Tony Iommi Remembers The Days Bill Ward Had Alcohol Issues And Gets Away From Black Sabbath

Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi opened up about his former bandmate, Black Sabbath drummer Bill Ward was pushing himself further from the band because of his drinking addiction during an interview with Ultimate Classic Rock.

As many of you know, Bill Ward had a widely known drug and alcohol addiction throughout his music career and his substance use increased throughout Black Sabbath’s most successful days. By the late 1970s, he even started drinking during performances and began experiencing panic attacks. Ward himself once has said he cannot remember the recording of the 1980 album ‘Heaven and Hell’ due to his alcohol abuse.

Due to his alcohol addiction, Ward had a bumpy road with Black Sabbath and left the band numerous times, disappearing without informing the band members. He first disappeared without saying goodbye on 21 August 1980, then shortly played in a band called Max Havoc, however, returned to Black Sabbath for 1983’s ‘Born Again’ album. Ward once again left the band toured in support of Born Again and rejoined Black Sabbath in 1984 to record new material yet after several demo tapes, he once again left Sabbath.

During a recent interview, Tony Iommi who knows and worked with Bill Ward even before Black Sabbath, opened up about his alcohol addiction and revealed that he just left the band because of the fact that he was not happy with himself and running away was his best solution.

Here is what Iommi said:

“Once we’d got Ronnie and we were at a show in Denver – and Bill just left. He’d just got in his bus and gone. It really shocked me because I’d known Bill long before the others, really.

I played with Bill for two or three years before we ever got together with Ozz and Geez. It was a hell of a shock. Again, Bill had gotten to a point where he was drinking too much, and he wasn’t happy anymore, and for him, the idea was to run away from it.

We thought he might come back, and eventually, of course, he did, but then he went again. He started drinking again, so it was very difficult.”

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