Ozzy Osbourne will join his original Black Sabbath bandmates for one last hometown show this summer, but the heavy-metal icon warns fans not to expect him to do a complete set.
"Back to the Beginning" will take place on July 5, and it will be the first time in 20 years that Osbourne has performed on the same stage as Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and Bill Ward. The event, which will also feature performances by other giant metal names like Metallica, Slayer, and Pantera, is being held at Aston Villa Football Club's Villa Park venue in England.
In recent years, Osbourne hasn't been able to tour due to health issues.
He was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and is still healing from previous injuries; he said he would only be able to perform a small fraction of the show.
"We're only playing a couple of songs each," Osbourne told The Guardian. "I don't want people thinking, 'We're getting ripped off,' because it's just going to be... what's the word?... a sample. You're going to get a few songs each by Ozzy and Sabbath."
Still, said Osbourne, who has a limited range of motion, he pledged that he will try his best.
"I'll be there, and I'll do the best I can," he promised. "So all I can do is turn up."
His wife and longtime manager, Sharon Osbourne, dreamed up the concert. Sharon explained that her motivation behind the reunion was "Something to give me a reason to get out of bed in the morning."
A Full Circle Moment
In the late '60s, Black Sabbath was formed in Birmingham, but the four founding members were eager to leave the grind of factory work. Forming in 1969, their first album arrived in 1970 and broke into the UK top 10, launching a historic, genre-defining career that would see them shift more than 75 million albums across the globe.
The band last performed what was branded as their farewell show in 2017, also in Birmingham. Ward sat out that performance, which featured Osbourne, Iommi, and Butler.
Osbourne missed out on his band being inducted into the US Rock & Roll Hall of Fame last year because of his health. He was also forced to cancel the European and UK legs of his "No More Tours 2" tour because of a 2019 fall that further aggravated injuries from a 2003 ATV accident.
"You wake up the next morning and find that something else has gone wrong," Osbourne said. "You begin to think this is never going to end."
Call it a case of the show must go on, but the Black Sabbath frontman isn't letting that get in the way of making his final performance on stage a memorable one, no matter how small a moment it is.
The concert will raise money for multiple charities, including Cure Parkinson's, Birmingham Children's Hospital, and Acorn Children's Hospice, which Aston Villa also backs.
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