John Bonham: The drummer Black Sabbath’s Bill Ward hailed as “immaculate”
You have good musicians, and then you have genre-defying musicians. A good musician can do everything you need to enjoy listening to music. They can hold a tune, play comfortably and are good to watch. Then you have people like Bill Ward, who are capable of all of the above but are also pivotal components when it comes to the evolution and development of different styles of music.
When you look at the line-up of heavy metal festivals across the world and ponder over all of the different bands who are playing, the various sub-genres of metal and the amount of talent that exists within that genre, remember that hardly any of them would exist were it not for Black Sabbath. A true reflection of their surroundings, their sound was not only the by-product of great minds coming together but was a direct result of their living and working conditions.
Toni Iommi was forced to play the guitar a step-down after losing the tips of his fingers in an accident at the factory he worked at. The result was a brooding and gloomy guitar sound. Ward could add to this perfectly, with a heavy and unrelenting rhythm, which created a style of music the world hadn’t heard before. This was the foundation of heavy metal, and without pioneering musical minds like Ward and Iommi, it might never have existed.
Given his ability to take existing musical strands and create something unique with them, it won’t come as a surprise to hear that Ward had an ear for the innovative. This is best reflected in who his favourite drummer is: John Bonham, not only a great musical mind but also a friend of Black Sabbath and a legend in his own right.
“My earliest recollection of meeting John Bonham was at The Wharf Pub in Ombersley, Worcestershire, about 1964. He was with The Crawling King Snakes, playing popular songs of that era, plus blues and R&B,” said Ward, “His rhythms were immaculate, making each song his own, turning it into something superb.”
Ward recalls that even though the band he was in were playing covers, the life that John Bonham was able to give to the songs meant that they were elevated into something else entirely. “A great example was ‘Morning Dew’,” he said, “Of all the versions I heard, including the original, none compared to the King Snakes, with John Bonham leading the pack.”
It’s difficult to talk about innovative musical minds without mentioning John Bonham. The concept behind Led Zeppelin was always ambitious, as they set out to merge multiple genres and create something unique, but it worked because each member was a master in their field. Nobody had an understanding of rhythm across the board better than John Bonham did, and Ward was quick to recognise that.
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