Back to the Beginning’: a farewell to the king in the most important Metal gig ever

Our reviewer, who traveled to cover the farewell show not only of the legendary band Black Sabbath but also of the incomparable Ozzy. Agustin, wrote a few words in memory of his great idol, whom he had the privilege of meeting in person a few years ago and of witnessing the historic event on July 5th.

Here are his words and review of “Back to the Beginning” by Agustin Lopez.

At the beginning of the year, a concert date was published on the Internet. Not a random one, it was called “Back to the Beginning”, meant to happen on July 5th of 2025, and the flyer was just everything a metalhead could ask for. Headliners would be Black Sabbath with their original lineup (Ozzy, Tony, Geezer, and Bill) playing together for the first time in more than 25 years. The 4 guys that created Heavy Metal back in 1970. 
The other one would be Ozzy Osbourne doing a solo show performing his classic songs. The thing behind this gig was to let Ozzy perform one last time. A thing that he wanted to do since 2019, when health issues pushed him to cancel the last leg of his “No More Tours 2” tour. Which was meant to be his farewell tour.
After that unfortunate situation, came another one: pandemic. And Ozzy’s health just kept getting worse during lockdown. It became impossible for him to play an entire performance. So he made a statement in which he said he wouldn’t be performing live anymore.
That news felt very bittersweet, because he reached the end of his career with no chance of saying goodbye to his crowd.

In all the months after that, it seems like Sharon did a lot of work to have this last gig.
It would be in Birmingham (Black Sabbath’s origins, where it all began), in the Villa Park stadium. And a lot of legendary bands made their way into the lineup.
You have Ozzy and Sabbath closing the night, but before… There was Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, Slayer, Tool, Pantera, Gojira, Alice in Chains, Lamb of God, Halestorm, Anthrax, Rival Sons, Mastodon, and a couple of supergroups coordinated by Tom Morello, which reunited musicians from incredible bands. Amazing crossover took place that night.
Another thing that must be said is that all the money raised in this gig would be donated to a foundation that fights children’s Parkinson’s.

The sold-out show started at 1 pm, hosted by actor Jason Momoa, who introduced every band on the gig.
The first band to hit the stage was Mastodon. They had 15 minutes to play, as did the majority of the other bands. The deal with every band was that they had to play at least one Sabbath or Ozzy song in their sets.
Mastodon played 2 songs from their catalog: “Black Tongue” and the fan favourite “Blood and Thunder”. After that, they played “Supernaut” by Sabbath, with 3 legendary drummers as guests on the percussion bridge of the song: Eloy from Slipknot, Mario from Gojira, and Danny from Tool. Crazy crossovers started from early hours of the day.
The next band was Rival Sons; they did too 2 songs of their own and a Sabbath classic: “Do Your Worst”, “Electric Funeral” (amazing cover, by the way), and “Secret”.

It was time for Anthrax to come onstage. They only played 2 songs on his 15 minutes: “Indians” and a cover of “Into the Void” by Sabbath, too. There’s something said by Scott Ian during their set that stuck in my mind: “We’re not all here to say goodbye to Black Sabbath, we’re here to say thank you”.
Next, Halestorm appeared, Lzzy Hale was the only female on the line up, and she gave us an incredible vocal performance, playing “Love Bites (So Do I)”, “Rain Your Blood On Me”, and the first Ozzy solo carreer song of the day, “Perry Mason” (personally, my favourite cover of the entire gig, they nailed it).
After that, Lamb of God added their heaviness by playing “Laid to Rest” and “Redneck.” The cover they’ve chosen was “Children of the Grave”, an outstanding choice for them.
It was time to see the first of 2 Tom Morello’s All-Stars bands. First, it had Lzzy Hale on vocals, Nuno Bettencourt from Extreme on guitar, David Ellefson, the ex-Megadeth, on bass, Mike Bordin from Faith No More on drums, and Adam Wakeman (keyboard player on Ozzy’s solo band) on keyboards. And the amazing Jake E. Lee on guitar, the ex-Ozzy’s guitar player who played in “Bark at the Moon” and “The Ultimate Sin”. The song that they played was “The Ultimate Sin”, and then “Shot in the Dark”, changing vocals: Lzzy left, and David Draiman from Disturbed appeared onstage. Then Scott Ian took Jake E. Lee’s place and played “Sweet Leaf” by Sabbath. 

II from Sleep Token took Bordin’s place, Frank Bello from Anthrax plugged his bass, and Whitfield Crane from Ugly Kid Joe replaced Draiman on vocals. This new whole band played “Believer” by Ozzy. And after that, Yungblood took the microphone and played “Changes” by Sabbath with the band. One of the most memorable vocal performances for sure.
In the middle of time after the end of the supergroup’s set, the crowd got surprised by a tape of Jack Black performing “Mr. Crowley” alongside the sons of Tom Morello and Scott Ian. It was very hilarious.
You could see a lot of videotapes in every mid-time between bands, sometimes an Ozzy sketch making a parody of a famous music video of an artist, or a movie. And sometimes artists wish the best to Ozzy on his final show. There were videos by Def Leppard, Dolly Parton, Cyndi Lauper, Elton John, Marilyn Manson, AC/DC…

Then it was Alice in Chains’ turn to give their best, playing “Man in the Box” and “Would?” from their catalog, and a cover of “Fairies Wear Boots” by Sabbath. At first, Sean Kinney on drums didn’t get the guitar intro and where to start the beat, so they started again and honored the song.
The next 15-minute set was for Gojira, who played “Stranded”, “Silvera”, and “Mea Culpa! (Ah! Ça Ira!)” with Marina Viotti as guest singer, the song that made them the hottest band to ever play at the Olympic Games. The selected cover was “Under the Sun” by Sabbath, a really heavy one to match their style.

The next thing to happen was something very curious, a drum off, 3 drummers: Travis Barker from Blink 182, Chae Smith from Red Hot Chili Peppers and Danny Carey from Tool, all making amazing drum solos while a supergroup formed by Nuno Bettencourt, Tom Morello and Rudy Sarzo (ex Ozzy’s bass player) played an instrumental version of Sabbath’s “Sympton of the Universe”. The 3 drummers just gave their 100% skills and made an incredible show out of that song.
The second supergroup hit the stage, this time with Billy Corgan from Smashing Pumpkins on vocals, Tom Morello, Adam Jones (Tool), and K.K. Downing (ex-Judas Priest) on guitar, Rudy Sarzo on bass, and Danny Carey on drums. They played the classic Judas Priest song “Breaking the Law”, and then “Snowblind” by Sabbath. All these guitar players moved aside, and Vernon Reid (Living Colour) and Nuno Bettencourt took their places, alongside Sammy Hagar, Adam Wakeman, Chad Smith, and Rudy Sarzo. The band played “Flying High Again” by Ozzy. Then the same band played “Rock Candy” by Montrose, the Sammy Hagar band, exchanging Vernon Reid for Tom Morello on guitar. Who, after that song, came back to the guitar work, now with Travis Barker on drums and Papa V Perpetua from Ghost on vocals, playing the all-time classic Ozzy’s hit “Bark at the Moon”.

What happened next just blew everyone’s minds. Steven Tyler from Aerosmith joined the group with Ron Wood from The Rolling Stones and played “The Train Kept A-Rollin'” by Tiny Bradshaw. It was just unexplainable to get to see something like this, 2 of the greatest rock legends of all time sharing a stage. Ron left after the song, but Steven stayed, and the band played “Walk This Way” by Aerosmith. And all of us couldn’t believe how perfectly Steven gets to sing at his age. He played one more cover: “Whole Lotta Love” by Led Zeppelin. Do I have to say something about how incredible that day was for music?

It was time for Pantera, who dedicated the first song to Vinnie Paul and Dimebag Darrell, who “would love to be there,” in Phil Anselmo’s words. The song was “Cowboys from Hell”. It was followed by “Walk” (Jason Momoa joined the crowd in that song and started a mosh pit). They played 2 Sabbath covers: “Planet Caravan” and “Electric Funeral”. It was the first band to have more than 20 minutes to play.
Next, Tool had 25 minutes (same as Slayer after them). And they used their time to play “Forty Six & 2”, a cover of Sabbath’s “Hand of Doom” and “Ænema”.
Slayer just came back to the stage not long ago, after 6 years, and lots of people were expecting their performance. They played “Disciple”, “War Ensemble”, and “Wicked World” by Sabbath, which was cut in the middle. That’s when they played “South of Heaven” and then continued the Sabbath tune. Their set ended with “Raining Blood” and “Angel of Death”. Tom Araya dedicated some words to Sabbath, saying, “Thank you for making us who we are”.

The Guns N’ Roses set was very curious; they were the only band that used most of their time to pay tribute to Sabbath. I mean, everyone did, but Guns played 4 songs: “It’s Alright”, “Never Say Die”, “Junior’s Eyes”, and “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath”. “Welcome to the Jungle” and “Paradise City” were played at the end of their set.
Then, Metallica joined the party; they were the last band before Ozzy’s performance.
James Hetfield said it very clearly: “Without Sabbath, there wouldn’t be Metallica. Thanks, Sabbath, for giving us a purpose in life”. 
Sabbath’s “Hole in the Sky” was the first song, followed by “Creeping Death” and “For Whom the Bell Tolls”. But then they played another Sabbath tune: “Johnny Blade”. And ended their set with “Battery” and “Master of Puppets”.

It was hard not to shake, knowing that Ozzy was about to come out. “O Fortuna” started playing background as the band (Zakk Wylde, Mike Inez, Tommy Cufletos, and Adam Wakeman) started joining the stage. Then, a throne appears from underground, like elevating a god to his astral plane. It was him, sitting there! 
The first song was “I Don’t Know”, then “Mr. Crowley”. You could easily see that Ozzy was struggling sometimes to hit the right note, but no one seemed to care; he didn’t need to prove anything. Just by being there, giving us a final show, it was more than enough to feel completely grateful about.
“Suicide Solution” was next, and then Ozzy said thanks to everyone there, and that he had been laid up for 6 years waiting to perform again. That’s the exact time when he started crying, and every one of us did too. He felt so grateful to be back. 
When he played “Mama, I’m Coming Home,” tears fell from their eyes. It was the most emotional moment in a concert that I’ve ever experienced. Everyone turned on their phone flashlights and joined in singing with him. Even Zakk, who played the solo next to him, made him smile.
The last song of his set was, of course, “Crazy Train”. And getting to hear Ozzy scream “All aboard!” one last time just gave me chills.
It felt like the end, but not yet. There was still time for the grand finale: the last performance of Black Sabbath, which reunited the original 4 members once again.
A videotape appears on the screens, showing the history of the band, and then… sirens and bells start sounding in the background. Tony, Geezer, and Bill came onstage, and once again, Ozzy was on his throne.
“War Pigs” started the set. Sometimes Bill found it hard to get the right tempo of the songs. He hadn’t toured for decades, but even with that, he did an amazing job and played all his classic drum parts that made him the first Heavy Metal drummer of all time.
Ozzy had a little trouble too. He just sang a whole set with his solo band. It was very understanding that he wasn’t at 100% for the Sabbath set. But I’m just getting into tiny details, because most of the set, both of them did an awesome job, no doubt about it.
Geezer and Tony are amazing. If you closed your eyes, it was just like hearing them in his 20s. And they’re all heading to his 80s!
The second song of the show was “N.I.B.”, with that iconic bass solo intro by Geezer, who did it perfectly! 
“Iron Man” was the third song. Bill just took their shirt off and decided to be a full rock star for one night. And he played the classic main riff with a slower tempo than the original. A very clever decision; it made the riff heavier than ever. And it already is the heaviest riff ever made!
Ozzy introduced us to the final song, “This is our last song… forever. Thank you for your support and giving us the chance to live the life that we lived”. An emotional and tear-jerker. It didn’t seem real. The end was coming, and a 10-hour gig just passed by like a glance.

The final song was “Paranoid”, and I know that everyone felt the same as I, the bittersweet sensation of being sung along with Ozzy for the last time ever. 
It all came to an end. The band said goodbye. Geezer brought a cake for Ozzy. And it was. 
Fireworks started flashing and exploding in the sky, and we all got outside the stadium, just feeling overwhelmed by everything that happened in the day. There won’t be another gig like this. Lots of people already said it, but now’s my turn: it was the most important gig in Metal history. And it had to be in the birthplace of the genre.

By the day this review is posted, we found out that our beloved Prince of Darkness has sadly passed away on july 22, at the age of 76. It took me, and all of us I guess, by suprise. We all knew that he wouldn’t be eternal, but we all wished he was. He was like a superhero, the idol of every idol. 

It’s been two days since he’s no longer with us, and all I can think is that he knew how less he’d got left, and even knowing it, he played that final show just a few days before his passing. He really wanted to say goodbye to his fans and even though I’m still devastated, I’m equally happy that he got to see how loved he was, sorrounded by fans chanting his name, singing along with him, crying with him, and celebrating his music and legacy from all around the world.

Thanks Ozzy, just thank you for being part of my life.

Review by Agustín López