Original BLACK SABBATH Drummer BILL WARD Honors Las Vegas Shooting Victims With New Song 'Arrows'

Original BLACK SABBATH drummer Bill Ward has released a new song called "Arrows" to mark the second anniversary of the Las Vegas mass shooting.

Bill announced the track in a video message posted to his Twitter account. He said: "Hi everybody. My name is Bill Ward, and today I'm speaking on behalf of my band, the BILL WARD BAND.

"In the evening of October 1st, 2017, there was a mass shooting in Las Vegas. What we're going to do on October 1st, 2019 is we're gonna release a song that I hope will be supportive. To me, it's kind of like laying a wreath and sending the very best to everybody and wishing everybody well, the injured. It's just a way of saying we're very sorry that all those things happened and that we honor those who are not with us today.

"It's a very solemn gesture, but at the same time, I've written a song that I hope can bring some solace and some good things to those who are still working through that particular shooting and those particular issues that they encountered because of the shooting."

"Arrows" was written, composed and produced by Ward and features former WHITESNAKE, FOREIGNER and OZZY OSBOURNE drummer Brian Tichy, and former BLACK LABEL SOCIETY, MEGADETH and WHITE LION bassist James LoMenzo. There are additional performances by Sarah Dugas and Ezra Ward, as well as Keith Lynch on guitar, and Marcel Fernandez on additional producing and mixing duties.

Ward was on board for the SABBATH reunion when it was first announced eight 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.

Ward in 2015 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.