BLACK SABBATH's BILL WARD 'Extends Positive Thoughts' To All Those Who Loved DIO

May 20, 2010

BLACK SABBATH drummer Bill Ward has released the following statement regarding the passing of legendary heavy metal singer Ronnie James Dio (DIO, HEAVEN & HELL, BLACK SABBATH, RAINBOW):

"My wife and I have sent our condolences and have felt very sad with the news of Ronnie's passing.

"We wish to extend our positive thoughts and love to all those who loved Ronnie, and we salute him as a singer, performer, songwriter and arranger.

"We plan to make no further statements and prefer to remain private at this time."

In a recent interview with BackstageAxxess.com, Bill Ward explained why he terminated his involvement with HEAVEN & HELL — the band featuring fellow SABBATH members Tony Iommi (guitar),Geezer Butler (bass) and Dio — in November 2006 while the group was recording three new tracks to be included on the BLACK SABBATH collection "Black Sabbath: The Dio Years". "I had some reservations going in," he said. "However, when we actually started to play the songs, I liked the songs and the music won me over. Unfortunately, for me, I had a bit of a difficult time bringing some chops to the guys, especially Ronnie, who wanted a certain kind of feel.

"I'm not very good in being able to play to cater to musicians in a way that they might want something to be heard (laughs). It's the difference between being a drummer and an orchestrated drummer. I play in an orchestrated way. Whereas a drummer, you can give the drummer notes, and he will play the notes. So it sounds like a little bit of fish out of water. Not quite comfortable.

"There were some other instances where I felt very uncomfortable with [the HEAVEN & HELL situation]. All in all, it made it very difficult for me to try to lay the tracks as I was hoping I could for the guys and for myself. I needed to be happy in this, too! It just didn't work out. I feel if I had enough [learning] time… I had about a week to learn three songs. To me that's not enough time as a drummer. I like to be able to know what the hell I'm doing and I was at a place at the time where I was still feeling the tracks out. I was still getting used to the tracks. It takes me a while to get where I want to be when I'm rehearsing songs. I wasn't able to slot in what they wanted me to be. It was incompatible and it didn't work out."

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