PAST/PRESENT MEMBERS OF KISS, BLACK SABBATH, RAINBOW, LUCIFER, REPULSION & ENTOMBED HONOR BILL WARD

May 11, 2018
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PAST/PRESENT MEMBERS OF KISS, BLACK SABBATH, RAINBOW, LUCIFER, REPULSION & ENTOMBED HONOR BILL WARD; ONLINE STREAMING LINK BELOW

On May 10, author, music journalist and drummer Joel Gausten (Pigface/The Undead/Electric Frankenstein) joined the Diane’s Kamikaze Fun Machine show on WFMU (Jersey City, NJ) to present a special 2.5-hour tribute to legendary Black Sabbath drummer Bill Ward, who turned 70 on May 5. The show featured classic tracks and deep cuts from Ward’s 50-year career (including a 1968 live recording of Ward’s pre-Black Sabbath band Mythology with Tony Iommi and a 1983 track he recorded with the California band The Mezmerist) and audio clips from interviews Gausten has conducted with him over the years. The show also featured special pre-recorded birthday greetings to Bill from Bob Daisley (ex Ozzy Osbourne/ex Rainbow/ex Uriah Heep), Scott Carlson (Septic Tank/Repulsion/ex Cathedral) and Lucifer members Nicke Andersson (Entombed/The Hellacopters) and Johanna Sadonis (ex The Oath). Current KISS/former Black Sabbath drummer Eric Singer, who was one of the many guest musicians who performed on Ward’s 1990 solo album, Ward One: Along The Way, contributed a birthday greeting via email that was read on the air.

“Bill really was a beast in a live setting with Black Sabbath and had not only a power and rawness unlike any of his peers, such as Ian Paice, John Bonham, Cozy Powell, etc., but his approach was really just different and unique and that was a major part of the Black Sabbath sound,” wrote Singer in part. “It set them apart from the others of the Big ‘3’ - Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin. Getting to know Bill and play on his first solo record, Ward One: Along The Way, was an honor and kind of surreal at the same time. Thanks for that, Bill.”

To listen to the Bill Ward tribute show, go to http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/78986 and choose a playing option under “May 10, 2018: HAPPY 70TH BIRTHDAY To BILL WARD!” The segment begins at 30:38.

WFMU-FM is a listener-supported, non-commercial radio station broadcasting at 91.1 Mhz FM in Jersey City, NJ, right across the Hudson from lower Manhattan. It is currently the longest-running freeform radio station in the United States.

The station also broadcasts to the Hudson Valley and Lower Catskills in New York, Western New Jersey and Eastern Pennsylvania via its 90.1 signal at WMFU in Mount Hope, NY. The station maintains an extensive online presence at wfmu.org, which includes live audio streaming in several formats, over eight years of audio archives, podcasts and a popular blog.

Joel Gausten is a New England-based writer and musician. In 2014, his 2010 book From Satan to Sabbath: The Metal Interviews 2000-2009 (which features an extensive interview with Bill Ward) was officially added to the library at the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame & Museum in Cleveland, OH. He is a former member of the bands The Undead (fronted by former Misfits guitarist Bobby Steele) and Electric Frankenstein and is a recurring participant in the industrial supergroup Pigface. In 1995, he rehearsed with The Misfits as a fill-in drummer and later surfaced on a number of Misfits bootlegs recorded during these rehearsal sessions. Gausten’s current music writing is available at www.joelgausten.com.

Photo: Christopher Wagner

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