What Do Black Sabbath Members Think of the New Drummer?

Original Black Sabbath drummer Bill Ward is out. Rage Against the Machine's drummer Brad Wilk is in. How are they getting along with the new boy? 

Black Sabbath is finishing up work on their new album and the guys are getting on very well with new drummer Brad Wilk from Rage Against the Machine. You may or may not remember that Bill Ward got all pissy before they went into studio saying that he was offered a contract that was not “signable” and backed out.

Ozzy Osbourne and the guys say that they didn’t even know that Bill was having contract issues. Tony Iommi said, “He never even mentioned it to us. It was quite confusing. We wanted him involved but it was just getting too hard.”

At first, they were looking at former Cream drummer Ginger Baker to come on board for the album, but Tony thought that Ginger wouldn’t be a good fit, seeing as how he was named Rock’s Craziest Drummer by Esquire Magazine. Tony says that he couldn’t see Ginger being a good fit for the project, so Brad was finally chosen for Bill’s role and he fits in so well, Geezer Butler says he was “surprised” at how well he fits in. He was expecting that Brad would be a basher, but he actually has the same kind of “jazzy swing feel” that Bill did.

Ginger Baker and his antics, by the way are the subject of a new documentary called Beware of Mr. Baker. The opening scene is Mr. Baker beating the hell out of director Jay Bulger. It makes its premiere at the Minneapolis Underground Film Festival this spring.

Black Sabbath’s new album is due in June.