Black Sabbath announce Back To The Beginning final show at Villa Park, Birmingham
5 February 2025, 12:46 | Updated: 11 February 2025, 21:58
The heavy metal icons will reunite for one final performance at the Aston Villa home ground joined by a stellar line-up of acts. Find out how to buy tickets.
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Black Sabbath have announced Back To The Beginning: a huge farewell homecoming show this year.
The heavy metal icons - comprised of Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward - will reunite in their entirety for the first time in 20 years to headline Aston Villa F.C.'s home ground Villa Park on 5th July 2025.
The all-star event will celebrate the heavy metal pioneers and will see the Prince of Darkness play his own short set before joining with Black Sabbath for his final bow.
BACK TO THE BEGINNING will also feature sets from Metallica, Slayer, Pantera, Gojira, Halestorm, Alice In Chains, Lamb Of God, Anthrax and Mastodon and more.
Tickets for the very special date will go on sale on Friday 14th February 2025 from livenation.com
“It’s my time to go Back to the Beginning….time for me to give back to the place where I was born,” Ozzy Osbourne said. “How blessed am I to do it with the help of people whom I love. Birmingham is the true home of metal. Birmingham Forever.”
The all-day event will also feature a supergroup of musicians with the following artists announced so far: Billy Corgan (The Smashing Pumpkins), David Draiman (Disturbed), Duff McKagan & Slash (Guns ‘n Roses), Frank Bello (Anthrax), Fred Durst (Limp Bizkit), Jake E Lee, Jonathan Davis (Korn), KK Downing, Lzzy Hale (Halestorm), Mike Bordin (Faith No More), Rudy Sarzo, Sammy Hagar, Scott Ian (Anthrax), Sleep Token ii (Sleep Token), Papa V Perpetua (Ghost), Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine), Wolfgang Van Halen and Zakk Wylde.
Rage Against The Machine's Tom Morello who is the Musical Director of the event said: “This will be the greatest heavy metal show ever.”
All profits from the show will be shared equally between Cure Parkinson's, Birmingham Children's Hospital and Acorn Children's Hospice.
The news was announced today by Sharon Osbourne and Tony Iommi at the home of Birmingham club Aston Villa F.C.
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Geezer Butler previously discussed the chances of Black Sabbath reuniting for one more show.
The legendary bassist - who formed the band together with frontman Ozzy Osbourne, guitarist Tony Iommi and drummer Bill Ward - has revealed he's spoken to the Prince of Darkness about getting the original line-up back together.
The band announced their reunion tour on 2011, but their original drummer pulled out at the last minute due to issues over an "unreasonable" contract, leaving Ozzy's guitarist Tommy Clufetos to step in.
As reported by Blabbermouth, speaking to Eddie Trunk on SirisuXM, he said: "Of course there’s an interest [on my part to do it], but there’s a big ‘but’ — you’d have to speak to Bill about it. Everybody wants to do it [but I don’t know if he is] capable [of pulling it off].”
The bassist added: "Ozzy was hoping to finish it all off next year back in Aston, at the Aston Villa [football stadium in Birmingham]. I’m definitely up for it, to finish the whole thing off. Me and Ozzy have agreed, but I’m not sure about anybody else."
Quizzed if Ward would be willing to join the band on stage for just a few songs, he replied: "I don’t think so. Maybe, I don’t know. I mean, the way technical things happen these days, maybe a couple of songs, but who knows?
"There wouldn’t be any traveling involved. We wouldn’t be actually all in the studio at the same time together. So it could be done that way — maybe."
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Ozzy previously revealed he would "jump at the chance" to play a final Black Sabbath show with the original drummer, telling pal Billy Morrison on The Madhouse Chronicles he feels their story is "unfinished".
When asked about playing the band's final show in 2017 and if he felt glad it was done," Ozzy replied: "Yeah, but I was sad that Bill wasn’t there. I mean Tommy Clufetos, my drummer, did a great job, but he ain’t Bill Ward."
Asked if he was happy with the "arc" of Black Sabbath, the Prince Of Darkness said: "No. Because it wasn’t Black Sabbath that finished it. It’s unfinished. If they wanted to do one more gig with Bill, I would jump at the chance."
The Patient Number 9 rocker added: "Do you know what would be cool? If we went to a club or somewhere unannounced and we just got up and did it. We started up in a club."
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