On Thursday, May 10th, author, music journalist and drummer Joel Gausten (Pigface/The Undead/Electric Frankenstein) will join the Diane’s Kamikaze Fun Machine show on WFMU (Jersey City, NJ) to present a special 2.5-hour tribute to legendary Black Sabbath drummer Bill Ward, who turns 70 on May 5th. The show will feature tracks from Ward’s 50-year career (including a slew of rarities) and audio clips from interviews Gausten has conducted with him over the years. The show will also feature special birthday messages from members of the metal community and some of Ward’s past musical collaborators.  

The Bill Ward tribute show will air live May 10th from 12:30 - 3 PM, EST and can be streamed live online at WFMU.org. An archive of the show will also be available within a day of the broadcast at wfmu.org/playlists/DK.

“In addition to being my favourite Metal drummer, Bill Ward is the one of the most honourable, caring and giving souls I’ve ever known in the music business," Gausten says. "I can’t wait to deliver the incredible playlist of material I’ve compiled and share some personal stories with Diane and the WFMU listeners about my encounters with him. Bill is a true living legend, and it is an honour to pay tribute to his many contributions to the world of music.”

WFMU-FM is a listener-supported, non-commercial radio station broadcasting at 91.1 Mhz FM in Jersey City, NJ, right across the Hudson from lower Manhattan. It is currently the longest-running freeform radio station in the United States.The station also broadcasts to the Hudson Valley and Lower Catskills in New York, Western New Jersey and Eastern Pennsylvania via its 90.1 signal at WMFU in Mount Hope, NY. The station maintains an extensive online presence at wfmu.org, which includes live audio streaming in several formats, over eight years of audio archives, podcasts and a popular blog.

Joel Gausten is a New England-based writer and musician. In 2014, his 2010 book From Satan To Sabbath: The Metal Interviews 2000-2009 (which features an extensive interview with Bill Ward) was officially added to the library at the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame & Museum in Cleveland, OH. He is a former member of the bands The Undead (fronted by former Misfits guitarist Bobby Steele) and Electric Frankenstein and is a recurring participant in the industrial supergroup Pigface. In 1995, he rehearsed with The Misfits as a fill-in drummer and later surfaced on a number of Misfits bootlegs recorded during these rehearsal sessions. Gausten’s current music writing is available at joelgausten.com.