"It's intense back there. Everybody is nervous. And everybody's really emotional because we know it's the last time." Halestorm's Lzzy Hale on Back To The Beginning: The build-up, the show and the aftershow... and the loss of Ozzy Osbourne

Lzzy Hale onstage at Villa Park, arms aloft with her back to the audience

Lzzy Hale onstage at Villa Park (Image credit: Joe Hottinger)

"The first we heard about Back To The Beginning was an email from Sharon [Osbourne] and her people,” Lzzy Hale recalls. “We started off thinking, like, Black Sabbath is doing a thing, but as the weeks went on we realised it was a farewell for Ozzy and how important it was. We couldn’t believe they wanted us involved. The first riff I learnt was Heaven And Hell. I literally wouldn’t be spelling my name ‘Lzzy’ without Ozzy.

“When it came to our setlist, Tom Morello [musical director for the event] told us we’d have to fly by the seat of our pants. About two weeks from the show, I got a message from him saying: ‘I know you wanted to do A National Acrobat, but can you switch it up?’ So we ended up doing Perry Mason. I wasn’t expecting that one – but I loved it.

“So we arrived in Birmingham and went out on the town. The entire city was in celebration, all the pubs decorated in purple, murals everywhere. Then it’s the day of the show, and backstage everybody is just hanging out. Even Axl [Rose]. Probably at any other show he’d be carted back and forth and we’d never see the guy. But we’re sat next to each other, and it’s funny, because there’s all these photographers, and he says to me: ‘Girl, you come with a lot of cameras!’ And I’m like: ‘I don’t think they’re here for me, man!’

“I think Sharon said it best – it was like rock’n’roll summer camp. I’m talking to Steven Tyler, and he’s like, ‘You’re from Pennsylvania. I’m good with accents’. Then he starts telling me this story about when the Aerosmith guys were in Doylestown in the seventies and they got pulled over for having weed in the car.

Lzzy Hale and Steve Tyler backstage (Image credit: Ross Halfin)

“But it’s intense back there too. Everybody is nervous. Even the Metallica guys. Like: ‘We want to do good by these dudes.’ And everybody’s really emotional because we know it’s the last time. So we go out there and play, and after we walk off we’re like: ‘That was just a blur. Did we black out? Did we pass the audition?’

“Then I went back out to sing The Ultimate Sin, and it’s an out-of-body experience to be up there with legends like Nuno Bettencourt and Jake E Lee. Since then, a couple of super-nerdy Sabbath fans have asked me: ‘Were you wearing the red dress because of the Ultimate Sin video?’ I wondered if anyone was gonna notice that.

“I was aware of being the only female musician in the line-up. I’m looking around and I can see every single woman in the crowd, and they’re all singing at the top of their lungs. When I was a teenager I was a weird girl. When Backstreet Boys were popular, I would bring Sabbath CDs to show my friends. So now I’m thinking: ‘These women are just like me, and they’re all here to celebrate Black Sabbath’.

Lizzy Hale backstage wearing a red dress — Lizzy Hale wearing the red 'Ultimate Sin' dress (Image credit: Ross Halfin)

“After our set, Sharon gave us a platform out in the crowd. And, man, as soon as Ozzy went on, the atmosphere changed. It was like the whole world was ready to watch this. He sounded amazing. I mean, Ozzy always did every performance like it was his last. So you could tell he wasn’t going to call it in, just because he knew he could get away with it. He didn’t hold anything back. He starts clapping, and it’s like, when Ozzy says clap, you clap. Then he’s singing Mama, I’m Coming Home and there’s not a dry eye in the house.

“Nobody was gonna sleep that night. Backstage, everybody was a different level of drunk, depending on whether they’d played early or late in the set. Poor Tom Morello was hobbling around, relieved it was all done. But everybody was just flying high.

“It was devastating to hear Ozzy had passed. It’s like when Bowie died. You put these guys on such a pedestal, it’s almost like they aren’t even human. But something Ozzy taught all of us is that you’re bigger than your body, you’re bigger than this kind of human vessel. With the legacy he left behind, he will live on forever. And what a way to go, y’know? Ozzy did it right. He had his last show. He was surrounded by all of his friends, his family, his brethren. And they raised so much money for good. What a way to leave your last stamp on this Earth.

Ozzy Osbourne salutes the crowd from his onstage throne at Villa Park — (Image credit: Ross Halfin)

“I was talking to Adam [Jones] from Tool and he said: ‘You know, we all have a bucket list, but Back To The Beginning is like one of those things on a secret section of our bucket list that we didn’t even know existed.’ It was unfathomable to even conceive it. Even today, I’m still thinking: ‘Did that actually happen?’”

Artists

Henry Yates has been a freelance journalist since 2002 and written about music for titles including The Guardian, The Telegraph, NME, Classic Rock, Guitarist, Total Guitar and Metal Hammer. He is the author of Walter Trout's official biography, Rescued From Reality, a music pundit on Times Radio and BBC TV, and an interviewer who has spoken to Brian May, Jimmy Page, Ozzy Osbourne, Ronnie Wood, Dave Grohl, Marilyn Manson, Kiefer Sutherland and many more.

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