British singer Ozzy Osbourne will reunite for the first time in 20 years with his original bandmates from the heavy metal band Black Sabbath for his last concert on July 5 at Villa Park Stadium in Birmingham, London. This was announced on Wednesday by Osbourne himself, 76, in a statement on the Aston Villa football club's website, the team he has been a fan of for years: "It's my time to return to my roots, time to go back to the place where I was born," he said.
The concert, titled Back to the Beginning, will feature performances from bands such as Metallica, Slayer, Pantera, Gojira, Halestorm, Alice In Chains, Lamb Of God, Anthrax, Mastodon and additional performances from more than a dozen musicians. "What a blessing it is to be able to do this with the help of the people I love. Birmingham is the true home of metal," Osbourne added in the note.
Ozzy Osbourne will reunite with all the original members of Black Sabbath for the first time in 20 years, in a concert that will be the last and is being promoted as the "greatest" heavy metal show of all time, promoters said on Wednesday. Osbourne, who was the band's leader during its peak success in the 1970s and who was widely known as the "Prince of Darkness," will perform his own brief set before his bandmates from Sabbath, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward, join him for the first time in two decades.
"This will be the greatest heavy metal show of all time," said musical director Tom Morello. In 2020, Osbourne revealed he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and paused his tours in 2023 after extensive back surgery. They became one of the most influential and successful metal bands of all time, selling over 75 million albums worldwide.
Osbourne's fame expanded into popular culture in the early 2000s when he starred in the MTV reality show "The Osbournes" alongside his wife Sharon Osbourne and two of his children.
All proceeds from the concert on July 5 will go to charities including Cure Parkinson's, Birmingham Children's Hospital and Acorn Children's Hospice, which is supported by Aston Villa. Tickets will go on sale on Friday, February 14.
His self-titled debut album in 1970 reached the top ten in the UK and paved the way for a series of successful albums, including the 1971 "Master of Reality" and "Vol. 4" a year later. Ozzy has struggled with health issues since 2003 after a near-fatal ATV accident, injuries that worsened in 2019 when he had a fall at home. The story of Sabbath began in Birmingham in 1968 when the four original members sought to escape a life of factory work.
