BILL WARD Interview
By Bob Nalbandian and Mark Miller

I sat down with legendary Black Sabbath drummer BILL WARD last October at Rumbo Recording studios here in LA to get a glimpse of his upcoming solo album "Beyond Aston." I, along with Mark Miller (a fellow avid Sabbath fan), hung out all afternoon with our icon discussing his past and present.

SHOCKWAVES: So Bill, tell us a bit about your new solo record your currently recording...
BILL WARD: The song we're working on now is called "Straws", which is part of a war trilogy. This song will actually show up on my new album, "Beyond Aston," which will be available hopefully in the spring of 2003. But I decided to rush release "Straws" because some of the things that are going on right now with the war, or the possibility of violent times again. So I wanted to bring it out in this song. It's actually about a man trying to save a child during an air-raid. This could happen next week in NY or next week in LA, but I certainly hope it's nothing like that. But I can hear the war drums- and I'm sure millions of people can- and it's disturbing and upsetting a lot of people. It's not that I'm against armies or anything like that, I realize that sometimes war is inevitable, but sometimes there's an opportunity to not be at war. And that's what "Straws" is about. The song will be available for anyone to download off the computer.

SW: So the song "Straws" will only be available through MP3 format, and not sold commercially as a single?
BW: It will actually come out on the album "Beyond Aston" but right now we just want to push it through to let people hear it this way. I feel better now knowing that at least raised my hand and said "this is where I'm at", not that I think I would make a difference personally, but at least I'll sleep better at night.

SW: "Straws"...that's an interesting title. Where did that title come from?
BW: It's like "clinging to straws"...we're so flimsy and fragile as people.

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