“That was the best thing that ever happened to us”: Black Sabbath’s Bill Ward recalls being “amazed” by hearing Tony Iommi play guitar
Black Sabbath drummer Bill Ward has recalled hearing Tony Iommi play guitar in the early days, saying that he was “just amazed” by his playing.
Before Ward and Iommi were bandmates in Sabbath, they played together in two bands: The Rest and Mythology. When Iommi joined the former in 1966, it was “the best thing that had ever happened to us”, according to Ward.
READ MORE: Black Sabbath: “This is the actual end, unless someone digs us up!”
“In The Rest we were just happy to get a gig,” he tells Uncut. “We were still at school. I went to Slade Road School, which was just around the corner from the other crowd. We were fortunate to be able to play gigs locally like pubs or anywhere that would have us.
“Tony had joined The Rest and that was the best thing that had ever happened to us – I was just amazed by his guitar playing. We went forward from that.”
The iconic riffs that would forge an entire genre came later, so in The Rest, Iommi, Ward and co played “mostly covers”.
“It took everything I had to play the Hendrix song Hey Joe – I was listening to Mitch Mitchell going, ‘Oh my God.’ I met Mitch before he passed away. He was such an incredible guy to me – and we talked like drummers talk. We had a good conversation. Everything was happening in Birmingham at that time. There were new things, new bands shooting up all the time.”
Ward and Iommi – along with Ozzy Osbourne and Geezer Butler – formed Black Sabbath in 1968, and became widely credited as the godfathers of heavy metal. Their influence endures, as shown by the enormous demand for their upcoming final show, Back to the Beginning, which will see the original members play together one last time at Birmingham’s Villa Park.
Predictably, the show sold out quickly, but you can find more information at ozzy.com.
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
