Ozzy Osbourne's 'made it' message as Black Sabbath prepare for final show
Ozzy Osbourne beamed for the camera as he posed for a powerful snap ahead of the Black Sabbath concert at Villa Park on July 5. In a collaboration post between Aston Villa Football Club and Ozzy, the Prince of Darkness posed with a host of rock and metal stars ahead of the superconcert.
The musician, Bill Ward, Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler will be joined by the world's best heavy metal bands for the July 5 show before Ozzy retires from performing. The caption of the Instagram post read: "'It's taken us 57 years to get to the Villa, we made it. Back to the Beginning' - Ozzy Osbourne."
Black Sabbath performed a farewell tour from 2016 to 2017, with all the founding members minus Bill going on tour. Last year, Ozzy took to his The Madhouse Chronicles podcast to admit the band's career felt "unfinished" as they didn't tour with Bill.
He wanted a proper original lineup reunion, with all the band members sharing their interest in the idea. The huge comeback was finally revealed in the Back To The Beginning's announcement earlier this year.
Ozzy first retired from live singing in 2023 because of his numerous surgeries and his Parkinson's Disease.
'As you may all know, four years ago, this month, I had a major accident, where I damaged my spine,' he said on social media. 'My one and only purpose during this time has been to get back on stage.
'My singing voice is fine. However, after three operations, stem cell treatments, endless physical therapy sessions, and most recently, groundbreaking Cybernics (HAL) Treatment, my body is still physically weak.'
Along with Black Sabbath, the Back To The Beginning supershow will include sets from Metallica, Guns N' Roses, Slayer, Tool, Gojira, Anthrax, Lamb Of God, Halestorm, Mastodon and Rival Sons.
An all-star super-group will be playing, with The Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan, Rage Against The Machine's Tom Morello, Megadeth's David Ellefson, and Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst taking to the stage.
The event will be hosted and compered by Game Of Thrones icon Jason Momoa. Sharon Osbourne recently said of the show: "Then you're going to see one icon playing with another icon, doing a Sabbath song and one or two of their own songs, and people playing with each other that you never you'd see.
"Tom Morello is going to play with the drummer from Tool and they're going to have Billy Corgan with them. Then you'll see Slash and Duff and whoever they choose to play with.
"David Draiman is going to come up and sing, Jonathan from Korn is going to be here and he could be playing with Chad Smith or whoever!'
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