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Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler does not hide his amusement — and perhaps bemusement — when asked if the Back to the Beginning mega-concert scheduled for July 5 in the band’s home town of Birmingham, England, will truly be, as advertised, the final stage appearance by the original quartet, as well as by frontman Ozzy Osbourne.
“With this band, I have given up trying to predict a ‘last ever’ performance,” Butler tells Billboard. “Every time I have stated ‘never again,’ something comes up, like this Villa Park gig.”

It’s certainly true that this is not the first time Sabbath and Osbourne as a solo artist have hung the farewell banner on an enterprise; the former’s last tour was even dubbed The End. But there’s a real acceptance that due to age and especially Osbourne’s well-documented health issues — including Parkinson’s disease and emphysema — Back to the Beginning will be the real end to a landmark career that began in 1968 as Earth and is widely accepted as the progenitor for all that the world knows as heavy metal.

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“It’s incredible, but it’s also sad because this is the final show for them, and that’s definite,” notes Robert Trujillo, who played bass for Osbourne from 1996 to 2003 before joining Metallica, who is part of the Back to the Beginning bill. And Sharon Osbourne — who is married to Ozzy, has managed him since he first went solo in 1979 and has also handled Sabbath — promises that “there’s no way on God’s Earth” there will be more.

“We’re done,” she declares. “I’ve been doing this since I was 15, and I’m done. We just want to live our life and do what we want to do and not have to follow an itinerary anymore.”

Sabbath, who is reuniting with original drummer Bill Ward (he dropped out of the band acrimoniously in 2012), and Osbourne will certainly be going out in style on July 5. Similar to the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert back in 1992 in London, they’ll be joined by a who’s-who roster of metal and hard rock luminaries such as Guns N’ Roses, Slayer, Tool, Pantera, Gojira, Halestorm, Alice In Chains, Lamb of God, Anthrax, Mastodon and Rival Sons. Also on the docket are Sammy Hagar, Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan, Korn’s Jonathan Davis, Ghost’s Tobias Forge, Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst and former Osbourne guitarists Zakk Wylde and Jake E. Lee. Musical director Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine promises there will be “a few unadvertised global, international superstars that people will be very, very happy to see.”

Actor Jason Momoa will serve as emcee, and proceeds — including from a global livestream (tickets via the event’s website) — will go to Cure Parkinson’s, the Birmingham Children’s Hospital and Acorns Children’s Hospice. Ozzy has also contributed his DNA to 10 cans of Liquid Death Iced Tea, which will be sold for $450 apiece.

“The goal from day one was very, very simple — to make it the greatest day, the most important day in the history of heavy metal music,” says Morello, who’s predicting the show, which begins at 3 p.m. in Birmingham and 10 a.m. ET, will last about 10 hours. “There’s never gonna be a dull moment. We’ve unearthed some incredible footage of things and people that no one’s ever seen, and a lot of surprises in a lot of other areas, too.”

Sabbath’s Butler adds, “It has been overwhelmingly gratifying to have so many major bands showing their love for this band, and willingly doing it all for charity. We were always hated by the music press, but the people that matter — the fans and other musicians — have been overwhelmingly supportive of Sabbath and were always proud to acknowledge our influence on them.”

Morello was approached more than a year ago by the Osbournes with the idea for the concert. “It was my idea,” Sharon says, “because [Ozzy’s] one regret was he didn’t get the chance to say thank you to his fans before he finished his world tour. We were in the middle of his [2018 No More Tours 2] world tour, his retirement tour; we’d only done about nine months of the tour and he got sick.”

Osbourne has made only three public stage appearances since the end of 2018: with Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi at the Commonwealth Games Closing Ceremony in Birmingham on Aug. 8, 2022; at the NFL Kickoff a month later in Inglewood, Calif.; and at last October’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in Cleveland, where he sat in a throne while being feted by another all-star array of musical friends, many of whom are part of Back to the Beginning.

But, Sharon continues, “He kept saying, ‘It’s my one regret’ and ‘I want a chance to really say thank you.’ And this is what we thought would be the best way to do it. It’s a celebration of Ozzy and Sabbath and the music. ”

Morello says curating the event has been “a labor of love,” even among the machinations “of figuring out who’s gonna play, what they’re gonna play, what order they’re gonna play in.” Few arms had to be twisted — “You call up folks and say, ‘Would you like to play at the last Black Sabbath show ever?’ people pick up the phone,” Morello notes — though Wolfgang Van Halen had to drop out due to logistics of tour commitments back in North America, and Scorpions were locked into a 60th anniversary concert in Hanover, Germany, which also includes Judas Priest.

And Sharon — who will join her family at the Birmingham Comic Con July 12-13 — has revealed that one band was disinvited because it “wanted to make a profit, and it’s not the time to make a profit. After the show I’ll let everybody know who it was. I think people will be shocked.”

Having Ward back in the Sabbath lineup was also key to the event, according to all concerned. “It had to be the original four of us or nothing — otherwise, it would be pointless,” Butler says. “I sincerely hope people go away happy to have seen a great final performance from us.” The four musicians were presented with Birmingham Freedom of the City scrolls and medals on June 28.

Morello adds, “Having Bill Ward play is really, really important. He was the guy who is playing on all those records that created the genre of heavy metal music, and one of the greatest drummers of all time.

“The show is back to the beginning,” Morello continues. “They’re playing in the soccer stadium that is literally a block and half from where half the band grew up where they could hear the cheer of the crowd when they couldn’t afford a ticket. So for the four of them to be back home in Birmingham, where the original heavy metal was forged, is going to be a special thing.”

When the dust — or pyrotechnics — settle, meanwhile, Morello hopes Back to the Beginning will have told a story that pays tribute to both Osbourne and Black Sabbath.

“While it’s universally accepted that Black Sabbath is the greatest metal band of all time,” Morello – who’s releasing his topical new single “Pretend You Remember Me” on July 10 — explains, “I think that the world doesn’t really get that it’s one of the most important musical artists of all time. The DNA of Black Sabbath is everywhere, in every stage, from every pop, country stage show, in every Lady Gaga performance. Every band from the ’90s era has at least one dude who grew up learning Black Sabbath songs, from Rage [Against the Machine] to Tool to Alice In Chains, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam — all those bands. It was very much in our DNA.

“So the hope here is really to give those guys the celebration that their careers deserve, but also to let the world know that Black Sabbath stands among the all-time titans of rock n’ roll.”

There is, of course, great excitement from the Back to the Beginning participants, and even from those who will be watching from afar, and many were happy to share their expectations and reasons for being part of the day.

The Smashing Pumpkins was managed for a time by Sharon Osbourne, and despite an acrimonious parting, frontman Billy Corgan says that “we made our peace years ago,” and even hosted her on his podcast, The Magnificent Others, which is when she invited him to be part of Back to the Beginning.

“I was stunned and very honored,” says Corgan, who’s expected to be part of a Boys From Illinoize performance with fellow Chicagoland natives Morello and Adam Jones of Tool. “When you look at the bill, you could argue this might be the greatest one-day lineup in the history of rock n’ roll. It’s just crazy who’s gonna be there, It’s such a beautiful story — even their years apart, the acrimony, the fighting, the silliness, and here they are, home together, even with Bill [Ward] playing drums. To think they’re gonna go out on their musical shield together — I think it’s so beautiful.”

Corgan — who co-wrote and played on the track “Black Oblivion” on Tony Iommi’s 2000 album Iommi — maintains that “Sabbath is probably my favorite band of all time” and recalls taking some lumps from the alt-rock world for championing the group. “No joke — there was a fanzine interview from 1988 and they asked us who we listen to and I mention Sabbath, and the girl starts making fun of me,” Corgan says. “Back then it wasn’t cool to like Sabbath, right? But I think their worth has been proven. It’s so durable, so influential — it’s mind-boggling, the influence.

“What I really look forward to is not only seeing them play, but I know how much they mean to the Metallicas and the Slayers of the world. Even they’ll be in a different emotional range that day. It’ll be amazing for all of us.”

Tool’s Maynard James Keenan got hooked into Sabbath when a cool aunt gave him copies of Black Sabbath and Joni Mitchell’s Blue during the same weekend. “I was listening to all the garbage that my [other] aunts and uncles brought me, like the DiFranco Family and Osmond Brothers and stuff,” shares the Tool frontman. “So on a nice Saturday morning, at my grandmother’s house watching monster movies on TV, she turned on Black Sabbath, and it was all uphill from there.”

Keenan, who sang “Crazy Train” during Ozzy Osbourne’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction last October in Cleveland, says he’s a fan of both Sabbath and Osbourne’s solo work. “Blizzard of Ozz, I was in high school when it came out and it was awesome ’cause I hadn’t heard from him in awhile. Back then we didn’t have Internet so we didn’t know what was going on, and out of nowhere you get Blizzard of Ozz and it was like, ‘Hallelujah!’ It was great. It’s just watching an artist progress and seeing what their journey is.”

He has “mixed feelings” about honoring Osbourne and Sabbath, and helping to usher them to what’s said to be a final end to their careers. “It makes you sad, because you want him to be able to do it forever,” Keenan explains. “So I’m honored to be able to step up, having been called to come do it, but at the same time, sad.”

Halestorm’s Lzzy Hale started listening to Black Sabbath when she was “around 11 or 12 years old” — ironically via the early ’80s Heaven and Hell and Mob Rules albums, when the late Ronnie James Dio fronted the band and Osbourne was beginning his solo career. “Then I traced the map back to the beginning and fell in love with Masters of Reality and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, etc. … Black Sabbath is how I define heavy music. Also, the spelling of my name would not be spelled L-Z-Z-Y without the legend of Ozzy. As more time goes by, I find myself rediscovering all the ways these men have influenced who I am today.”

Hale says she “fully reverted to my inner teenager and couldn’t believe it was real” when Halestorm “got an email asking if we’d like to be involved in this event.” She’s also the only woman on the bill, a distinction she does not take lightly.

“I am so incredibly humbled to … be the woman representing all of the women who were raised on this music,” she says. “I’ve never thought of rock or metal being a man or woman’s game. It doesn’t matter what gender you are. If you want to be a lifer like Black Sabbath, you have to be willing to give your life to it, break through the illusion of rules and spit in the face of adversity. This is the path they carved for all of us, and we are all Sabbath’s children.”

Slayer’s Kerry King, who was something of a latecomer to Black Sabbath, picked up on Heaven and Hell. “I was aware of ‘Paranoid’ ’cause that was a hit on the radio, and I knew about Ozzy, but I didn’t know why,” the guitarist recalls. “Maybe I was too sheltered to be into Sabbath. But once I got Heaven and Hell, I did my backwards homework and the stuff with Ozzy on it, and there it was, y’know?”

The other members of Slayer are kindred spirits in their regard for Sabbath, of course, and King is confident that the band’s late co-founder Jeff Hanneman, who passed away in 2013, would be “super proud” to be part of Back to the Beginning with the band. “He was so subdued and lackadaisical to fame that it’s hard to say,” King notes. “But in my opinion, I think he would be super stoked as well.”

King has been touring with his own band since last year’s release of his first solo album, From Hell I Rise, also featuring Iron Maiden songs in his set. Choosing a Sabbath tune for Back to the Beginning (he won’t reveal which one) was “a lot of fun,” but frustrating. “I certainly wasn’t dragging my feet, but by the time we got around to picking a song, all the ones you might expect us to do were taken,” he says. “So I really dove in on my homework and found a couple of appropriate songs and ran ’em by Tom Araya [Slayer bassist and vocalist]: ‘Are you cool with these?’ Then I picked one and it was  available, so we took it.”

For Charlie Benante — who will be doing double-duty at Back to the Beginning on drums for both Anthrax and Pantera — anything related to Black Sabbath brings back a semi-traumatic occasion during his childhood that he can laugh about now.

“My sister would take me to the record store,” he remembers, “and one time I bought this Black Sabbath T-shirt with an iron-on of the cover of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. I brought it home and my mother flipped out ’cause it had ‘666’ on it. She made my sister take me back to the story and return it. I had to stand there with her in humiliation.”

Benante will feel nothing but pride in Birmingham, however. “I’m just looking forward to being there and paying my respects to the guys who really turned a kid from the Bronx into what I became.”

Both of Benante’s bands have recorded Sabbath songs over the years, he notes; Anthrax covered “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath” on its 1987 EP I’m the Man, while Pantera has logged renditions of “Planet Caravan” — which Benante says “is probably the most mellow song that’ll be played that day” — for its 1984 album Far Beyond Driven and “Electric Funeral” for 2000’s Nativity In Black II Sabbath tribute album. Each band, he says, has a different way of approaching Sabbath’s aesthetic.

“With Anthrax it’s a little different ’cause Joey [Belladonna] is a different singer than Philip [Anselmo]; Joey can sing really high, so he goes for those notes Ozzy went for, and Philip takes it down to a lower register,” Benante explains. “And Pantera lays back a little more into the groove of it. It’s two completely different sounds, but it’s the same, if you know what I mean. It’s Sabbath.”

Lamb of God frontman Randall Blythe has no tolerance for any skepticism applied to Back to the Beginning. “Some people are like, ‘Oh, let him retire. Sharon’s just trying to get money,’” he says. “No. F–k you. Ozzy wants to do this. Let him sing. He loves doing this, let him do his thing one last time. Let him sit there and be honored by all of us, ’cause we came from him. All of us have Black Sabbath’s DNA in our music. They are the tree from which we have fallen.”

Lamb of God has history with both Sabbath and Osbourne, on the bill with the former during the 2004 Ozzfest tour and opening for Osbourne in 2007 (and also touring that same year with the Dio-fronted Sabbath reincarnation as Heaven & Hell). “So be asked to do [Back to the Beginning] is an incredible honor,” Blythe says. “This will be the last one. It’s not like the endless Kiss tour. This is it, and I think everybody, all the bands are pretty emotional about it. We want to go and give them the best send-off as possible and just show respect and thank them.”

Under any other circumstances, Judas Priest would be there for its fellow Brummies in person. But a previously scheduled slot for Scorpions’ 60th anniversary concert in Hanover, Germany, proved an insurmountable obstacle.

“When Sharon reached out, she was aware we were doing Scorpions,” Priest frontman Rob Halford says. “She wanted me to fly back and forth between the two. I would’ve loved to have done that, but it was just too risky. We’ve been best friends with Scorpions since they began, just like we’ve been best friends with Ozzy and Sabbath since they began. So it’s all understood. We’ll be there in spirit.” And via a tribute video, according to Halford.

“I shall probably stream the show while I’m singing on stage” — he breaks into song, singing “breaking the law, breaking the law” — “‘Oh, Ozzy’s just come on!’” Halford says with a laugh. “It just reinforces the importance of Ozzy and Sabbath in our world of music. All these massive bands love them so much they’re just running to this event, just to show much they mean to those artists, their importance and their value and they’re contribution is absolutely gigantic. It’s a big deal.”

Judas Priest singer Rob Halford admitted earlier this year that he was “gutted” to be missing out on the massive Black Sabbath Back to the Beginning gig this weekend in Birmingham, England. Unfortunately, the “Breaking the Law” band is double-booked […]