Black Sabbath to reunite for one final show at Villa Park

Ozzy Osbourne has announced that the original line-up of Black Sabbath will reunite for one final charity concert at Villa Park in Birmingham on 5 July.

The show, titled Back to the Beginning, will be the last ever performance for both the band and Osbourne as a solo artist. It will be Black Sabbath's first concert in eight years, and the first time in twenty years that all four original members, Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward, have performed together.

Home city farewell

Black Sabbath formed in Birmingham in 1968 and are widely credited as pioneers of heavy metal. The band played their last concert, at the end of a farewell tour, in their home city in 2017, and Osbourne and Iommi appeared together at the closing ceremony of the 2022 Commonwealth Games at the Alexander Stadium.

Choosing Villa Park, a short distance from Osbourne's childhood home in Aston, brings the story full circle.

Proceeds to charity

All proceeds from the concert will go to charity, supporting Cure Parkinson's, Birmingham Children's Hospital and Acorns Children's Hospice. Osbourne has Parkinson's disease, and has not toured since his health forced him to retire from the road.

Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello will be the show's musical director. Osbourne made clear he intended to give fans a proper performance.

"I'm not going to get up there and do a half-hearted Ozzy looking for sympathy," he said.

A heavy metal line-up

As well as sets from Osbourne and from Black Sabbath, the bill includes some of the biggest names in metal and rock, among them Metallica, Guns N' Roses, Tool, Slayer, Pantera, Gojira, Alice in Chains, Halestorm, Lamb of God, Anthrax, Mastodon and Rival Sons.

Organisers say there will also be guest appearances from musicians including Steven Tyler, Billy Corgan, Slash, Sammy Hagar, Fred Durst and former Judas Priest guitarist K. K. Downing, as well as three former members of Osbourne's solo band.

What it means for Birmingham

For a city that has increasingly embraced its heavy metal heritage, from the Black Sabbath Bench on Broad Street to a star on the Birmingham Walk of Stars that Osbourne received in 2007, the concert promises to be a landmark moment. Villa Park, which holds more than 40,000 people, has hosted major concerts before, but none with such deep roots in the neighbourhood around it.

Demand for tickets is expected to be enormous, with fans from around the world expected to travel to Birmingham for what has been billed as the final chance to see the band that invented heavy metal on stage together.

Despite the "final show" billing, Iommi, Butler and Ward have not ruled out recording new music together in future.