On what would have been his 77th birthday, we look back on Ozzy Osbourne's final ever live performance as the likes of Yungblud, Lamb Of God and Gojira reflect on being part of the ‘Back To The Beginning’ event in Birmingham this summer.
This piece originally appeared in Issue 316 of Rock Sound which you can still purchase alongside an Ozzy t-shirt with £15 from each sale donated to Cure Parkinson’s.
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“You’ve got no idea how I feel, thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
As Ozzy Osbourne glanced out at the sold out Villa Park to a sea of hands swaying in unison, the waves of emotion appeared to finally hit him, and indeed the crowd, at full force. The preceding hours had been filled with celebration, from Mastodon’s punishing opening set which they referred to as “the greatest honor of our lives” through to Metallica pummeling through hit after hit, James Hetfield sporting a Sabbath-approved purple guitar. We’d seen Slayer spark at least seven concurrent circle pits across the pitch for ‘Raining Blood’. We had watched in awe as the likes of Billy Corgan, Papa V Perpetua, Steven Tyler, Tom Morello and Sleep Token’s II had formed supergroups to tackle some of the greatest heavy anthems of all time. We were mesmerised as Travis Barker teamed up with Chad Smith and Danny Carey on a drum off for the ages. Gojira proved why major festival headline slots are within their grasp. Guns ‘N’ Roses united 40,000 people in song. Lamb Of God, Alice In Chains, Halestorm, Tool – the list of talent ran deep as all who worship at the altar of heavy metal gathered together to pay tribute. But remarkable though these performances were, as the prince of darkness rose up on his throne, so the audience rose to their feet for the first complete standing ovation of the day.
Then, as ‘Crazy Train’ faded to black, our attention turned to the final bit of business and perhaps the most anticipated metal performance ever. As the stage revolves, revealing Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward alongside their fearless leader, the sky turns a formidable shade of purple as a single bell rings out, their name spelled out in flames on the giant screens either side of them.
A moment years in the making, Ozzy and Black Sabbath’s final bow was as glorious as it was bittersweet. As Anthrax put it earlier in the day “all of us are in the same place for one fucking reason – we’re not here to say goodbye, we’re here to say thank you.” A day of tears, joy and even a little magic, it is deeply unlikely that we will ever see another show like it in our lifetimes. This is ‘Back To The Beginning’ as told by those who were there.
YUNGBLUD
A longtime friend of Ozzy, Yungblud appeared as a surprise special guest during the first supergroup section of the show on a formidable cover of ‘Changes’, leading the crowd in a closing a capella singalong.
“What’s so mental is when you meet the Gods within this. You meet Ozzy Osbourne and you realise that they have gone through all the same things as you are. It makes you check yourself. When you’re talking about people who are questioning whether you’re authentic or not and how they don’t get what you’re about, they just say, ‘Welcome to the fucking club’. You see Ozzy as an end result. They have already been crowned the king at the time you see them. But you don’t know the journey that it has taken to get there. Every artist has that moment where they wonder what the world thinks about them. I was exposed to a lot of rock music as a kid, what with my Dad working in a guitar shop. But Black Sabbath were the band that always stuck out. I even knew all the tales about Ozzy and Tony before I really got into the music, too. I knew that Tony had the top of his fingers chopped off, and I knew that Ozzy was a crazy bastard. That’s what I loved. Even though I’m really positive, I feel like I have always had an innate darkness about me. I have always been quite a dark creature. And I feel like Black Sabbath personified that. Hearing a song like ‘Paranoid’ in the car with my Grandad or coming on at a party, it would just hit. We would go fucking mental.
Back then I was just a kid with his fucking tongue out, and looking at Ozzy felt like me personified. Seeing him felt like looking at myself. And I think that’s why people see a lot of similarities between us. We’ve got massive hearts, we’re a little bit crazy, and we’ve both got massive mouths as well. I’ve always carried him in my pocket, because with all of that, he made it. Not only did they make it in rock music, but they also made it as human beings who were always going to be themselves. I can’t believe that they asked me to sing a song like ‘Changes’ either. They could have got me out to try and get the crowd rocking. They know I know how to do that. But putting me on the microphone with a piano in front of 70,000 people and front of Ozzy is something else entirely. A way to say thank you. I feel like it is the most relevant Sabbath song to my life at the minute, especially alongside the art and the album that I’ve just put out. And to be able to look at that motherfucker and say, ‘Thank you for every turning point in my life’, the only way I could do that is by going out and singing that song for him.”
GOJIRA’S JOE DUPLANTIER
Joining a lineup of their musical heroes, and taking on a cover of Sabbath’s ‘Under The Sun/Every Day Comes And Goes’, the Gojira frontman reflects on the group’s triumphant afternoon set.
“I almost can’t say how I feel about it. It’s too early, you know what I mean? Call me back in five years, because it’s hard to digest the fact that we were invited by Black Sabbath. Until the day of the show, we were like wait, is this really a thing? It’s got to be a joke. We’re going to show up to Birmingham and there’s going to be nobody. It’s just incredible to be playing a gig with all these idols, these heroes that inspired us since the beginning, and especially Black Sabbath. All of a sudden they’re here, and all the bands that influenced us so heavily are here too – Pantera, Slayer, Metallica, Tool. It was absolutely insane. It was mind blowing from the get go. Then I remember the feeling of standing on that stage before our performance, watching Mastodon opening the thing, and looking left and right and seeing all these incredible musicians and legends and everybody was sharing the same feeling that it was a special day. I could tell everybody was reflecting on the genre and friendship. It’s not just the James Hetfields and the Kerry Kings and the Steven Tylers but I’m also talking about the crews that are often in the shadows. These people are our family too. There’s the whole backstage aspect of it, all these managers, tour managers, promoters, drum techs, guitar techs, sound guys, that are also part of the family.
It’s such a wonderful, impeccable way to say goodbye to an entity like Black Sabbath. I think they really nailed it. They did everything right. Ozzy is this guy that lives for the people, for the fans. It’s always a weird thing to say that you live for the fans but the truth is that they made a life for him and for the genre and for all of us. Being able to communicate things in such a raw manner is really cathartic for everybody who’s going to listen to it. I was in the crowd when Black Sabbath was playing the last songs and people were crying. I cried. It was impossible not to be really swallowed in this emotion. And also, there’s the charity aspect of it. It’s just so incredibly perfect. It’s such a perfect moment, almost redirecting the whole purpose of metal – it is not just rebellion and entertainment and stuff, there’s more to it. There’s a compassionate aspect to it and there’s a useful aspect to it. Metal is good for you. Heavy Metal is good for you and they just proved it with all these people coming together at a time where the world is so polarized and is getting so lost. It showed that artists care.”
LAMB OF GOD’S RANDY BLYTHE
The band surprise released their version of ‘Children Of The Grave’ on to streaming services immediately following the show. Randy tells us why the song’s timeless themes made it the perfect choice of cover for the group.
“Tom Morello asked if we would do a couple of Lamb Of God songs and either an Ozzy or a Black Sabbath song. Immediately, I wanted to do ‘War Pigs’ but that was on the list of songs that the Sabbath guys were rehearsing. So the second one was ‘Children Of The Grave’. Both of those songs address warfare and nuclear armageddon and so forth and right now, we live in a very divided, very contentious time. There’s a lot of horrific conflict across the globe. I love both of those songs, obviously, but for me, I like songs that have gravitas and that speak on real things that concern me. Both of those songs certainly do. Geezer Butler wrote a lot of socially conscious lyrics and I try to do the same. So it was important for me to try and snag one of the songs that really had some weight and meaning and that are just as relevant today as it was in 1971 when the song came out, the year I was born. It was important for us to come out that day and do what we do as Lamb of God, which is known for bringing the energy and making a ruckus, and that was also important to us in the way we approached the cover. We really wanted to honor them and do it a bit more traditionally at first, but then shift it in the second verse. We shift it to more Lamb of God style, because we’re Lamb of God. We’re not Black Sabbath. They’re covers, so it’s important to put our imprint on it while honoring the song as much as we could.
I watched Ozzy and Sabbath from the audience. I wanted to be in the audience for those sets, to feel part of that crowd. Because, yes, we had played a show, but we’re fans, so there were a bunch of us from the bands that had played watching, singing every word, tears running down our face. It was incredible.”
ANDY COPPING
Having spent years in charge of Download Festival, Andy is more than used to producing stacked lineups full of rock icons. However, with ‘Back To The Beginning’, he was presented with his biggest challenge yet – one that ultimately became the most rewarding of his career.
“Two years ago, Sharon Osbourne had come to me with the idea. We were originally going to do this at Villa Park last year in 2024 and then we all felt Oz wasn’t quite there yet with his health and his physicality, and so it was kind of put on ice for a little bit. Then Sharon approached me again in August last year and said we’re on for 2025. The first band that we booked was Metallica. I made the call, they were on board and I knew then that if they are saying yes then it’s going to make things a bit easier when you’re talking to other bands. Literally, everybody said yes.
You saw the different band members working with different super groups, it was miraculous. Then there was the whole decision with regards to how we were going to turn this around. We’ve got stadium acts here, you know, Tool, Slayer, Pantera, Guns ‘N’ Roses, Metallica into Ozzy and Sabbath. It is a massive undertaking. So we decided we were going to have a revolving stage so while somebody is playing, we can set up behind and not only did it run on time, we actually ended up being ahead of time. The show finished 30 minutes before the actual curfew at the venue. The other challenge was, as we got closer to the show, more and more artists were suddenly coming to us and asking to be part of it. Steven Tyler was a late addition. Travis Barker was a late addition. Yungblud was a late edition. We don’t want to miss out on having these artists join the stellar lineup that we had anyway. But I’ve got to tell you, the camaraderie backstage. I thought I’d seen it all, but it was everybody supporting one another. All the bands are watching each other at the side of the stage. Backstage, loads of acts were either reconnecting or connecting for the first time. I mean, I hadn’t realized that Axl Rose and Ozzy had never met before.
I get emotional even talking about the way Ozzy got so moved seeing everybody coming in and seeing him and thanking all of these acts for being part of this event. But none of them wanted to miss it. It was just too big. When ‘Blizzard of Ozz’ came out, I remember going to see Ozzy on that very first tour in 1980 and they opened with the opening track, ‘I Don’t Know’. So when he comes on and he opens the set with it, I mean, I’m gone. I sobbed my heart out for the whole set. Then of course there’s ‘Mama I’m Coming Home’ and I’m stood next to Sharon and I look at her and she’s in pieces. I was already broken, but it took me to another level. The emotion is so hard to describe. Just talking about this stuff, I’m welling up. It was fucking hard work but it’s without doubt the biggest and best event that I’ve ever been involved with. It was just historic.”
LUKE MCDONNELL
Tasked with creating an original piece of art for the event, McDonnell looks to the band’s origins for inspiration as he developed a truly unique work that would later be auctioned off, raising a further £16,000 for the concert’s chosen charities.
“I wanted to try and do something classic, something a bit timeless. Henry was the Black Sabbath little devil, the bit of iconography either side of their logo. So I did this deep dive into all of their history. I know Sabbath anyway, I had the record ‘Paranoid’ from about 12 years old and I’ve been hooked and obsessed ever since. But in terms of the real nitty gritty stuff, what the guys were doing when they first got together, I had no idea about. So I looked into it and it was 1968 when the band first got together in Birmingham, living in those terraced streets and working in the local factories. I like the idea of the birth of Sabbath being forged in the very smoke from the chimneys of these houses and factories. So that’s what I did. I did the skyline, which was based on what it looked like in 1968, and the stadium itself. So you’ve got the stadium in the foreground there and then from the chimneys rises Henry, the birth of Sabbath, the beginning and the end, which I thought was quite neat. Then I went and had a bespoke frame made, the big oak frame, and a golden plaque for the bottom of it. Then subsequently, all the guys that were there came and signed it.”
