Earlier this month, Black Sabbath reunited one more time to play a final farewell show at Villa Park in Aston, titled Back To The Beginning, just down the road from where they all grew up. It was an emotional night that saw Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward surrounded by friends, peers and tens of thousands of adoring fans.
Now, the concert has taken on even more significance: just over two weeks later, Ozzy Osbourne would pass away aged 76, devastating the metal world with his loss but leaving behind an incredible legacy and one of the most perfect bow-outs in music history.
Earlier this year, we spoke to Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello, the man tasked with curating the almighty lineup for Back To The Beginning, about taking on the project of a lifetime and just what Ozzy and Sabbath meant to him.
Tom Morello was around 10 or 11 years old when Black Sabbath first entered his life, and the memory is still seared into his brain.
“Somebody brought the Sabbath Bloody Sabbath record into school," he says, “and I remember being physically frightened by it. I was very much afraid of the name and of the artwork: ‘What could that possibly be? And what danger does it pose to me and my family?!’”
God knows what that terrified pre-teen would have made of how things have turned out. Fifty years on, the Rage Against The Machine guitarist has been appointed musical director of the gig of the century, Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath’s Back To The Beginning farewell show.
“It’s an honour to be doing this,” he says. “Sabbath are one of the greatest bands of all time. They founded one of the most important genres in history. The goal is a very simple one, and that is to create the greatest day in the history of heavy metal as a salute to the band that started it all.”
Tom was tasked by Sharon Osbourne to put together a bill that reflected the enduring influence and bottomless love for Ozzy and Sabbath. He threw himself into the job, hitting his contacts book hard and personally putting in the calls to the musicians he knew, to ask if they wanted to appear. On paper, it looks like a logistical headache.
“A headache? It was a dream, dude!” he enthuses. “When you say, ‘Black Sabbath are playing one final show with all four original members, it’s also the final ever show, and we’d like you to play on that date’, people pick up the fucking phone.
“Here’s the funny thing,” he continues. “After we announced the bill, it was my phone ringing. People were like, ‘Heeeyyy…’ They weren’t asking for tickets, but saying, ‘Can I play?’”
His musical relationship with Sabbath goes back decades. It took him a minute to get over his initial youthful terror, but once he was in, he was in.
“I bought the Paranoid record when I probably was 12 or 13, and fell in love with the band from the first note. I haven’t looked back since.”
His friendship with Ozzy clearly doesn’t stretch back quite so far, but he has known the singer since the 1990s.
“I’ve met Ozzy in a number of different phases of his career,” says Tom. “He’s an apex performer when he’s on his game. One of my favourite concerts that I’ve ever been a part of was some benefit show in LA, and Ozzy headlined it. He rocked this fucking room so fucking hard that I couldn’t believe it.
"He wasn’t necessarily a young man, but he had all that visceral power of his youth. Offstage, they’re all the loveliest people on the planet, but they can very much tap into what Black Sabbath is about.”
He likens the upcoming gig to the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert in 1992, in which A-list bands gathered to pay tribute to the late Queen singer, or more recently the two transatlantic shows that honoured Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins following his death in March, 2022.
“But guess what? They weren’t alive to be there to play and to enjoy it,” he says. “Black Sabbath’s gonna be there, dude. To be in their backyard, with a line-up of the biggest acts in metal paying tribute to them, has got to be pretty special.”
He’s tight-lipped on exactly who will be playing what, but he does offer a warning.
“I will say this - for anyone lucky enough to be going to the show, don’t be late. This is not one of those shows where the bands are playing in ascending order and you can show up at 5pm. We have surprise guests that you won’t believe. Trust me - don’t be late.”
On July 5, the men who put the fear of the Devil into the young Tom Morello all those years ago will finally be saying their farewell. They may be riding into the sunset, but their legacy remains immeasurable.
“Their DNA is everywhere, not just in metal,” he says. “I’ve talked to [Public Enemy rapper] Chuck D about them, the Run DMC guys – the founders of hip hop were influenced by Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne. Same with the world of EDM. Without them, literally nothing would be the same.”
You can still order an official Back To The Beginning programme, with all proceeds going to the Big Issue, from the official Louder store
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