Ozzy Osbourne, Black Sabbath to Play One Last Show
Source: Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath arrives for the 56th Annual GRAMMY(R) Awards at STAPLES Center in Los Angeles, CA. Sunday, January 26, 2014. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Heavy metal icons Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath are reuniting for one final show before calling it a career. The show takes place at a one-day fund-raising festival set to take place on July 5 in Birmingham, England. The show was announced Wednesday by Tony Iommi and Sharon Osbourne.
The Villa Park-based festival features a variety of popular heavy metal bands, including Anthrax, Gojira, Metallica, Pantera and Slayer, headlined by Black Sabbath. The show will be the first time in 20 years Black Sabbath’s original lineup of Ozzy, Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward have played together. Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello will serve as the festival’s music director.
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In addition to the original lineup of Black Sabbath and other iconic metal acts, Ozzy will play a short solo set prior to joining his former bandmates. He hasn’t toured much in recent years due his 2020 Parkinson’s disease diagnosis and injuries to his spinal cord suffered over the last couple decades. Sharon said that despite his injuries, Ozzy is determined to play one last show, according to BBC News.
“He’s doing great. He’s doing really great,” Sharon said. “He’s so excited about this, about being with the guys again and all his friends. It’s exciting for everyone.”
“Ozzy didn’t have a chance to say goodbye to his friends, to his fans, and he feels there’s no been no full stop,” Sharon said. “This is his full stop.”
The festival will reportedly be called “Back to the Beginning,” which references Black Sabbath being of Birmingham and pioneers of heavy metal music. It will raise funds to support Cure Parkinson’s, Birmingham Children’s Hospital and Acorn Children’s Hospice.
In addition to several iconic heavy metal bands, the festival will feature performances from Alice In Chains, Halestorm, Lamb Of God and Mastodon, plus a set featuring The Smashing Pumpkins’s Billy Corgan, Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst, Guns N’ Roses’s Slash, Mastodon’s Wolfgang Van Halen and Morello.
