Black Sabbath have played their last show, bringing their legendary career to a close in the city where it all began. The one night only event, called Back to the Beginning, took place at Villa Park in Birmingham, England. Marking both the band’s final performance and Ozzy Osbourne’s last ever live appearance.
The original lineup of Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward shared the stage one last time. Now 76 and battling Parkinson’s, Ozzy opened the night with a solo set, performing seated on a custom throne. Songs like ‘Crazy Train’ and ‘Mama, I’m Coming Home’ carried extra weight and the crowd responded with the kind of love that only five decades of history can generate.
When Sabbath took the stage, they didn’t waste time. The four song set of ‘War Pigs’, ‘N.I.B.’, ‘Iron Man’, and ‘Paranoid’ felt like a deliberate, no nonsense send off. No deep cuts, no surprises, just the backbone of a genre performed with intention and grit!
Black Sabbath Perform ‘Paranoid’ One Last Time
The show ran as part of an 11 hour tribute event hosted by Jason Momoa, featuring appearances from Metallica, Tool, Slayer, Guns N’ Roses, Halestorm, Alice in Chains and others. More than 4.6 million people streamed it online.
Importantly, the event wasn’t just about legacy, it raised money for Parkinson’s research, Birmingham Children’s Hospital and Acorns Children’s Hospice. A final act of giving from a band that’s always carried working class heart behind the heaviness.
Sabbath didn’t need fireworks to make it count. They showed up, played hard and signed off on their own terms. If this really was the end and everything points to that, it was a quiet kind of powerful. A circle closed, with the amps left humming. What a way to say good bye to a truly remarkable career, with a night we will never forget.
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