BILL WARD Says Making New BLACK SABBATH Studio Album 'Would Be The Ultimate'

Pat Prince of Goldmine magazine recently conducted an interview with legendary BLACK SABBATH drummer Bill Ward. An excerpt from the chat follow below.

Goldmine: Looking back, is there anything you would do different, concerning BLACK SABBATH?

Ward: I don't regret anything that we've gone through or I've gone through personally. I don't regret any of it. I wouldn't do it differently, including all the mistakes … everything. The first trigger instinct that came out when you asked that question was, "Yeah, I'd like to redo certain drum pieces." (laughs) Not redo but work on the sound of certain drum things, back on those first two or three album in particular. Perhaps a better bass drum sound for "Iron Man", things like that. All musicians are like that.

Goldmine: Speaking of "Iron Man", do you think the song itself has become too commercialized, too mainstream?

Ward: For me, I had to kind of let go of any personal grip I might have had on it. It's like, "No, you can't do that. It's underground music and it has to stay true to itself and everything else." And then life happens. The world opens up. The first indication, to me, that "Iron Man" belonged to everybody else was when I heard it being played by a local marching band on a football field. I went, "Oh My God, they're playing 'Iron Man'." To me, that's when it became public. Then it would go too commercial and just get caught up in everything, you know. And it's actually nice these days. I'm not complaining at all because when it went to "Iron Man", the movie, it gives the song a new lease on life and it says to me, "This is still current." So, in that sense, I'll take it as a compliment, you know. But a lot of my self-righteousness, like, "That's not organic, you can't do that," has trimmed down a little bit over the years, towards the songs like "Iron Man" that have tended to become more commercial over the years, I don't fight as much as I used to, about it now. And when we play these shows together, we always try to play some of the songs we haven't played in years but inevitably we end up coming up with a set that seems to be a little bit of everything for everybody.

Goldmine: What's next for BLACK SABBATH?

Ward: Well, everybody's off working, you know. I've been talking to Tony (Iommi) in recent months so … and I was with him and Glenn (Hughes) at the funeral for Ron (Ronnie James Dio). And I think Terry (Geezer) … Terry is just trying to get past the death of Ronnie and where it's gonna go next. Then Ozzy's embarking on a huge tour. He's going out on the road for quite a considerable amount of time. But I speak to him all the time.

Goldmine: What do you think about Ozzy's new album, "Scream", by the way?

Ward: What I like about his new album, is I like where his voice is at. His voice is as clear as a bell. He's coming through. he has conviction. and he's very clear and he's very precise on everything. His voice is really commanding throughout all the tracks. I think it's very good myself. But as far as SABBATH, BLACK SABBATH, as the original band. I'm not aware of any plans or anything but at the same time, I know we're all conversing to each other. I'm not aware of any walls or bad vibes with anybody. I always have the hope that if everything is okay and everything is amicable then we can tour again. I would love to do that, as long as everything's in order with me. I'd love to move ahead, not only tour but I'd love to make a new record as well, another SABBATH record. That, to me, would be the ultimate. But I would also love to do a longer tour. The last tour we did was nice, it lasted about three and a half months. But the thing is we were so settled in — and you got to get your joints back together and your muscles, all you have to do to get yourself really well-tuned — by the time we were half way between the last tour I felt really well-tuned and then in no time at all we had to stop, and I was just like, "Fuck!' Let's take this around the world, man. This is great." We had to stop and that was a bit of a pisser. That was the only problem. It takes quite a while to take a 62-year old body and get it to be ready to play in BLACK SABBATH. And me and Ozzy, we are really physical onstage, so we really have to be in shape. And all the reunion dates, as far as playing is concerned, had been beautiful. I thoroughly enjoyed myself, onstage it was just the best. I had a really good time. A really good time.

Read the entire interview from Goldmine magazine.