During BLACK SABBATH drummer Bill Ward’s December 2025 radio show as part of the LA Radio Sessions, which airs Sundays at 10 a.m. (Pacific Time) on 99.1 KLBP-FM in Long Beach and also online at KLBP.org, he played METALLICA’s “Enter Sandman”. Bill later discussed METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich and their longtime relationship and mutual respect. Ward said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Lars, first of all, he’s the most huggable man. [Laughs] Of course I was with him recently [at the ‘Back To The Beginning’ event], and I was so happy that we could spend time together earlier when we did the last show with BLACK SABBATH, and we talked, I think, for about an hour nonstop. I mean, when me and him start talking — it’s a bit like when I’m with Johnny Kelly from TYPE O [NEGATIVE], to be honest with you. As a matter of fact, you know what?! That can go for all the drummers that I meet. But we gave each other big hugs all the time. And we passed a lot of things between us. There’s a lot of history between us. There’s a lot of honor between us. I know that he’s a huge fan of BLACK SABBATH and I’m a huge fan of METALLICA. I just love METALLICA. I love Lars’s drumming. He’s had to find himself, as have all the band, they’ve found a niche or a place where they can exist and dominate in heavy metal.”

Bill continued: “When I first met them, they were really young — all the guys [were] really [young]. I think I first met Lars when he was about 18 years old, 19 years old at the most. So, they have created their own society and a musical genre that is unto themselves. And it’s such a great name, METALLICA.

“Lars is a brilliant drummer,” Ward added. “He’s persevering, he works hard. I’ve seen him work hard. And he’s such a nice man. And again, I don’t know what it is with fucking drummers, but everybody rattles — ‘rattles’ is Astonian for ‘talks a lot’ — and so when we get together, he does all the talking, to be honest, and then I try to find a gap where, if he goes silent while he’s taking a breath, I try to find a gap where I can get in a word.

“I love him to death,” Bill said. “When I put my arms around him, he could stay there forever. I love his family. I love how he plays. So, he’s just one of the best people to know.”

Back in October 2014, Ward paid tribute to Ulrich on his “Rock 50” radio show. He said at the time: “Lars is an exceptional drummer. He’s spiritually sound. I really like that.

“A lot of the paths that Lars has passed through I’ve travelled myself. And I ended up with being able to take whatever my abilities are, and I was able to utilize that in whatever music we did with SABBATH or we’re doing with my own bands now, or if I jam out with anybody, I just play whatever shows up. So it’s, like, ‘This is what I’ve got.’ But I can remember going through a period over 20, probably 28, 25 or 26 years ago, where I stopped competing, so I had to find out what I could do and make good use of it. And it sounds like Lars has reached that settling ground as well. And I think he does such a good job of it.

“His drum creations have brought the sound of METALLICA to the very edge of metal spearhead, and he’s worthy of much praise. He’s inspirational and a must-listen for the students. So go ahead, students. If you are learning drums or need to learn the new techniques and stuff like that, listen to Lars, man. He’s got some really good stuff that you can learn from.”

After airing several METALLICA songs — including “Enter Sandman”, “Master Of Puppets”, “Until It Sleeps” and “All Nightmare Long” — Ward said: “There are so many things, drum-wise, in all of those songs that are departure points, where other drummers can look at it and go, ‘Well, this didn’t exist before.’ Then Lars created it and we can all listen to it and go, ‘Wow!’ We can nick some stuff as well, you know. [Laughs] But I love the guy. I think he’s just absolutely incredible.”

He continued: “I sighed a deep sigh of relief when I heard [METALLICA’s] ‘black’ album. Everything musically had seemed to be distorted feng shui until I heard Lars and METALLICA landing firmly with a statement that announced, ‘This way.’ And that’s how it felt.”

Ward added: “You know where the music scene was during the early ’80s. Things were kind of, like, ‘Oh, we’ve got this band, and we’ve got that going on.’ And I was in bad shape. I was coming off SABBATH and we’d been through all the SABBATH years and touring and grinding. And so it was 1980 and I was just waking up into a new life, I guess, and I was listening around, looking around for music, and [a short time later] I heard a couple of METALLICA’s early albums and then I heard the ‘black’ album, and I thought, ‘Oh my god.’ And it seemed to be like that was… it had the same effect that the ‘white’ album, THE BEATLES’ ‘white’ album had on me. METALLICA’s ‘black’ album, when I heard that and I heard Lars’ playing, and I just was, like, you know, ‘Wow! Something really neat’s been accomplished here.’ It pointed, ‘This way, guys. This is the way we’re going.’ And it seemed like there was a multitude of music that followed that, and we’ve got this incredible heavy metal thing that we have today.”

The original lineup of BLACK SABBATH — Ward, singer Ozzy Osbourne, guitarist Tony Iommi and bassist Geezer Butler — played its final concert this past summer. Dubbed “Back To The Beginning”, the charity show was held at Villa Park in Birmingham, United Kingdom on July 5.

“Accountable Beasts”, Ward’s first solo album in 18 years, was released in 2015 via iTunes. The CD featured Ward’s drumming on seven of the album’s nine tracks, as well as contributions from Bill’s longtime collaborators Keith Lynch (guitar, keyboards),Paul Ill (bass) and Ronnie Ciago (drums),alongside drummer Walter Earl and an array of session singers, including Ward’s daughter Emily.

Ward in May 2012 announced that he was declining to join his former SABBATH bandmates for its scheduled dates, as well as the recording of the new album, due to a contractual dispute. After SABBATH shot down producer Rick Rubin’s suggestion to replace Ward with Ginger Baker (CREAM) (“I thought, ‘Bloody hell?'” Iommi told Rolling Stone magazine. “I just couldn’t see that.”) for the LP recording sessions, Rick suggested RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE drummer Brad Wilk.

Ozzy told The Pulse Of Radio during SABBATH’s last tour that Ward was not in shape to participate. “Bill Ward has got the most physically demanding job of the lot of us, ’cause he’s the timekeeper,” he said. “I don’t think personally he had the chops to pull it off, you know. The saddest thing is that he needed to own up to that, and we could have worked around it, whether we had a drummer on the side with him or something.”

It was rumored that SABBATH wanted to bring a second drummer on the road to share duties with Ward, something that Iommi confirmed in 2017 during a question-and-answer session about SABBATH’s “Ten Year War” box set.