BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND - JULY 5, 2025

It’s fitting that the band who invented heavy metal chose to end it where it began. Villa Park, the home stadium of Aston Villa F.C. and just a few miles from where Black Sabbath first rehearsed, hosted Back to the Beginning, a one-day farewell show that was equal parts concert, homecoming, and a definitive mark in music history.

Marketed as Black Sabbath’s final performance, the one-day event drew 45,000 people to Birmingham’s Villa Park and raised funds for local charities, including Birmingham Children’s Hospital. The lineup consisted of a continuous rotation of legacy rock acts, with each performing compact sets that ranged from 15 to 40 minutes.

Mastodon opened the show with a cover of “Supernaut,” joined mid-song by members of Tool and Gojira in a moment that set the collaborative tone for the day. They were followed by sets from Lamb of God, Sleep Token, and other acts representing multiple eras of heavy metal, each contributing their own interpretations while playing at least one Sabbath track. Between full-band performances, rotating supergroups took the stage with Nuno Bettencourt, Chad Smith, Tom Morello, and Steven Tyler among them, delivering a mix of Sabbath covers and selections from their own catalogs, including material by Led Zeppelin and Aerosmith.

Bettencourt, who appeared across multiple configurations throughout the day, remained a consistent presence, moving fluidly between sets. Jake E. Lee, returning to the stage following a 2024 shooting that left him hospitalized, joined a supergroup featuring Mike Bordin and Dave Ellefson. Later in the evening, Axl Rose joined the lineup for a performance of “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath,” backed by members of Guns N’ Roses, who also performed some of their biggest songs such as “Paradise City”.

Ozzy Osbourne took the stage seated on a black throne, remaining there for the entirety of his solo set. He performed a selection of 1980s-era material, including “Mr. Crowley,” “Suicide Solution,” “Mama, I’m Coming Home,” and “Crazy Train.” He struggled vocally at times, particularly during “Mama,” where the audience joined in to support him. Despite physical limitations, the set closed on a more confident note.

The original Black Sabbath lineup formed by Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and Bill Ward followed, reuniting publicly for the first time since 2005. They played four tracks drawn entirely from the band’s first two albums: “War Pigs,” “N.I.B.,” “Iron Man,” and “Paranoid.” Iommi’s prosthetic fingertips, long used since a workplace accident in his youth, were visible on the screens as he played. Butler performed with a custom bass painted in Aston Villa’s colors, the club motto printed on the body as a delicate nod to the band’s Birmingham roots at the close of an international event.

While other artists had revisited the Sabbath catalog earlier in the day, these final performances held a different weight, marking the final chapter of one of the most legendary rock bands.