Bill Ward on why Black Sabbath were hated: “It was us against the world”
When they first arrived on the scene, the world wasn’t ready for the pulsating sounds of Black Sabbath. Whilst there had been acts before them that had taken rock down a darker, heavier route than what was widely heard on the radio, it was they who first moved into an area that was more distinctly metal than ever before. As they were so ahead of their time, understandably, it took time for the world to catch up.
Jimi Hendrix might have made guitar-playing more searing than ever imagined, Iron Butterfly might have written the most sinister hit of the 1960s, and Led Zeppelin were undoubtedly the most esoteric outfit on the planet, but Sabbath took all of these aspects and ran off into the distance with them. Ominous, sludgy and stoned, with 1970’s self-titled debut, the Birmingham quartet laid many of the foundations of rock’s heavier off-shoots from straight-up heavy metal to cult subgenres such as stoner and black metal.
Yet despite the pioneering gravity of their work, in the early days, the world hated Black Sabbath. Angry at the state of society, openly loathing hippiedom – regardless of their aesthetic and penchant for narcotics – and discussing occult and science fiction themes, they were as distinctive as anyone when they broke out. In true form, they were only driven further toward their end goals by the adverse reaction they received.
This was something that the band’s drummer, Bill Ward, reflected on when speaking to Classic Rock Magazine in 2022. Their lyrics might have been concerned with supernatural themes at points, but according to him, very natural motivations drove them back in those formative years.
“We played like punks on stage,” Ward recalled. “The band was just fucking crazy. There was this force, all this resentment, and anger that was coming out. It came from what we thought was bullshit at the time: politics and war, and upbringing and people’s ways of life.”
“I came away knowing that we were different and that everybody would probably hate us,” he continued. “And I was right. But at 21, I was unstoppable. I was in Black Sabbath, what did you expect?”
Looking back on how tight-knit the group were then, Ward revealed that it was them versus the world, as they all came from the same place musically and socially. This common ground led them to create such pioneering music during their heyday. He concluded: “It was us against the world. The camaraderie was amazing. We were always fucking around and cracking jokes at each other’s expenses, but we respected each other’s abilities and the friendships we had. We were all from the same place, same background; we had a common language.”
Listen to Black Sabbath below.
