Bill Ward started banging things at the age of three, using a set of cardboard boxes before graduating to a cheap drum kit four years later. By the age of 11 he’d become serious about playing and he began to soak up music that included rock’n’roll, blues and – just as significantly – big band jazz. Born in Aston, Birmingham, on May 5, 1948, Bill immersed himself in a local scene that was full of remarkable drummers and included the likes of his friend, John Bonham (soon to join Led Zeppelin), Clive Bunker (Jethro Tull) and Jim Capaldi (Traffic). Just before his 16th birthday, he fell into the orbit of his future bandmate Tony Iommi with whom he began playing in earnest a few years later, when he joined Mythology in February 1968. Within five months that band had fo...
