Ward's hospital pain eased by Cornucopia

Estranged Black Sabbath drummer Bill Ward says the band’s track Cornucopia helped him through his hospital stints in 2013.

Ward dropped out of the Sabbath reunion in 2012, saying he was offered an unfair contract. The following year, he had double surgery on a long-standing shoulder injury.

And during his time in hospital, Ward listened to Cornucopia from 1972 album Vol. 4 every day. He insists he’s fit enough to play the song again, but hearing it on his iPod at the time was therapeutic.

Celebrating his 67th birthday on his Rock 50 radio show, Ward says: “On a personal note, when I was having some problems in the hospital in November and December – I’d gone through the operations, the first of the operations I had in November and December of 2013.

“I had my iPod and the one song I played practically every day was Cornucopia. It really helped me along to listen to it. I was in pretty bad shape, and I wanted to listen to what I used to be like, at that time. Now I can play it again, though. The bad days have gone. It’s passed. But it really helped me when I was in the hospital listening to that song on the iPod.

“It’s just really good. A great live track. It rocks, kicks ass.”

Ward and Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne last month traded barbs in an ongoing war of words, with the drummer seemingly ruling out any possibility of a return to the band.

The Bill Ward Band last month released new album Accountable Beasts.

Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.