Scooter Ward (born Ronald Ward Jr. on May 7, 1970) is an American musician who is best known as a founding member and lead singer of the

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band

Cold Cold is the presence of low temperature, especially in the atmosphere. In common usage, cold is often a subjective perception. A lower bound to temperature is absolute zero, defined as 0.00K on the Kelvin scale, an absolute thermodynamic ...

. He has also performed occasional guitar duties both in the studio and live. Ward has been ranked in the Top 100 Heavy Metal Vocalists by ''

Hit Parader ''Hit Parader'' was an American music magazine that operated between 1942 and 2008. A monthly publication, it focused on rock and pop music in general until the 1970s, when its focus began turning to hard rock and heavy metal. By the early 1980s ...

'' (number 61).

Career

Grundig

In 1986, Ward formed the band Grundig along with several other students;

Sam McCandless Samuel Alan McCandless (born January 28, 1971) is an American musician, songwriter, producer, and artist who is best known as a founding member of the American rock band Cold and the psychedelic blues band Carny. With McCandless, Cold has rel ...

Jeremy Marshall Cold is an American rock band, from Jacksonville, Florida, formed in 1986 by lead singer and rhythm guitarist Scooter Ward, drummer Sam McCandless, bassist Jeremy Marshall and lead guitarist Matt Loughran. The band has gone through numerous li ...

, and

Matt Loughran Matt Loughran is an American musician, songwriter, and guitarist who is best known as a founding member and former lead guitarist of the American rock band, Cold.

at Fletcher High School in

Neptune Beach, Florida Neptune Beach is a beachfront city east of Jacksonville in Duval County, Florida, United States. When the majority of Duval County communities consolidated with Jacksonville in 1968, Neptune Beach, along with Jacksonville Beach, Atlantic Beach a ...

. The band played their first gig in 1990 at a club called the Spray. In 1992, the band released an eight-song EP called "Into Everything" and moved to

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

. Three and a half years later in 1995, Grundig broke up and Ward moved back to Jacksonville, where he, McCandless, Kelly Hayes, and Pat Lally formed the band Diablo. Diablo would only last about three months.

Cold

At the end of that three-month period, Grundig reformed under the name

and signed a six-album record deal with

A&M Records A&M Records was an American record label founded as an independent company by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss in 1962. Due to the success of the discography A&M released, the label garnered interest and was acquired by PolyGram in 1989 and began distr ...

. Ward would remain in Cold until February 2006 when, after several lineup changes and battles with record labels, the band decided to break up. Scooter Ward and McCandless promptly began working on their new project, The Witch, which McCandless has since left. The project has been renamed twice, When November Falls and now

The Killer and the Star The Killer and the Star was a musical side project started by American musician Scooter Ward, frontman of the band Cold. History Originally named "The Witch", the band name was changed to "When November Falls" in November 2006, before any wo ...

. The debut album was released in July 2009. In early 2009, Cold reformed for a reunion tour. Their album ''

Superfiction A superfiction is a visual or conceptual artwork which uses fiction and appropriation to mirror organizations, business structures, and/or the lives of invented individuals (Hill). The term was coined by Glasgow-born artist Peter Hill in 1989. ...

'' was released on July 19, 2011. Their latest album, ''

The Things We Can't Stop ''The Things We Can't Stop'' is the sixth album by American rock band Cold. It was released on September 13, 2019 in the US through Napalm Records. The album was produced by Jeremy Parker, who produced the previous album. This is Cold's first alb ...

'', was released on September 13, 2019, after Cold went through some line up changes.

Personal life

Ward is married and has two daughters, Raven and Cameron (as mentioned in the liner notes for Cold's fourth album, ''

A Different Kind of Pain ''A Different Kind of Pain'' is the fourth studio album by American rock band Cold. It was released on August 30, 2005 in the US and September 12, 2005 in the UK and features the singles "Happens All the Time" and "A Different Kind of Pain". It h ...

''). He was previously engaged, but his fiancé broke it off in 2004 just as Ward was dealing with his sister's bout with cancer. During this time, Ward was dealing with alcoholism and drug addiction and entered himself into rehabilitation. While in rehab, Ward, who was raised

Southern Baptist The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is a Christian denomination based in the United States. It is the world's largest Baptist denomination, and the largest Protestant and second-largest Christian denomination in the United States. The word ...

, found relief through spirituality and embraced Christianity.
''CT'' (2005). Retrieved on April 17, 2014. Ward has been a serious

Spider-Man Spider-Man is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, he first appeared in the anthology comic book '' Amazing Fantasy'' #15 (August 1962) in the ...

and

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is an American comic book publishing, publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Co ...

fan since childhood and has collected Spider-Man merchandise. He wrote the song "What Happens Now" with the hopes that it would be featured in the 2012 film, ''

The Amazing Spider-Man ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' is an ongoing American comic book series featuring the Marvel Comics superhero Spider-Man as its main protagonist. Being in the Earth 616, mainstream continuity of the franchise, it began publication in 1963 as a bim ...

''; the track is accompanied by artwork of a Spider-Man-inspired character in the album's booklet.

Instruments

Scooter Ward played both guitar and piano in Grundig and on Cold's debut album, but stopped playing guitar when the band recruited

Terry Balsamo Terry Philip Balsamo II (born October 8, 1972) is an American guitarist and songwriter who is best known as the former guitarist of the American rock bands Cold and Evanescence. Balsamo is noted for his onstage expression of his fondness for Mi ...

, only to pick it up again during the recording of ''

'' nearly ten years later. Ward usually uses

Gibson SG The Gibson SG is a solid-body electric guitar model introduced by Gibson in 1961 as the Gibson Les Paul SG. It remains in production today in many variations of the initial design. The SG (where "SG" refers to Solid-Body Guitar) Standard is Gib ...

guitars with DR DDT strings and Vox amplification.

Discography

Guest vocals

In addition to his releases with

and Grundig, Ward has also been a guest vocalist on the songs: *

Tony Iommi Anthony Frank Iommi () (born 19 February 1948) is a British musician. He co-founded the pioneering heavy metal band Black Sabbath, and was the band's guitarist, leader and primary composer and sole continuous member for nearly five decades. I ...

– "Something Wicked This Way Comes" *

Reveille "Reveille" ( , ), called in French "Le Réveil" is a bugle call, trumpet call, drum, fife-and-drum or pipes call most often associated with the military; it is chiefly used to wake military personnel at sunrise. The name comes from (or ), th ...

– "Inside Out (Can You Feel Me Now)" *Superfly Rodeo – "Reach" *

Sierra Swan Sierra Marie Swan (born April 5, 1978) is an American musician. She is known for her work with Dollshead, Black Eyed Peas and as a solo artist. Biography Early life Swan is the daughter of 1970s country and pop musician Billy Swan, who played ...

– "You Got Away" *Professor Hoetester – "The Saddest Song" *He-Nis-Ra – "Derailed" (2015) *

Breaking Benjamin Breaking Benjamin is an American Rock music, rock band from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, formed in 1999 by lead singer and guitarist Benjamin Burnley and drummer Jeremy Hummel. The first lineup of the band also included guitarist Aaron Fink an ...

– "Far Away"

References

External links

Facebook: Cold Official
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ward, Scooter 1970 births Living people American heavy metal singers American male singer-songwriters American rock songwriters Musicians from Jacksonville, Florida Singer-songwriters from Florida Alternative metal musicians 21st-century American singers 21st-century American male singers Nu metal singers