Portrait of Bill Ward (musician)

Birthday profile

Bill Ward (musician)

Bill Ward, English drummer and songwriter

Born
May 5, 1948
Age in 2026
78
Zodiac sign
Taurus
Birth year
1948

About Bill Ward (musician)

William Thomas Ward is an English drummer. He is the original drummer of Black Sabbath, co-founding the pioneering heavy metal band in 1969 alongside Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler. He has released three solo albums, the most recent being Accountable Beasts in 2015. Bill Ward is credited as one of the four original and founding members of Black Sabbath, having played on the first eight albums with frontman Ozzy Osbourne, dubbed the "Osbourne-era". He started saying he was getting tired..." After Master of Reality, the band traveled to Los Angeles, California to record Vol. 4 at the Record Plant. We needed to take a break, so we decided to make our next record in California, and so some of the sunshine and some of the effects of that bled into Vol. 4.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

The world when Bill Ward (musician) was born

Bill Ward (musician) was born in 1948. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1948

  • #1 song"Twelfth Street Rag" – Pee Wee Hunt
  • Top movieHamlet
  • Top TV showTexaco Star Theater (Milton Berle)
  • Best-selling bookThe Naked and the Dead – Norman Mailer

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentCleveland Indians win the World Series
  • Top headlineState of Israel declared
  • Technology milestoneLong-playing vinyl record (LP) introduced
  • Defining fadTelevision sets in homes
  • Notable inventionVelcro
  • World population2.50 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderHarry S. Truman
  • Sports championCleveland Indians (World Series)
  • Also wonBaltimore Bullets (BAA)
  • U.S. population146.6M

1948 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Bill Ward (musician)'s birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19482026
Gas$0.26$3.45/gal
Average home$8,300$435,000
Average income$5,000$67,500
Minimum wage$0.40$7.25/hr (federal)
Movie ticket$0.40$11.95
Postage stamp$0.03$0.73
Population146.6M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, MusicBrainz. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.