Having been the original voice of heavy metal, survived multiple bouts of ill health and relieved various bats and doves of their heads, Ozzy Osbourne is to bring one of the great performing careers to a close with a final gig: a reunion of the original Black Sabbath line-up in their native Birmingham, together for the first time in 20 years.
Titled Back to the Beginning, the charity gig will be held at Villa Park on July 5th, with tickets on sale from 10am on 14 February 14th. The supporting line-up is a who’s who of metal greats, including Metallica, Slayer, Pantera and many more, and the concert’s musical director, Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, promises: “This will be the greatest heavy metal show ever.”
It is fantasy-fulfilling news for rock fans, who didn’t dare to suspect that the original quartet of Osbourne, guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward would ever play together again, not only because of their combined age of 303, but because of fractious relations between them.
Black Sabbath, who have sold a reported 75 million albums worldwide, remain arguably the most influential heavy rock band in history. Playing potent melody and psychedelic moods with crushing force, inspired in part by the industrial sounds of their native Birmingham, they shaped the entire style of heavy metal. Their first eight albums featured Osbourne, and included the UK No 1 Paranoid, as well as classics such as Master of Reality and their 1970 self-titled debut.
Ozzy Osbourne to reunite with original Black Sabbath for final performance at Villa Park
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Osbourne left for a solo career in 1979, and various other vocalists stepped in thereafter, including Rainbow’s Ronnie James Dio, Deep Purple’s Ian Gillan, and Tony Martin, before Osbourne was brought back into the fold in 1997.
The last time the original line-up performed was on the 2005 Ozzfest tour, after which Ward left the group. He was later announced as part of the line-up for a 2012 tour and studio album, but again left before contributing to the recording, citing a contract disagreement. Osbourne publicly upbraided him and said Ward wasn’t up to playing thanks to shoulder surgery, writing on Facebook: “Deep down inside you knew you weren’t capable of doing the album and a 16-month tour ... So how is all of this my fault? Stop playing the victim and be honest with yourself and our fans.”
Their final album 13 was released in 2013 and had Rage Against the Machine drummer Brad Wilk filling in for Ward.
Black Sabbath later announced an emphatic end to their career, playing a final tour entitled The End, which concluded in Birmingham in February 2017. This time, Tommy Clufetos played drums. But Osbourne said there was friction between himself and the other original members: “I spent nine or 10 years in Sabbath, but I’d been away from them for over 30 years. With them, I’m just a singer. With me, I get to do what I want to do. I was getting bad vibes from them for being Ozzy. I don’t know, what the fuck else can I be?”
He also said he missed Ward being part of the band. “I didn’t like the fact that Bill Ward wasn’t there ... Tommy did great, but the four of us started this, and it should have been the four of us ending it. Those final gigs in Birmingham were bittersweet because you think of how far we came, and how much we did, and it would have been good to have shared that together. Maybe one day there’ll be one last gig, I don’t know.”
That has now come to pass, with Osbourne saying in a new statement: “It’s my time to go back to the beginning ... time for me to give back to the place where I was born. How blessed am I to do it with the help of people whom I love. Birmingham is the true home of metal. Birmingham forever.”
The concert will feature a short solo set from Osbourne before he joins with Black Sabbath. Other supporting bands are Gojira, Halestorm, Alice in Chains, Lamb of God, Anthrax and Mastodon, while there will be special appearances from Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan, Disturbed frontman David Draiman, Duff McKagan and Slash of Guns N‘ Roses, Frank Bello and Scott Ian of Anthrax, Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst, Korn’s Jonathan Davis and numerous others.
Profits from the concert will be shared between three charities: Cure Parkinson’s, Birmingham Children’s Hospital and the Birmingham-based Acorns Children’s Hospice.
It had looked as if Osbourne’s performing career had already petered out in rather less emphatic fashion. He first announced his retirement from gigging back in 1992 with the No More Tours tour, before reversing his decision, and later re-announcing it with No More Tours 2 in 2019. He postponed the European dates due to illness, then in 2020 announced he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s.
In 2022 he had extensive spinal surgery after a 2019 fall, which had exacerbated an earlier quad-biking injury. A hoped-for 2023 tour was cancelled as he continued to recuperate, with Osbourne saying: “Never would I have imagined that my touring days would have ended this way.” A one-off gig that year was announced, then also cancelled.
His final gig will be at the home of Aston Villa, the football team based in the Aston area of Birmingham where Osbourne grew up before forming Black Sabbath in 1968. Osbourne recently appeared in a video promoting the team’s 2024-25 season kit, and created an official T-shirt line with the club.
The city has long revered the group – even Birmingham Royal Ballet have paid tribute, creating Black Sabbath: the Ballet in 2023, commissioned by Carlos Acosta. – Guardian
