Bill Ward is seventy eight and says he cannot stop writing. A solo record goes to mastering next month and he is looking for someone to put it out.
He told Metal Express Radio that between fifteen and twenty other musicians play on it. The method he describes has not changed since he was a boy: keyboards and drums down first, then a rough vocal, then a bass part he sings rather than plays, which he calls a mouth bass, so the shape of the song exists before anyone else hears it.
Then he calls people. He keeps about ten bass players and ten guitarists he has known for years and picks whoever suits the song, and when he writes an orchestral part he hands it to players who turn his version into an actual orchestra. I do not have any special skills that I am aware of, he said.
The habit predates everything. I have always written when I was in Black Sabbath, he said. I would interact with them as a co-writer, and then come home and just continue to write.
He compared it to the last Black Sabbath concert at Villa Park in July 2025, where he interacted with so many musicians. There is more unreleased material behind this record, including work by Day Of Errors.