With the Back to the Beginning concert commemorating the final live performances of Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath, there’s a few things we’d like to say — mainly, thank you.
As fans, we all know the history and the significance of Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne’s careers. The accolades are endless and we could pour it on thick one more time, but what we really want to take the opportunity to do here is talk about what it means to say goodbye and why this is so hard to do just that… even if we’ve gone through this ritual a couple times in the past already.
Coming to grips with the finality of something shakes us as human beings. Especially in an age where the notion that we can hold onto permanence through digital preservation only intensifies, it makes finality even more difficult to reconcile.
Yes, Sabbath have been inactive since 2017 and Ozzy has been sidelined by a myriad of health issues, but we’ve always been able to cling to the idea that a comeback is possible. Now it’s here and it all feels like too much.
And it’s only right that this is all ending with an event that unites rock and metal’s biggest stars, all of whom were influenced and inspired by the boys from Birmingham. Unity is a quality we all, as Black Sabbath fans, know and understand well. Metalheads, punks, rockers, indie kids, grunge fans and, yes, even hippies, have all come together under the Black Sabbath banner.
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Music is often described as a universal language. While a multitude of genres may represent dialects of language, Sabbath are the native tongue for so many types of music fans. Despite being metal’s originators with burly riffs, they possessed enough swing, groove and flair — alongside eternally resonant lyrics (introspective, political, fantastic and carefree and fun) — that even music this heavy lured in more outsiders through the decades than they pushed away.
The end of the story that will be written about for decades to come is upon us. For all the future generations who will only know Black Sabbath as a relic of metal’s past will learn that it ended with the most historic gathering of rock and metal’s elite. It makes the end just as impactful as Sabbath’s beginnings where that sinister tritone changed the face of guitar music forever.
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And it ends with the original four members of Birmingham’s heavy metal founders together one final time.
The swirling of emotions, the tears that will openly pour out from the most hardened faces in any community of music fans, all says the same thing in the end — thank you.
Thank you for your sacrifices. Thank you for your vision.
Thank you for letting us see the world through your lenses and ourselves in the mirrors you’ve held up. Thank you for this thing we call heavy metal and all who followed down that same path you blazed for us all.
Thank you for cries for peace and love. Thank you for your perseverance. Thank you for showing us what reconciliation looks like.
Thanks for the RIFFS! And thanks for Ozzfest! Thank you Ozzy for cooling us down in the heat with the fire hose and buckets of water! Thanks for doom metal AND stoner metal! Thanks for a legion of guitar gods, from Iommi to Ozzy’s solo extraordinaires Randy Rhoads, Jake E. Lee and Zakk Wylde!
Thank you for sharing your vulnerability with us. Thank you for cramming yourself into bunks on tour buses for thousands of nights just to come to our cities and towns to play for us.
Thank you for selling your souls to rock ‘n’ roll!
Thank you… for everything.
To Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward — this is your night. History will never forget this moment, nor your 55 magical metal years that preceded it. We hope to fill your hearts with warmth from around the world as you perform for us for that final time.
We love you all!
Favorite Black Sabbath Album of 21 Rock + Metal Legends
Members of Metallica, Iron Maiden, and even Sabbath themselves reveal their favorite titles from the band’s catalog.
Gallery Credit: Rob Carroll
James Hetfield, Metallica
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James Hetfield, Metallica
Favorite Black Sabbath album:
Master of Reality
What he said about it:
“(Tony Iommi) can go from the heaviest doom riff into a happy mode and it would still sound heavy. We can’t do happy, but Tony can pull it off. My favorite track is ‘Into the Void.'”
—James Hetfield (Classic Rock)
ozzy osbourne performs with black sabbath in 2016
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Ozzy Osbourne, Black Sabbath
Favorite Black Sabbath album:
Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
What he said about it:
“Our last truly great album, I think… And with the music, we’d managed to strike just the right balance between our old heaviness and our new, ‘experimental’ side.”
—Ozzy Osbourne (I Am Ozzy)
smashing pumpkins, sighommi
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Billy Corgan, Smashing Pumpkins
Favorite Black Sabbath album:
Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
What he said about it:
“Creepy, spooky, and heavier than God in brief, fleeting moments. This album always makes me think of the soundtrack Sabbath would make to a final day of Earth.”
—Billy Corgan (Music Radar)
billy corgan in 2025
Joseph Cultice
Billy Corgan, Smashing Pumpkins
Favorite Black Sabbath album:
Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
What he said about it:
“Creepy, spooky, and heavier than God in brief, fleeting moments. This album always makes me think of the soundtrack Sabbath would make to a final day of Earth.”
—Billy Corgan (Music Radar)
lzzy hale, halestorm
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Lzzy Hale, Halestorm
Favorite Black Sabbath album:
Heaven and Hell
What she said about it:
“This album changed my life tonally for guitar. It definitely put me in the right direction to be a hard rock artist. I’ve been listening to Dio and Black Sabbath since I was a kid… and this was one of the first albums that I owned and listened to. I kind of got introduced to Sabbath during the Ronnie James Dio years and then I had to go back and rediscover Black Sabbath with Ozzy. It was the gateway drug.”
—Lzzy Hale (AXS TV)
tom morello, rage against the machine
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Tom Morello, Rage Against the Machine
Favorite Black Sabbath album:
Paranoid
What he said about it:
“The world may never recover”
—Tom Morello on the 50th anniversary of the album’s release.
Lars Ulrich, Metallica
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Lars Ulrich, Metallica
Favorite Black Sabbath album:
Sabotage
What he said about it:
“Side A, if you look at vinyl, is probably the strongest 20 minutes of Black Sabbath. And then ‘Symptom of the Universe,’ – the simplicity in the riff, the down-picking, the chug – it’s obviously the blueprint for the core of what hard rock and metal ended up sounding like … up through the ’80s and ’90s.”
—Lars Ulrich (Rolling Stone)
Tony Iommi, Black Sabbath
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Tony Iommi, Black Sabbath
Favorite Black Sabbath albums:
Black Sabbath, Paranoid and Dehumanizer
What he said about them:
“It has a raunchy sound, something I think has been missing from Sabbath over the last few years. This is very much a classic Black Sabbath record. In fact, I didn’t expect it to come out quite this good.” – Tony Iommi on Dehumanizer (Far Out)
iron maiden singer bruce dickinson performing solo with arm outstretched and beanie on head
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Iron Maiden, Bruce Dickinson
Favorite Black Sabbath album:
Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
What he said about it:
“I was a kid and got this album and I was still a virgin, which made me open it up and go, ‘Oh, my God. Look at those women.’ But what a great record. What a great album.”
—Bruce Dickinson (Qobuz)
Judas Priests Rob Halford performs at The Joint in Las Vegas, 2019
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Rob Halford, Judas Priest
Favorite Black Sabbath album:
Black Sabbath
What he said about it: “This album, recorded in a day, is magic for me. It captures the roots of what they are in the truest sense. You feel like you are in the studio with the lads.”
—Rob Halford (Radio.com)
Kirk Hammett, Metallica
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Kirk Hammett, Metallica
Favorite Black Sabbath album:
Sabotage
What he said about it:
“They created the genre in those first three albums, and then there was Vol. 4, which was just like another shift in their sound. And then Sabotage came out, which is another shift in their sound. They got a little bit more progressive, the playing got a little bit more advanced. The arrangements got a little bit more sophisticated.”
“And they wrote the riff that I think encapsulates the New Wave of British Heavy Metal and thrash metal as as we know it, and that riff is ‘Symptom of the Universe.’ That song literally breathes new life into heavy metal … That riff in itself shifted heavy metal and I have to give that album and that particular song a lot of credence.”
—Kirk Hammett (Consequence)
Geezer Butler, Black Sabbath
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Geezer Butler, Black Sabbath
Favorite Black Sabbath album:
Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
What he said about it:
“It was a great time to be in Sabbath cause we’d established ourselves. We had a few quid in the bank and things were just great. It was really good. Everybody was enjoying being together.”
—Geezer Butler (Loudwire)
Zakk Wylde
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Zakk Wylde
Favorite Black Sabbath album:
Sabotage
What he said about it:
“To me, Sabotage is insane good. Ozzy’s vocal performance on that… I love his vocal performance on all of them, but I mean Sabotage, specifically, is just — I’ll put that up against anybody.”
—Zakk Wylde (SiriusXM)
dave grohl
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Dave Grohl, Foo Fighters
Favorite Black Sabbath album:
Mob Rules
What he said about it:
“In fact, Mob Rules got Dave Grohl and people of that generation into Sabbath. And then, of course, they go back and listen to the other stuff. I know that Dave Grohl was saying Mob Rules was one of his favorite albums.”
—Tony Iommi (The Mercury News)
Dimebag Darrell, Pantera
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Dimebag Darrell, Pantera
Favorite Black Sabbath album:
Master of Reality
What he said about it:
“I’ve recorded so many compilation cassettes of Black Sabbath records that I feel like I only know one long, long album of theirs. Still, this one’s in my jukebox. It’s killer! We’ll still be talking about it in 40 years.”
—Dimebag Darrell (Rock Hard)
Bill Ward, Black Sabbath
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Bill Ward, Black Sabbath
Favorite Black Sabbath album:
Master of Reality
What he said about it:
“I liked it because the band was, by that time, very much a completely on-the-road, touring band. We hadn’t come off the road for several years and there’s a maturity about it. There’s something about Master; there’s something different about it. It’s always been one of my favorites.”
—Bill Ward (Rolling Stone)
slash
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Slash, Guns N Roses
Favorite Black Sabbath album:
Black Sabbath
What he said about it: “In my opinion, there is no more ominous rock n’ roll record than this one. I don’t care what band you come up with – Black Sabbath’s first album tops them all. On every level, it’s the sound of pure evil.”
—Slash (Music Radar)
Kerry King, Slayer
Collin McDaniel / Circuit of the Americas
Kerry King, Slayer
Favorite Black Sabbath album:
Sabotage
What he said about it:
“Something about the vibe on that record. It’s cool. I mean, they’re all cool, but something about that one. Maybe ‘Symptom of the Universe.’ I don’t know. It’s nonstop badassery.”
—Kerry King (Wall of Sound)
scott ian, anthrax
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Scott Ian, Anthrax
Favorite Black Sabbath album:
Master of Reality
What he said about it:
“It’s only 34 minutes but you have ‘Sweet Leaf,’ ‘After Forever,’ ‘Children of the Grave,’ ‘Lord of this World’ and ‘Into the Void’ on it … An album with one of those songs on it would blow people’s minds. But all [five] of those songs are on one album.”
—Scott Ian (Guitar World)
Glenn Danzig, Misfits
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Glenn Danzig, Misfits
Favorite Black Sabbath album:
Black Sabbath
What he said about it:
“I played it when I got home (from the record store) and I was like, this is incredible. So then I took it around my neighborhood and started playing it for all of my friends, saying, ‘You got to hear this record, you’ve got to hear this band.’ Nobody knew who the fuck Black Sabbath was.”
—Glenn Danzig (Revolver)
Henry Rollins
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Henry Rollins
Favorite Black Sabbath album:
Master of Reality
What he said about it:
“This album not only has Tony Iommi capturing one of the greatest tones ever committed to tape, but Ward and Butler swinging as hard as they’re crushing it. This is a perfectly balanced bit of playing.”
—Henry Rollins (Goldmine)
Rick Rubin
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Rick Rubin
Favorite Black Sabbath album:
Black Sabbath
What he said about it:
“This album is really the beginning of riff rock, which I really like. It sounds huge and scary, and slow and sludgy, and has a kind of otherworldly aspect to it that moves me.”
—Rick Rubin (Gibson)
23 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Black Sabbath
Thanks to a career spanning nearly five decades, an estimated 70 million albums sold around the world, and more timeless songs than you can shake a crucifix at, Black Sabbath have certainly earned their standing as the godfathers of heavy metal. But even one of rock’s most notorious and newsworthy bands has its fair share of little-known details in their history, so we set out to compile 23 Facts You Probably Didn’t Know About Black Sabbath:
Only One Session
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Only One Session
It only took one session for Black Sabbath to record its self-titled first album in 1969.
Tony Changed His Mind
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Tony Changed His Mind
Black Sabbath nearly broke up before recording a single song, when guitarist Tony Iommi left to join the more established Jethro Tull in 1969, but he luckily changed his mind.
Story Behind The Name
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Story Behind The Name
Black Sabbath say their name was inspired by a 1963 Boris Karloff film. While some have speculated the name could have come from the debut album by American psych rockers Coven (released months before Sabbath’s debut) that boasted a song named “Black Sabbath,” Black Sabbath the band have remained steadfast that it was inspired by the film.
Anybody Know Her?
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Anybody Know Her?
The name or whereabouts of the woman shown on the cover of Sabbath’s debut album or even the image’s photographer were a mystery up until a 2020 interview.
Warpiggers?
Black Sabbath via YouTube
Warpiggers?
War Pigs almost ended up with a different name. Ozzy said in his 2009 autobiography that the song was initially called Warpiggers, “which was a term for a black magic wedding or something.”
“Then, we changed it to War Pigs, and Geezer came up with the heavy-duty lyrics about death and destruction. No wonder we never got any chicks at our gigs.”
No Time For Soundcheck With Rod Stewart
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No Time For Soundcheck With Rod Stewart
Sabbath’s first U.S. show was at Ungano’s in New York City. Their second gig was opening for Rod Stewart and Faces at Fillmore East.
Apparently, the two bands didn’t necessarily get along despite being on the same bill.
“We were pissed off with the Faces, actually, because they didn’t give us any time for soundcheck,” Ozzy wrote in his 2009 autobiography. “And Rod kept well out of our way. Looking back now, I don’t suppose he was too happy having Black Sabbath supporting him.”
Metal To The Face
Black Sabbath via YouTube
Metal To The Face
Sabbath played a show in Memphis during their second U.S. tour. It was on that night Ozzy said in his 2009 autobiography that a fan in a “cloak” jumped on stage.
Annoyed by the fan’s antics, Ozzy pushed the fan toward Tony. Before he could make it to the guitarist, a roadie slammed a metal bar into the face of the cloaked fan. It was later revealed that the man was carrying a dagger under his cloak.
“I almost fell backwards into one of the speaker cabinets. I was so freaked out,” Ozzy recalled. “If it hadn’t been for our roadie, Tony might have been a goner.”
Phoning A Friend
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Phoning A Friend
Seeking to finesse their sound for 1973’s “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath,” the band called in a favor from Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman, whose alcohol consumption was as legendary as his musical talents.
Hes Got Soul
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He’s Got Soul
Ozzy was a fan of soul music in his younger days. He lists Sam and Dave among his favorite acts.
They Did WHAT On The Escalator?!?!
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They Did WHAT On The Escalator?!?!
Black Sabbath hired respected art designers Hipgnosis to craft a sophisticated cover for 1976’s “Technical Ecstasy,” but Ozzy later dismissed it as “two robots screwing on an escalator.”
Comings And Goings
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Comings And Goings
Ozzy Osbourne officially parted ways with Sabbath in 1979, but the singer had actually already quit the group in late ’77, forcing them to recruit former Savoy Brown singer Dave Walker for a single TV performance.
Holy, Dio!
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Holy, Dio!
Who recommended Ronnie James Dio as Ozzy’s replacement? Band manager Don Arden’s daughter Sharon Arden … later known as Sharon Osbourne.
Still Sabbath
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Still Sabbath
When Deep Purple’s Ian Gillan joined Sabbath in 1983, their plan was to start a new band. Gillian would stick around to sing on “Born Again;” in addition, 1986’s “Seventh Star” (with Glenn Hughes on vocals) was supposed to be an Iommi solo LP; but both were released under the Black Sabbath name at the behest of record label suits.
Never Interrupt A Sabbath Show
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Never Interrupt A Sabbath Show
The song “Fairies Wear Boots” was inspired by an encounter with combat boot-wearing skinheads who disrupted one of Sabbath’s early concerts.
Original Four Comeback Album
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Original Four Comeback Album
The four original members of Black Sabbath almost recorded a comeback album with producer Rick Rubin in 2001, but Ozzy’s solo commitments and hit MTV show, “The Osbournes,” derailed their plans.
Miss Me Deadly
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Miss Me Deadly
Tony Iommi was briefly engaged to wed metal goddess Lita Ford. But after the album he produced for her was shelved indefinitely, Lita broke off the engagement and was soon singing a duet with Ozzy on the “Close My Eyes Forever” single.
It Doesnt Make Sense
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It Doesn’t Make Sense
The “Paranoid” album’s artwork has also perplexed fans — because the blurred neon warrior depicted referenced the album’s originally intended title, “War Pigs,” before it was renamed at the last minute.
Thank You For Your Support
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Thank You For Your Support
When Sabbath agreed to support former singer Ozzy Osbourne on his alleged retirement shows, recently returned singer Ronnie James Dio balked — only for another metal god, Judas Priest legend Rob Halford, to fill in at short notice.
Which Song Features Brian May?
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Which Song Features Brian May?
Queen guitarist Brian May plays lead guitar on a Black Sabbath song: the particularly heavy and evil-sounding “When Death Calls” from 1989’s “Headless Cross” album.
Bill Wards Influences
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Bill Ward’s Influences
Bill Ward built his reputation on bashing his kit with wild abandon and power, but his primary influences were big band jazz greats like Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich (evident on Sabbath’s first LP, in particular).
Geezers Friend
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Geezer’s Friend
One of Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler’s best mates, and a fellow supporter of Birmingham’s Aston Villa football club, is Oscar-winning actor Tom Hanks, who frequently joins Geezer at the soccer pitch.
Behind-The-Scenes Assistance
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Behind-The-Scenes Assistance
Geoff Nicholls contributed keyboards to Sabbath’s albums since 1979, backing up Ozzy’s concert vocals, and allegedly the distinctive bass line of 1980’s “Heaven and Hell,” reminiscent of the song “Mainline Riders,” by Nicholls’ previous band, Quartz.
Tony Goes Pop
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Tony Goes Pop
Tony Iommi, master of countless scary doom riffs, penned a pop song for the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest, which was performed by Armenian rock band Dorians.
