Black Sabbath's original lineup to reunite for Ozzy Osbourne's final concert: 'The greatest heavy metal show ever'

Alright now! Black Sabbath’s original lineup is coming together to throw one big metal sendoff for legendary frontman Ozzy Osbourne. 

Titled Back to the Beginning, the all-day charity concert will see Osbourne, bassist Geezer Butler, guitarist Tony Iommi, and drummer Bill Ward reunite onstage for the first time in 20 years at Birmingham’s Villa Park on July 5. Osbourne will play his own short set at the gig before joining Black Sabbath to take his final bow with his bandmates.

“It’s my time to go Back to the Beginning….time for me to give back to the place where I was born,” Osbourne wrote on Instagram. “How blessed am I to do it with the help of people whom I love. Birmingham is the true home of metal. Birmingham Forever.”

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They’re not doing it alone, either. The all-day event will also feature performances from metal greats like Metallica, Slayer, Pantera, Gojira, Halestorm, Alice In Chains, Lamb of God, Anthrax, and Mastodon, as well as a “supergroup” of musicians that includes Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins; Duff McKagan and Slash of Guns N’ Roses; Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit; Scott Ian of Anthrax; Sammy Hagar; Sleep Token II of Sleep Token; Papa V Perpetua of Ghost; Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine; and Wolfgang Van Halen. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg — more artists are expected to be announced in the future.

“This will be the greatest heavy metal show ever,” Morello, who also serves as the concert’s music director, added in a statement.

All proceeds from the event will go to a collection of charities, including Cure Parkinson’s, Birmingham Children's Hospital, and Acorn Children's Hospice. Osbourne previously announced that he’d been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease — a progressive nervous system disorder that causes tremors, stiffness, speech changes, or slowing of movement — in 2020.  

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Formed in 1968, Black Sabbath is one of the most revered heavy metal bands of all time, with over 75 million albums sold and a feast of hits that include “Iron Man,” “Paranoid,” “War Pigs,” and “Sweet Leaf.” The Birmingham band's many accolades include an induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006 and three Grammys, including a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019. Osbourne was inducted as a solo artist into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame last year.

Over the last five decades, Black Sabbath's lineup has shifted often as its members clashed with one another. Back to the Beginning marks the first time that all four founding members will take to the stage together since the band's Ozzfest tour in 2005.

Tickets to the event will go on sale on Friday, Feb. 14 at 10 a.m. GMT/5 a.m. ET/2 a.m. PT. Visit LiveNation for more details.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly