Black Sabbath’s Bill Ward: ‘I Don’t Know If I’m a Member’

What would have made the contract “signable” for you?
I wanted to earn some better money than we had been in the past for festival gigs. I think it was somewhere like $80,000 for the festivals, which I can hear everybody gasp now, but $80,000 is not a lot of dough when you’re playing festivals. And for all the other gigs in between, I was prepared to negotiate in a correct and proper manner.

And I would like to be included in some publishing and want my name and likeness to have a secure contract because the name and likeness has been a problem in the past. I’m paid a flat fee for my name and likeness on merchandise, and we’ve been fighting with the lawyers to try to have a correct contract to use my name and likeness. That’s been going on for fucking years. Unfortunately, it just didn’t work.

I also wanted a little piece of the action in publishing [songwriting revenue]. It was just a gesture of good faith that “drumming means writing.” If you’re laying a track, you’re writing. I don’t play beats. I hate playing beats. I’m an orchestration drummer. I’m a musical drummer. I’m a visionary drummer and I have been for a long, long, long time. I was asking for recognition. Nothing of what I asked for is exorbitant, wrong or over the top. I thought I was actually very reasonable.

Tony Iommi said you were the one who “pulled the plug” on the reunion.
I didn’t pull any fucking plug. I was still trying to negotiate even after they closed the door. In January 2012, I received a letter from their management saying I’ve come as far as I can come, but I just felt absolutely dismal that it had come to that. But I still continued. I tried to make contact with everybody and I couldn’t. Ironically, the only person that was calling me was Ozzy, and Ozzy called me up that month saying, “When you gonna come over? You got to come over.” But you know, that poor guy probably didn’t even know that they closed the door. 

You mentioned wanting publishing, but you’ve always been credited as a songwriter on Sabbath albums.
My publishing is in tact for the Black Sabbath catalog. If I signed the contract for the new album, I would not have received any publishing on those new songs. I was trying to negotiate, even for a small percentage, but that wasn’t forthcoming. It’s the new deal on the block: If you’re a drummer, you’re shit out of luck.

How did your last tour with the band, in 2005, go?
Musically, I had a great time, but I walked away very, very uncomfortable because of the contractual decisions I’d had to sign into. I wanted to play with the band. They knew it, and so I decided to sign yet another contract that wasn’t that great. I said to Tony, “That’s it. I can’t go on. I can’t do this anymore.” I basically came off the tour broke. Them guys who think I got millions of dollars? I earn good money, but it’s so unrealistic.