Black Sabbath said goodbye (possibly for good this time) at their massive “Back to the Beginning” show at the Villa Park football stadium in their birthplace of Birmingham, UK on Saturday (7/5). The show featured the full original lineup of Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and Bill Ward, marking the band’s first performance in eight years and Ward’s first appearance with the band in 20, and it followed a solo set from Ozzy and tributes to Sabbath and Ozzy from several other metal and hard rock legends throughout the day. As revealed beforehand, both the Ozzy solo set and the Sabbath sets were brief. Ozzy played five songs (“I Don’t Know,” “Mr. Crowley,” “Suicide Solution,” “Mama, I’m Coming Home,” and “Crazy Train”), and Sabbath played four (“War Pigs,” “N.I.B.,” “Iron Man,” and “Paranoid.”)
Before Ozzy, the show featured sets from Metallica, Slayer, Pantera, Guns N’ Roses, Mastodon, Anthrax, Tool, Lamb of God, Alice In Chains, Gojira, and more, all of whom covered Black Sabbath songs. There were also all-star supergroup performances with Billy Corgan, Tom Morello, K.K. Downing, Sammy Hagar, Steven Tyler, Travis Barker, Chad Smith, and others covering Sabbath, Ozzy, and a few other classic rock bands. Like at the Oasis reunion show that happened in the UK one day earlier, the show featured a tribute to Diogo Jota, the Liverpool FC player who tragically died earlier this week. Jason Momoa hosted and also moshed to Pantera.
There was a pay-per-view livestream of the whole show that’ll be available on-demand until Monday (7/7) at 3 PM BST. You can also check out some fan-shot footage of Sabbath’s full set and other performances below.
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