Back in 1968, four working-class lads from Birmingham, UK, came together to form a band that would transform late 1960s rock and roll into something heavier, darker, and more ominous. To date, Black Sabbath has sold more than 75 million records worldwide.
The four lads we mentioned were Geezer Butler, Tony Iommi, Ozzy Osbourne and Bill Ward. Osbourne would soon be known as the Prince of Darkness, but years later, his drug and alcohol abuse would come to the point where it took a deep toll on him and the entire band.
The substance abuse would derail the entire band. Ozzy could not find more excuses for not singing or leaving the band hanging on stage without their lead vocalist.
However, they still soldiered on until 1978, when Ozzy disappeared for six weeks amid the writing, recording and producing of a new album. Fed up with him and the fact that nobody knew where he was, Geezer and Ward decided it was time to fire the Prince of Darkness. In 1979, the split and went their separate musical and artistic ways.
Thousands in Birmingham’s Villa Park
Today, Saturday, July 5th, Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne, who it should be noted did play together on several occasions later on, decided to perform one last gig—their first as a group in 20 years.
Thousands of metal fans have descended on Birmingham’s Villa Park on Saturday to see the original Black Sabbath lineup reunite for the first time in two decades, in what has been billed as the “greatest heavy metal show ever”. Two million more heavy metal fans are expected to tune in to listen to them play live.
For the Osbourne, considered to be the godfather of heavy metal, but after more than five decades in the game, the “prince of darkness”, Ozzy Osbourne, brings his blistering performing career to an end with a highly anticipated final concert, the Guardian wrote.
Despite health issues, Osbourne assured he’d be there, and why not? “It’s my final encore; it’s my chance to say thank you to my fans for always supporting me and being there for me,” Osbourne said this week. “I couldn’t have done my final show anywhere else. I had to go back to the beginning.”
‘Embodiment of rock excess’
The stadium, home to Aston Villa FC, is a stone’s throw from Osbourne’s childhood terrace home in the suburb of Aston. It was there that the now 76-year-old heavy rock performer launched his career, putting an advert for bandmates in a record shop and forming Black Sabbath with schoolfriend and guitarist Iommi, bassist and lyricist Butler, and drummer Ward.
“In both his time with Black Sabbath and as a solo artist (after leaving the group in 1979), Osbourne became a living embodiment of rock excess,” the Guardian added. “Critics call him the first wild rock star – he was unpredictable and unfiltered, with a career defined by drug-fuelled mayhem, onstage theatrics and outrageous behaviour.”
“Sabbath gave us the blueprint, Sabbath gave us the recipe. They gave us the cookbook, man,” Slipknot’s Corey Taylor said in BBC Radio WM’s Forging Metal documentary, which was released on Friday.
Osbourne was a true rebel without a cause or worse. He once bit the heads off two doves in a record label meeting, snorted a line of ants on tour, and mistook a real bat for a prop and bit its head off during a concert. In 1982, he was detained for public intoxication and urinating on a war monument in Texas while wearing his wife’s dress.
Black Sabbath fans have been desperate for the original band members to reunite since their last performance on the 2005 Ozzfest tour, after which Ward left the group.
42k tickets in 16 minutes for 10-hour show
And that moment has come. Tickets for Saturday’s 42,000-capacity concert sold out in just 16 minutes. Titled Back to the Beginning and curated by Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello, the event will open with a solo set by Osbourne and close with Black Sabbath’s iconic songs.
In total, the concert will run for over 10 hours and feature performances from a multitude of great metal bands, including Metallica, Slayer, Pantera, Gojira, Halestorm, and members of Guns N’ Roses and Rage Against the Machine.
About the many times he’s said he is retiring, Osbourne told the Guardian, “I’d love to say ‘never say never’, but after the last six years or so … it is time. I don’t want to die in a hotel room somewhere. I want to spend the rest of my life with my family.”
Read the full article here
