By PAN PYLAS Associated Press
LONDON (AP) — Ozzy Osbourne will reunite with all of the original members of Black Sabbath for the first time in 20 years, in a gig that will be his last and that’s being billed as the “greatest” heavy metal show ever, promoters said Wednesday.
The band, one of the most influential of all heavy metal bands, will headline “The Back to the Beginning” show on July 5 at Villa Park, home of the Aston Villa Football Club in Birmingham, England.
“It’s my time to go back to the beginning … time for me to give back to the place where I was born,” Osbourne said in a statement. “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, who was the band’s front man during its peak period in the 1970s and who was widely known as the “Prince of Darkness,” will deliver his own short set before Sabbath bandmates, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward, join him for the first time in two decades.
The all-day event will also feature a host of major metal bands including Metallica, Slayer and Alice In Chains, with more names to be announced shortly.
“This will be the greatest heavy metal show ever,” music director Tom Morello said.
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.
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 Sharon Osbourne, and two of their children in the hugely successful MTV reality TV show “The Osbournes.”
All profits from the July 5 show will go to charities including Cure Parkinson’s, Birmingham Children’s Hospital and Acorn Children’s Hospice, which is supported by Aston Villa.
Tickets go on sale Friday, Feb. 14.