Villa Park, Birmingham
Friday, 4th July 2025
Wednesday 23rd July 2025
18 days have passed since the last notes of Paranoid rang out and drifted away on the night time air over Birmingham, that final magical moment, and now, here today, we find ourselves in a different world, a changed world; Ozzy has gone.
Ozzy Osbourne: peerless, a cultural icon, and an idol to millions, has left us a legacy that will never be surpassed – a panoply of glorious, timeless songs, and a love that never dies. See you on the other side.
There’s no end when legends are forged and grow through a collective consciousness. Heroes live forever.
Birmingham on a Friday evening in July 2025 is a heavy metal cliché and we’re here for it, all of it. Battle jackets abound, the smell of patchouli, the aroma of sweet leaf, and the voices of a myriad different nationalities all speaking in one language: ‘metal’. The coming together of the global community of metal is a wondrous sight to behold, and the anticipation of what awaits tomorrow hangs palpably in the warm summer air.
We walk the streets, taking in the sights: ‘Black Sabbath Bridge’ and the ‘Black Sabbath Bench’. Ozzy’s star on the pavement close by the Symphony Hall, the beautifully painted mural by New Street railway station and, perhaps, most importantly, ‘The Crown’, the venue where the band played their first ever show. In 24 hours the circle will have been completed. A light shower of rain accompanies us on the journey back to our hotel, where tomorrow’s dreams grow fertile and wild.
We’ve never been to Villa Park before. Our seats are fairly decent with a full view of the stage. We buy Earl Grey tea, (admittedly not the most rock’n’roll beverage), we take our seats, and we settle down for the arrival of Mastodon. What comes next is a ten-hour aural pummelling. The sound is good; really good. Band after band take the stage, a true smorgasbord of rock royalty, bands and fans alike, here to pay tribute to the progenitors of metal.
Every act played at least one Sabbath or Ozzy cover. We witness Mastodon smash through an epic version of Supernaut with guest drummers: Danny Carey of Tool, Slipknot’s Eloy Casagrande and Gojira’s Mario Duplantier tackling Bill Ward’s mid-song solo. Rival Sons treat us to a great version of Electric Funeral, and Anthrax soon follow with their take on Into the Void from Sabbath’s third album, Master of Reality. Halestorm regale us with the first solo Ozzy cover of the evening, a marvellous version of Perry Mason.
The thrills come thick and fast. We get Lamb of God, possibly the most brutal band of the day, with their superb cover of Children of the Grave, and then we’re introduced to the first of the two Supergroups of the day; scratch bands, curated for the occasion by Tom Morello, the guitarist of Rage Against the Machine, featuring Lizzy Hale, Nuno Bettencourt, Jake E Lee, David Ellefson, Mike Bordin, Adam Wakeman, Scott Ian, Whitfield Crane, Frank Bello, Sleep Token II, Yungblud and David Draiman. There’s no time to catch a breath as we get, in quick succession: The Ultimate Sin, Shot in the Dark, Sweet Leaf, and Believer, the latter being one of my favourite solo Ozzy songs.
Finally, for this section of the show, we are entertained with a version of Changes, the soulful ballad from Vol 4 featuring Yungblud, Nuno Bettencourt, Frank Bello, Sleep Token II and Adam Wakeman. Perhaps you’ve already heard or read about this performance elsewhere. It’s the conversation of the moment. Everything you read or heard about it was true. I can vouch to seeing grown men and women cry. Yungblud and Nuno Bettencourt are a match made in rock’n’roll heaven. The chemistry between them was simply amazing, and I wouldn’t be in the least surprised to see a collaboration between these guys in the not-too-distant future.
How to follow that peerless triumph? With the rock behemoth that is Alice in Chains of course, their outstanding version of Fairies Wear Boots working the crowd into a frenzy. Next up, another highlight of the day, Gojira, one of three bands on the bill I’d not seen previously, and a band who had been on my radar for a good number of years, and they did not disappoint. Opening with a couple of originals, followed by Mea Culpa with the renowned opera singer, Marina Viotti, recreating their collaboration from the Paris Olympics opening ceremony, they closed their set with a stunning version of one of Sabbath’s heaviest songs, Under the Sun from the Vol 4 album.
Superlatives are often times too readily used and frequently the actual performances are undeserving of such hype. Not in this case. Supergroup II featured a who’s who of rock and metal nobility – Billy Corgan, Tom Morello, K.K. Downing, Adam Jones, Rudy Sarzo, Danny Carey, Sammy Hagar, Nuno Bettencourt, Adam Wakeman, Chad Smith, Vernon Reid, Papa V Perpetua Travis Barker, Steven Tyler, Andrew Watt, and Ronnie Wood, a real live Rolling Stone on stage! Opening this set, with KK Downing rightfully taking centre stage, Breaking the Law has the crowd going wild. KK’s a homegrown hero, and it was entirely fitting that he should be on this stage, receiving the plaudits he rightly deserves for services to metal. Snowblind, Flying High Again, Rock Candy, Bark at the Moon, The Train Kept A-Rollin’ follow, all played with aplomb and a collective joy from all involved, but it is the arrival of Steven Tyler on to the stage that raises the bar and raises the roof off Villa Park. Walk This Way segueing into Whole Lotta Love? Yes please! What a voice, what a showman. Quite simply, a class act. The crowd goes crazy.
I can’t vouch for Pantera. It was time to take a well needed break, grab a drink and a bite to eat. Returning to the stands, we were invited to witness prog titans, Tool. My third time seeing this band and they’re always good value. For their Sabbath cover they chose Hand of Doom from the Paranoid album. It was an inspired choice and suited their vibe perfectly. What can you say about Slayer? You’re always guaranteed a wall of noise. I first saw this band on their ‘Reign in Blood’ tour and they’ve lost nothing of their brutal aggressiveness in the intervening years. I’ve always rated this band, and it was great to catch up with them again. It was a nice touch that they chose to perform Wicked World, a dark and sinister tune from Sabbath’s debut album. Cuts from Reign in Blood and South of Heaven completed a memorable performance.
Guns N’ Roses take the stage and with them comes a change of mood. Opening with four tunes by Sabbath, the most by any single band, they start with It’s Alright from Technical Ecstasy, followed by Never Say Die and Junior’s Eyes from the album of the former track’s name and end with the titular song Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. It was good to hear a band exploring some of the deeper cuts from the last two 70s albums. I feel both albums are too often unfairly maligned by certain sections of the Sabbath fan base. It’s heartening to see in more recent times these two albums receiving something of a re-evaluation and being treated more gently than they have been in the past. I’m in good company; Guns N’ Roses appear to think that way too.
The storm before the storm – Metallica’s six song set couldn’t have been more perfect. I’ve always been more of a fan of their early output than their later offerings. Opening with Sabbath’s Hole in the Sky from the album Sabotage, they raced through a set of early classics that included Creeping Death, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Battery and Master of Puppets, and nestled in nicely amongst them, another Sabbath tune from the Never Say Die album, a belter of a track, Johnny Blade. I really didn’t expect to hear three songs from Never Say Die played at this show, and it was a most welcome and pleasant surprise.
We all have that one band above all others. I could wax lyrical about my deep, abiding love for the music of Black Sabbath, the strange circumstances in which I discovered them as a kid, how they were my first awakening to music, how they inspired my lifelong passion for music, how they’ve been the soundtrack to my life, and how, still to this day, I count them as my favourite band. All of today’s musical offerings have led to this: the final bow for Ozzy Osbourne and the final bow for Black Sabbath. To the strains of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, the lights set low, Ozzy emerges from beneath the stage, seated on a black throne emblazoned with intricate gothic carvings. Four clicks, the lights are up, and the band are straight into I Don’t Know, the opening track from Blizzard of Oz. The sound is impeccable, and the band (Zakk Wilde – guitar, Mike Inez – bass, Tommy Clufetos – drums and Adam Wakeman – keys), are mean, lean, and on fire. Ozzy is in tune, in time, and on the ball. It’s a remarkable opening to the set, tight and compact. Mr Crowley follows next, another exemplary performance by all involved, with Zakk Wilde doing the late Randy Rhoads proud with a stunning guitar solo. The band then steam into Suicide Solution, making it three tunes in a row from the Ozzy’s debut album. The crowd are ecstatic, singing along to every word. The band are stunned, the crowd are stunned, Ozzy is stunned.
There can’t have been a more fitting song than Mama I’m Coming Home, Ozzy’s ode to his struggles with addiction, and with the help of his close friends and family, coming out the other side. With his retirement and return to live in the UK, after many decades living in the States, tonight the words seem to hold an extra poignancy. Where once it would’ve been lighters, tonight, phones are held aloft. The scene is amazing. There’s barely a dry eye in the house. What a sight. ‘’All aboard!’’ shouts Ozzy, and we dutifully climb aboard the Crazy Train for one final crazy ride. The band did the man proud.
The mood changes. We know we’re approaching the end. The music of Black Sabbath is a darker, dirtier, more visceral and primeval beast than Ozzy Osbourne’s solo material. Dug out the of despair of the working-class surroundings the band grew up in, they somehow, someway, took that experience and gave it musical form and in the process created heavy metal.
The stage darkens, the sound of rain and a lone tolling bell quietly emerges from the speakers, becoming ever louder and more insistent. Then the air-raid siren. We know what we’re about to get. 12 clicks from Bill, 4 bars of 3. The world of the past and the future folds in on itself, dissipates, and we’re caught in the moment as the first notes of War Pigs assail our consciousness, and we’re away, and it’s heavy, and I’m transfixed, and it’s beautiful. Tony, Geezer, Ozzy and Bill command the stage. Glorious riff after riff from Iommi, the mazy, wandering basslines of Geezer Butler, Bill Ward, back in his rightful place, attacking his kit like there’s no tomorrow, and Ozzy, with his banshee wail, coiled, wild eyed, summoning dark infernal incantations. The sound is enormous. No one does metal like Sabbath. We’re witnessing the true masters at work. The crowd sings along to every single word.
N.I.B. follows, then Iron Man, then Paranoid, just a short four-song set. And then it’s over. Ozzy has given it his all. No one asks any more of him. No one wants anymore from him. He’s given more than enough, and we’re left with nothing but joy and gratitude. There’s no mourning for a band that is no more. All material things have a start and an end, according to the natural laws of the Universe. Black Sabbath are legendary. Legends live forever.
[Live photos courtesy of Ashton Roberts, Dean Thom and Aaron Studzinski]
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