Original Black Sabbath drummer Bill Ward celebrated his 74th birthday on May 5th. He shared the following thank you message to his fans via social media for the birthday wishes that came his way.

Ward: "Salutations to the energy, incredibility, insanity, wonderful and creativeness of you all who sent me birthday greetings. May 5th was an overwhelming, busy, reflective, and teary and uplifting day. So many Happy Birthdays, thank you, it was fantastic.

74 years old; man, yesterday spinned me around. A lot of memories, some of them melancholy, some of them fantastic, like when I was a kid leaving school to go to band practice at the parochial hall next to Slade Road School, Carlisle, Hamburg, Henry's Blues House B'Ham, first time leaving for America, arriving in N.Y., first time in L.A., Hollywood. Crazy times.

I got lots of nice messages from fellow musicians, family members, and old and dear friends. I got some t-shirts, one with a huge moon and silhouette of a 747 flying towards me, a book of stories about the Lake District. I went to bed done for. 

In gratitude for such a huge embrace, to everyone, thank you so much. Rock forever and ever and ever. Be good to yourselves."

Back in March, Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson brought his spoken word tour to the Palace Of Fine Arts in San Francisco, California. During the Q&A portion of the show he praised Ward's talents. 

Dickinson: "I'm a massive lover of Bill Ward's drumming style; I think it's inspired. He's not really a rock drummer, he's more like a jazz drummer playing rock. And I love that kind of style. It's kind of like drums that kind of wander around the rhythm and everything else, but he's on it. He's brilliant. He's a lovely bloke as well. Slightly mad, but very nice."