked to play, especially more traditional blues.”

You can check out the full interview over at the All About Jazz site here.

We often get many requests here at billward.com asking what Bill plays. What snare drums, what cymbals, etc… Well, we finally have an answer to these requests online. Below is a thumnail for a diagram showing Bill’s kit that he used on tour with Black Sabbath in 2005. The diagram was done up by Tony Moon (Bill’s drum tech).

All the drums are Tama Imperialstar (circa 1980) unless otherwise noted.
All the cymbals are Sabian.

Check out a larger version of the kit here, or by clicking on the thumbnail.

This Saturday’s Rock 50 episode will be a special edition. It features interviews with the band “The Haunted” as well as with Craig Nunenmacher of Black Label Society. You won’t want to miss this.

For more info on Rock 50 including links on how to listen in, check out the Rock 50 page here on billward.com.