Bill recalls Blackest Sabbath of all

Inspired by the rhythms of the Midland’s furnaces, drummer Bill Ward went on to conquer the world with Black Sabbath. He tells Ian Harvey about the band’s early days and the song that would change all their lives.

Do you recognise this song from these lyrics? "I love you but you don't want to know me but I think you're great and I want to see."

Or how about these: "You and me are through I know but you're on my mind all day long."

How different rock history might have been had Black Sabbath's Ozzy Osbourne and Geezer Butler not refined the lyrics of their last minute 'album filler' to begin: "Finished with my woman 'cause she couldn't help me with my mind, People think I'm insane because I am frowning all the time."

That song, based on Tony Iommi's iconic guitar riff, became Paranoid, one of the greatest heavy metal anthems of all time, and along with the album of the same name helped propel Black Sabbath to rock superstardom.

Now, 39 years after its 1970 release, the album Paranoid is being rereleased as a 3CD deluxe edition, featuring the original album, a quadraphonic mix and a disc full of instrumental and alternate versions.

Sabbath drummer Bill Ward recalls: "There was some spare tape left, so we said let's see if we can get another song and we all went down the pub which is the best place to work - well, it was then - and when we got back Tony had got a really, really good riff.

"Tony and Geezer and myself just sat in and just started playing and it didn't take long at all to have the song with all its parts pretty much done. I think within the afternoon it was taken care of.

"Ozzy had his jamming lyrics, almost rough stuff, as we jammed down the first things.

"It probably pretty much in the ballpark, his melody's there. We did that with quite a lot of our songs and we would change that around until we reached the final album version."

Ward has lost none of his Brummie accent, despite years of living on the West Coast of America. And it's his Midland roots that he insists were a vital ingredient in Sabbath's revolutionary sound.

"It was the harshness of being in Aston, the industry. The street that I lived on for the first 14 years of my life, was blown up during World War Two, so as a child I played in and out of the bomb craters," he says.

"I learned rhythm from the factories. We lived next to a drop stamp, where they dropped the stamp on to the iron. It was every day I grew up, and from a baby it was 'boosch, boosch, boosch'!

"The sounds of the city were all part of that, the rough edge of the people, and also the love of the people of Aston."

Ward clearly looks back on those days with great fondness.

He says: "I had a great upbringing. I lived on a street with three uncles and one aunt in one street, plus my grandma and my granddad.

"We were all in one street, Grosvenor Road, so I felt very safe and secure and I feel I had a marvellous upbringing.

"The Boys' Brigade would come down the street every Sunday morning and I would lie in bed and I would play on the headboard of the bed.

"I would play the same chops as the band and when they turned into Grosvenor Road that's when I would rush down the stairs and watch them as they came past.

"The drums glittered and the sticks glittered and they had all their white straps and it was just incredible to see these drums of gold and silver. It just blew me away.

"I already knew what I wanted to do when I was just five or six years old."

The year 1970 was a busy one for Black Sabbath, seeing the band release their first two albums, Black Sabbath and Paranoid, as well as touring anywhere they could to build their following.

The Paranoid rerelease has brought the memories flooding back.

"It brings back a lot of memories," says Ward. "Those were the best days of my life back then.

"I felt like I was in this really safe place musically and in the sense that my life was going to be OK and the things that I wanted when I was eight or nine years old, which were money, property, prestige and fame, were starting to come to fruition. I just wanted to be like Elvis Presley.

"Most of it was empty vessels, my idea of what would make me happy, and of course in later life I found that that was not anything about life whatsoever. But I had to go through that phase.

"For me musically it was the greatest time of my life. There were things going on and I just loved playing what we were doing. I felt really creative and empowered.

"I felt very strong. I had to be strong to be able to play loud and forceful in such a loud instrumentation."

Ward recalls writing the song Black Sabbath at the Aston Community Centre.

"The day that we did that and I heard the lyrics – 'Satan's sitting there, he's smiling. Watches those flames get higher and higher' - that's when I knew that we were either going to get into a lot of trouble or that we were definitely different.

"There was something about us that was different. I knew that but I didn't know how that was going to affect the next 40 years.

"Along with the other guys, the dream was about wanting to play, about not wanting to work in a factory to be able to get up and just be outrageous and be completely insane and make insane music."

Now aged 60, it's three years since Ward played with Black Sabbath. Ozzy is busy being Ozzy, and Iommi and Butler are about to release a new album as Heaven and Hell with Ronnie James Dio on vocals.

But Ward, who has his own band and fronts a US rock radio show, insists the door is not shut on the idea of a full blown reunion of Black Sabbath's original line-up.

"I have an open mind when it comes to Sabbath. We just haven't done anything for the last three years. But the door's wide open as far as Black Sabbath is concerned.

"Playing, doing anything with the original band, that's where I would like to be."

He adds: "Ozzy and I have maintained our relationship, and I've maintained my relationship with the other fellas pretty much all the way through. Nobody's far from each other.

"I saw Oz on his birthday. We went to Vegas and that's the last time I saw him.

"But I actually spoke to him about three or four days ago. He's doing fantastic, he's doing really well."

As for Ward himself, he says: "Looking back, I've been extremely fortunate that I've had the life I've had."