Ozzy Osbourne will ride again, it has been announced, as the Prince of Darkness reunites with Black Sabbath for one huge farewell concert.
The show is being held at Villa Park in the rocker’s hometown of Birmingham, with the original Black Sabbath lineup – Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward – playing together for the first time in 20 years.
Some of the biggest acts of metal – from Metallica to Lamb of God – are also taking part in the concert on 5 July, with all profits to be shared equally between three different charities.
“It’s my time to go Back to the Beginning….time for me to give back to the place where I was born,” Osbourne said in a statement. “How blessed am I to do it with the help of people whom I love. Birmingham is the true home of metal. Birmingham Forever.”
Music director Tom Morello, of Rage Against the Machine fame, said: “This will be the greatest heavy metal show ever.”
Other acts on the staggering lineup include Slayer, Pantera, Gojira, Alice in Chains, Mastodon, Anthrax and Halestorm.
The all-day event will see a “supergroup” of musicians from some of the world’s most influential rock and metal bands perform live, from Limp Bizkit’s Fred Dusrt to Wolfgang Van Halen, The Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan and Faith No More’s Mike Bordin.
Formed in Birmingham in 1968, Black Sabbath are regarded as one of the most influential and successful metal bands of all time, selling more than 75 million albums and paving the way for generations of future artists.
Their self-titled debut album charted in the Top 10 in the UK upon its release in 1970, and is now considered to be one of the most influential metal albums of all time. It was followed that same year by Paranoid, their darkest record yet that featured the songs “Iron Man” and “War Pigs”, and their third album, 1971’s Master of Reality.
Described by Rolling Stone critic Lester Bangs as “monotonous” albeit “consistent”, it nevertheless charted at No 5 in the UK and No 8 in the States.
Osbourne has received a number of accolades through career, including a Grammy for Best Metal Performance in 1994. In 2006, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with his Black Sabbath bandmates, then again as a solo artist last year by Hollywood actor Jack Black.
Black, 55, compared Osbourne to another legendary hellraiser by saying he had “so much charisma, the Jack Nicholson of rock”.
The School of Rock star opened his speech by reeling off a list of Osbourne’s jobs over the years: “Plumber, car horn tuner, slaughterhouse worker, the greatest frontman in the history of rock and roll.”
“When the needle hit, the vinyl heaven opened up above me, I don’t know. Then track two, ‘Crazy Train’. There was an explosion of colors in my brain. ‘Suicide Solution’, ‘Mr Crowley’, ‘Revelation’, even ‘Goodbye to Romance’.You best believe Ozzy could take it down a notch. He could do it all. Blizzard of Ozz was the best thing I’d ever heard. A heavy metal masterpiece.”
Despite his many health issues in later years, Osbourne has remained active well into his seventies. He was reunited with his Black Sabbath bandmates for their final album, 13, in 2013.
Meanwhile, his last solo album was 2022’s Patient Zero, made with help from fellow stars including Iommi, Eric Clapton, and the late Jeff Beck and Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins. It went on to win the 2023 Grammy for Best Rock Album.
His farewell tour had been due to resume in May 2020 before being shuttered by both Osbourne’s health problems and the Covid pandemic. In recent years, he has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s as well as undergoing several surgeries to try to correct an injury sustained in a 2003 quad-biking accident.
“I’ve made a pledge,” he told The Independent in 2022. “I will do whatever is physically possible until the summer of next year. If by then I can’t, then I can’t, but I’ll have given it my best. I’m pretty confident.
“I will get back on stage if it f***ing kills me, because if I can’t do it then that’s what’s gonna happen anyway, I’m gonna f***ing die. I love to see them audiences.”
Tickets to the “Back to the Beginning” event go on sale at 10am GMT on Friday 14 February and will be available from LiveNation.co.uk.
Profits from the show will be divided equally between Cure Parkinson’s, Birmingham Children’s Hospital and Acorn Children’s Hospice.
