Not much to say about Bill Ward. He only made up half of the finest rhythm section in heavy metal history. He can swing it like Gene Krupa or pound you into submission like Mike Bordin.

Born today in Birmingham, England in 1948, Bill Ward is still rocking today. This despite drinking enough booze to float a battleship and having been set on fire multiple times. Ward played with guitarist Tony Iommi in a band called Mythology before the two of them joined with bassist/lyricist Geezer Butler and singer Ozzy Osbourne to form the blues rock band Earth. Earth became Black Sabbath and Bill and the other Birmingham Boys invented a new genre of rock music.

It is impossible to overstate Ward and Sabbath's influence on rock and roll. If you like hard rock there is a 99% chance that the drummer of your favorite band was in some way inspired by Bill Ward. Ward and Butler provided the substrate upon which Iommi laid some of the most memorable riffs in metal.

Ward has played on over 20 albums and toured the world many times over. About that getting set on fire bit (from Wikipedia):

In an interview with Guitar World, Tony described it as follows: Bill and I were in the studio rehearsing one day and out of the blue I asked him, "May I set you on fire, Bill?" And he said, "Well, not now, not now." And then I forgot about it. Later on when the day ended, he said to me, "Well, I'm going home now; you still want to set me on fire or what?" And I said, "Sure." So I took a small can of lighter fluid and sprayed it on him, lit a match, and whoomph. He was wearing these polyester pants so they burned really quickly and he was on the floor screaming and crying. I could not help him because I was so busy laughing. It actually turned out to be quite serious. I felt really bad for him. He was sent to the hospital. Later on, his mother called me on the phone and said, "You barmy bastard, it's about time you grew up. Our Bill is going to have his leg off." But things like that always happened to Bill.