Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne‘s final concert, ‘Back to the Beginning’, taking place at Birmingham’s Villa Park on July 5, will be livestreamed globally.
It was announced earlier this year that the metal icons would be reuniting with their original line-up of Osbourne, guitarist Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward. It will mark their first time playing live together in two decades, and come as the very last performance from the band and frontman.
They will also be joined by Metallica, Slayer, Pantera, Gojira, Smashing Pumpkins‘ Billy Corgan, Slash and Duff McKagan of Guns N’ Roses, Alice In Chains, members of Limp Bizkit and KoRn, as well as Rage Against The Machine‘s Tom Morello (who also acts as musical director of the concert).
Now, it has been confirmed that ‘Back to the Beginning’ will be livestreamed for audiences to watch globally. Done on a pay-per-view basis, the livestream will be on the Back to the Beginning website, and tickets for the stream are on sale now.
The raw livestream will begin at 3pm BST on July 5, and those who have bought livestream tickets will continue to have access of the concert footage in its entirety for another 48 hours afterwards.
Back in February, Sharon Osbourne and Tony Iommi spoke to NME about what to expect from the finale show.
“You can’t say goodbye,” Ozzy’s wife and manager told NME. “Look at what they leave – it’s a huge, great body of work that they’ve left for the world. As long as you’ve got that, it’s never goodbye. It’s there for eternity.”
When speaking about the format of the show, Sharon Osbourne said: “It starts at noon, then you’re going to see one icon playing with another icon, doing a Sabbath song and one or two of their own songs, and people playing with each other that you never you’d see. Tom Morello is going to play with the drummer from Tool [Danny Carey] and they’re going to have Billy Corgan with them – they’re all from Chicago so they’re all doing their bit.
“Then you’ll see Slash and Duff [McKagan] and whoever they choose to play with. David Draiman [Disturbed] is going to come up and sing, Jonathan [Davis] from KoRn is going to be here and he could be playing with [Red Hot Chili Peppers’] Chad Smith or whoever! Alice In Chains are coming and they’re playing as the band.”
In an interview with The Guardian, Ozzy Osbourne addressed health issues, shed light on the structure of the “final show”, and reiterated that it will not include any full sets with Sabbath or his solo band – revealing that he’s looking to “do the best I can” but that he “may be sitting down”.
“We’re only playing a couple of songs each. I don’t want people thinking, ‘We’re getting ripped off,’ because it’s just going to be a sample,” he said. “You’re going to get a few songs each by Ozzy and Sabbath.”
He also epxlained that the reason this is his last live show is because of his health. “I’d love to say ‘never say never’, but after the last six years or so … it is time,” he said. “I lived on the road for 50-odd years, and I’ve kind of got used to not picking up my bags and getting on the bus again.”
“I don’t smoke dope or do any of the rock star lifestyle any more. I’m kind of like a homebody. I never go out. I never hang out in bars – I don’t drink. So what the fuck is out there for me?” he added. “It’s time for me to spend some time with my grandkids, I don’t want to die in a hotel room somewhere. I want to spend the rest of my life with my family.”