Legendary BLACK SABBATH Drummer BILL WARD Is Mastering His New Solo LP: 'It's A Very Colorful Album'

In a new interview with Dan Shinder of Drum Talk TV, BLACK SABBATH drummer Bill Ward spoke about his plans to release solo music in the coming months. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET):  "Currently we're mastering a new album. And I'm not gonna reveal the name or the title of the album yet. But I've been recording two or three other albums in the last five years. But we have one album that's literally at mastering stages. And then we have, like I said, two or three other albums that are ready to go once they're mastered. So we have a plethora of recordings that we haven't yet released."

Asked if he is planning to release all the albums "at once or sequentially", Bill said: "No. I don't think that'll be the case. I'm thinking about, actually packaging four or five albums in one package, or three or four albums in one package. But the newest album that we're finishing, like I say, that we're mastering now, will hopefully come out. We have to negotiate a recording company, and then hopefully that will come out to the public through all the various ways that we listen to music now, either in vinyl format or in digital format for telephones, and also possibly for CD formats as well."

Regarding what fans can expect from his upcoming LP, Ward said: "The album's got — I think it's got 18 tracks on it. So it's quite a nice album and quite lengthy… It's founded in what I know best, which is a really solid rhythm. But when I write, I go outside the box in terms of I don't need to necessarily have the same imagery that was so popular with BLACK SABBATH. So, for me, I've gone into orchestrations, choirs, rhythm groups, different vocal groups. And there's a lot of jazz on the album, as well as just straightforward rock or — I wouldn't say the word 'metal', but I don't know if I metallized it. But you can hear where I come from. You can hear where I spent a lot of my time, which was originally with BLACK SABBATH and before that [Bill's pre-BLACK SABBATH band] MYTHOLOGY and so on and so forth. So, those are my heroes back there. So those influences have carried forward. And we have tracks where we spent a lot of time with huge drum sounds, for effects and things like that. It's a very colorful album."

On the topic of the biggest changes in the music industry over the last 20 to 40 years, Bill said: "It's more difficult to get a recording contract. I don't wanna speak foul of the industry, because as things have developed from a listener point of view, then so goes the industry where it has to change. It has to be almost chameleon-like in terms of being able to ebb and flow with the requirements of the listener. So in these new industrial ideas, we have to find a place. We've been — my band and the fellows that I work with — we have to find a way that we can fit into all the requirements that have now developed, especially in the last maybe 10 years. There's been a real turnaround on even how to buy a record. It's a different world now. And for me, I'm fortunate because I have a really good crew. My crew understands what the heck's going on, but quite frankly, I don't. I'm 78 years old, so I try to just focus on writing, playing, and I do stuff like that. And I'm just truly blessed that I have a crew of much younger people that know what the heck's going on as far as the industry's concerned 'cause, to me, it's just a different world. I lived in a different world completely."

Back in June 2025, Ward spoke in more detail about his approach to the songwriting on his upcoming albums. He explained during his show on LA Radio Sessions with Mike Stark: "I've just let everything go. I basically don't give an 'F', and I think it shows up in the record. I don't have anything to swagger about. I wanted to play something that plays in my heart and then comes out of my soul. I wanted to play some things that keep me awake at night. And I've tried to grow more as a pianist and grow more as a drummer and grow more as a bass player. So I've basically written a lot of the bass work and all the piano work on the new songs. And that's been great for me. I'm trying to grow as a musician. But, like I said, I really don't give an 'F' anymore in terms of being accurate about my lineage or things like that. And I'm playing probably a little more jazz than maybe I would've done on previous albums. I'm swearing a lot. I'm using a lot of profanity on this new record, on these new records. But the profanity seems to work really well. It's just, like, yeah, this is what I'm saying about whatever's in my life."

He continued: "It's very heartfelt. I've done something where I feel like I've abandoned my critical self. I feel like I've abandoned the person that needs to be possibly afraid not to step out a little bit. So I said to that guy, 'Listen, sit down and take a chair, 'cause we're stepping out and we're gonna take more risks.' And so I've taken a lot more risks on these new records, going further into places. Some examples — I'll give you one tiny bit of an example. One of the tracks on not the first album coming out, but the next album that'll come out after that, I'm talking about when I spent time playing in the graveyards at Aston Church. When I was a child, I was a choir boy at Aston Church. Aston Church, by the way, is about 200 yards from Villa Park, which is where [the original lineup of BLACK SABBATH played its final show] in July of 2025]. And I didn't know we were gonna be playing in July [of 2025] when I wrote that song. I wanted to write it because I've been spending some time thinking about my childhood years in Aston, and I've been going back there. And so one of the songs is about being a child and playing in and around the graveyards. And I've tried to capsulize that, and I think it's a pretty good song. And it's still like a metal thing. My good friend Dave Lombardo [SLAYER] is playing on that particular track. There was some drumming that I knew Dave could play a lot better than I could, so I don't mind backing away sometimes. I play drums on pretty much — I don't know — 80 percent of all these records I'm making, but I love working with guest players, guest people, guest drummers, guest players, bass players, guitar players. I love that. I love being interactive with different musicians. So it's been a blessing for me."

Asked if his new music will be released under the BILL WARD BAND banner, the drummer clarified:  "No, [it will] just [be] Bill Ward. However, just to be accurate, we still have BILL WARD BAND stuff that is still unreleased. And one day we'll get it released."

Two months ago, Ward revealed that he is now mostly confined to a wheelchair, more than one year after the death of his longtime BLACK SABBATH bandmate Ozzy Osbourne.

The 78-year-old BLACK SABBATH drummer shared the health update with fans on July 8, explaining that he was "making myself public and transparent" while insisting that he was "not in retirement".

Ward shared a photo of himself in a wheelchair, smiling as he posed in an all-black outfit while seated in the mobility device.

After Osbourne's death, Ward shared an emotional tribute in which he said the legendary heavy metal singer is "forever in my heart."

"Where will I find you now? In the memories, our unspoken embraces, our missed phone calls, no, you're forever in my heart," Ward wrote.

"Deepest condolences to Sharon and all family members. RIP. Sincere regrets to all the fans. Never goodbye. Thank you forever."

"Accountable Beasts", Ward's first solo album in 18 years, was released in 2015 via iTunes. The CD featured Ward's drumming on seven of the album's nine tracks, as well as contributions from Bill's longtime collaborators Keith Lynch (guitar, keyboards),Paul Ill (bass) and Ronnie Ciago (drums),alongside drummer Walter Earl and an array of session singers, including Ward's daughter Emily.

Ward in May 2012 announced that he was declining to join his former SABBATH bandmates for its scheduled dates, as well as the recording of the new album, due to a contractual dispute. After SABBATH shot down producer Rick Rubin's suggestion to replace Ward with Ginger Baker (CREAM) ("I thought, 'Bloody hell?'" Iommi told Rolling Stone magazine. "I just couldn't see that.") for the LP recording sessions, Rick suggested RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE drummer Brad Wilk.

Ozzy told The Pulse Of Radio during SABBATH's last tour that Ward was not in shape to participate. "Bill Ward has got the most physically demanding job of the lot of us, 'cause he's the timekeeper," he said. "I don't think personally he had the chops to pull it off, you know. The saddest thing is that he needed to own up to that, and we could have worked around it, whether we had a drummer on the side with him or something."

It was rumored that SABBATH wanted to bring a second drummer on the road to share duties with Ward, something that Iommi confirmed in 2017 during a question-and-answer session about SABBATH's "Ten Year War" box set.