Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward will reunite for one final performance as Black Sabbath. Headlined Back to the Beginning, the all-day concert will feature some of the biggest acts in metal — including Metallica, Slayer and Pantera — when it’s held on July 5 at Villa Park, in Birmingham, England, the band’s home town.
This will be the first performance by the original Black Sabbath members in 20 years.
“It’s my time to go Back to the Beginning….time for me to give back to the place where I was born,” Ozzy Osbourne says. “How blessed am I to do it with the help of people whom I love. Birmingham is the true home of metal. Birmingham Forever.”
Osbourne will perform a short set of his own prior to joining his former bandmates for what will reportedly be Black Sabbath’s last-ever show.
“This will be the greatest heavy metal show ever,” promises music director Tom Morello, who has assembled an all-star lineup for the event. Scheduled performers include Metallica, Slayer, Pantera, Gojira, Halestorm, Alice in Chains, Lamb of God, Anthrax and Mastodon.
The all-day event will also feature a supergroup of musicians. Artists announced so far include Billy Corgan, Duff McKagan & Slash, Jake E Lee, KK Downing, Lzzy Hale, Rudy Sarzo, Sammy Hagar, Scott Ian, Wolfgang Van Halen and Zakk Wylde, among several others.
The expansive lineup demonstrates Black Sabbath’s far-reaching influence since they formed in Birmingham in 1968 and went on to become one of most successful metal bands of all time.
Among the guests are three players who came to prominence performing with Ozzy Osbourne in his solo years: bass guitar player Rudy Sarzo and electric guitar players Zakk Wylde and Jake E. Lee, who has been recovering from being shot while walking his dog in Las Vegas last October.
As for Wylde, he has spoken many times of Black Sabbath’s impact on his life as a guitarist, giving special credit to “Lord Tony Iommi,” “All of us that are working in this field of music, this guy has actually employed all of us,” Wylde told Revolver in 2023 as he made a point about Iommi’s iconic riffs, which are a hallmark of Black Sabbath’s music. “That’s how massive his impact is.”
In particular, Wylde has pointed to Iommi's use of C# tuning and riffs that can be played on two strings as vital elements to his own riffage.
More performers for Back to the Beginning will be announced in the coming days.
Tickets go on sale at 10 am GMT on Friday, February 14, LiveNation.co.uk.
All profits will go to the following charities: Cure Parkinson’s, Birmingham Children’s Hospital and Acorn Children’s Hospice, a Children’s Hospice supported by Aston Villa.
“It started with the lick — just fooling around on the guitar. And I thought, ‘That could turn into a song!’” He kickstarted 1970s power-pop with a Gibson SG, a rented acoustic and a gem of a song that remains a classic
“He’d already refused an offer from Eric Clapton.” Rudolf Schenker reveals the story behind Scorpions’ “Rock You Like a Hurricane” and the guitar Slowhand couldn’t own
