Ozzy Osbourne's 'final show' with original Black Sabbath: What we know
(WJW) - Ozzy Osbourne and the original Black Sabbath will play for the first time in 20 years, the 76-year-old "Prince of Darkness" recently announced on X.
According to the post, the performance, called "The Back to the Beginning," will be an all-day event on July 5 at Villa Park, home of the Aston Villa Football Club in Birmingham, England. The event will include original band members Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward, and will also feature sets from Metallica, Slayer, Alice In Chains, Lamb of God, and more.
“It’s my time to go Back to the Beginning….time for me to give back to the place where I was born,” reads the post. “How blessed am I to do it with the help of people whom I love. Birmingham is the true home of metal. Birmingham Forever.”
Osbourne's wife, Sharon Osbourne, told BBC News the concert will be his final show. A poster image created for the performance also includes a sub-heading of "The Final Show."
Osbourne, the band's frontman during its peak period in the 1970s, will deliver his own short set before his Sabbath bandmates join him for the first time in two decades.
In 2020, Osbourne revealed he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, and he paused touring in 2023 after extensive spinal surgery. He has struggled with health issues since 2003 following a near-fatal quad bike crash, injuries that were aggravated in 2019 when he fell at home.
In 2024, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist after being previously inducted in 2006 as a member of Black Sabbath.
Sabbath’s story began in Birmingham in 1968 when the four original members were looking to escape a life of factory work. Their eponymous debut album in 1970 made the U.K. top 10 and paved the way for a string of hit albums, including 1971's “Master of Reality” and “Vol. 4” a year later. They went on to become one of the most influential and successful metal bands of all time, selling more than 75 million albums worldwide.
Osbourne's fame expanded into the mainstream in the early 2000s, when he joined his wife and two of their children in the hugely successful MTV reality TV show “The Osbournes.”
All profits from the upcoming concert are said to be earmarked for charities including CureParkinson’s, Birmingham Children's Hospital and Acorn Children's Hospice.
Tickets go on sale Friday, Feb. 14.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.