Original BLACK SABBATH Drummer BILL WARD Has Been In The Studio 'Making Records'

Founding BLACK SABBATH drummer Bill Ward says that he has been in the studio "making records".

Earlier today (Monday, January 1),the 75-year-old British-born musician took to his social media to share a video message from the studio, in which he said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Happy New Year, everybody. We're in the studio, and, these people behind me actually work with me in the studio and I work with them. We've got Bill and we've got Mikey and TJ. TJ is right there. This is my crew that I work with throughout the year and some other guys that won't… They're not in the picture; they don't even wanna be in the picture. But we're making records still, so we'll see how all that works out.

"Hey, I hope it's a safe '24 for everybody. I know we're in turbulent times and unsafe things are going on. But take care of the kids, take care of yourselves, and hopefully we can have some peace in '24. Lots of love to all of you. Bye."

Ward has released a number of poems in recent years, some inspired by the coronavirus pandemic and others celebrating the fall-winter holiday season, including Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Bill was on board for the SABBATH reunion when it was first announced more than 11 years ago, but backed out soon after. The drummer later claimed that he sat out the recording and touring sessions because of unfair contractual terms, although the members of SABBATH have hinted in other interviews that he wasn't physically up to the task.

All four original members of SABBATH were present when the band announced its reunion in late 2011. But Ward split from the group in 2012, citing an "unsignable" contract, and singer Ozzy Osbourne, guitarist Tony Iommi and bassist Geezer Butler carried on with their Rick Rubin–produced "13" LP and extensive international touring without him.

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.

In 2015, Ward released his first solo album in 18 years. Titled "Accountable Beasts", the record can be purchased on iTunes.

In November 2017, Ward's band DAY OF ERRORS released its first two songs, "Day Of Errors" and "Blaspheming At Creation", via iTunes, Spotify, Amazon MP3 and Google Play. Two more tracks, "Dark" and "Ghost Train", followed in 2019.

In March 2021, Ward revealed that he was working on an autobiography.