Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi has assured Music Week that next month's Back To The Beginning extravaganza will "absolutely" be the heavy metal legends' last stand.
Taking place at Birmingham’s Villa Park stadium on July 5, the sold-out event will mark Ozzy Osbourne’s farewell performance and bring together the original Sabbath line-up including Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward for the first time in over two decades.
Produced by Live Nation, the star-studded charity show will also feature sets from Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, Tool, Billy Corgan, Slayer, Pantera, Gojira, Halestorm, Mastodon and Alice In Chains, among many others.
“I’m amazed and honoured they’re all doing it,” said Iommi, speaking to Music Week's James Hickie in our latest print edition. “It’s gone out of all proportion, with so many [bands] coming on board. I will be interested to see what some of the bands are going to do with Sabbath’s stuff, but then again I don’t think I’m going to be there all day – I’ll probably collapse. I think it starts quite early and goes on until I-don’t-know-what-time."
Tom Morello of Rage Against The Machine is serving as creative director for the event, which he has billed as "the greatest heavy metal show ever".
“It’s a big role,” said Birmingham native Iommi, speaking in our July edition. “I certainly wouldn’t want to take it on! I’ve spoken to him on the phone, to sort out what we’re going to play, so the other bands don’t play the same songs, because each one will be doing a Sabbath song or an Ozzy song.
“Tom has said that these bands grew up with us and love us and they want to pay their respects, which is really fantastic. I just can’t believe they’ve all come forward – and even still more artists are coming, like Steven Tyler and [members of] Soundgarden.”
Everybody in the band is looking forward to doing it, though it’s a nerve-racking thing
Tony Iommi
Morello will also perform as part of a supporting bill that includes members of Red Hot Chili Peppers, Korn, Limp Bizkit, Disturbed, Faith No More and Living Colour,
Tickets for the concert sold out in less than 16 minutes, with more than 150,000 people reportedly in the virtual queue, and Tony Iommi suggested the calibre of the line-up spoke volumes of Sabbath's influence on hard rock music.
“You can see how we’ve impacted their lives," he said. "And each [band], in turn, has taken what they’ve learned from us and done their own things. They may never have existed if it wasn’t for the original Sabbath.”
Black Sabbath’s The End Tour culminated in February 2017 at Birmingham’s Genting Arena (since renamed BP Pulse Live) in what was billed as the band's last ever show. Iommi and Osbourne later made a surprise appearance at the closing ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in 2022.
Ozzy Osbourne cancelled his farewell solo tour on medical grounds in 2023 and retired from touring, and Iommi is adamant that Back To The Beginning will represent Sabbath's final farewell.
“It’s absolutely the end,” he said. “This show has come up because of the situation [Ozzy’s health issues] and because it’s a charity thing. But there’s no way we could go out and do a tour. Everybody in the band is looking forward to doing it, though it’s a nerve-racking thing, as we’ll be touching on some stuff that we haven’t done for a long time.
“[The show] being for charity drew me into it. It’s not just to get out and play again with the band, because we would never be able to do a full show because of everybody’s condition now.”
You’re used to Ozzy running around, but he certainly won’t be doing that for this show
Tony Iommi
The 77-year-old musician described his emotions ahead of the reunion as “excitement mixed with fear", admitting that areas of uncertainty remained.
“This would be a big, monumental thing if it all comes good,” said Iommi. “The worrying thing for me is the unknown. We don’t know what’s going to happen. Normally, when we’d tour, we’d rehearse and run through the thing for a while, and it’s just us. But with this event there are so many other moving parts.
“You’re used to Ozzy running around, but he certainly won’t be doing that for this show. I don’t know if he’s going to be standing or sitting on a throne or what…”
He continued: “Once we start playing, then we’ll know we’re doing it. It’s always a worry, even when we did tours before, there’s always that build-up, and then it gets to the point that we do it and it’s OK.”
Meanwhile, it was recently announced last week that Mercury Studios has secured exclusive rights to produce and livestream Back To The Beginning in partnership with technology partner Kiswe.
Subscribers can read full interview with Tony Iommi and manager Sharon Osbourne in the latest issue of Music Week.
