Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne’s final gig raised nearly $200million for charity
Black Sabbath‘s and Ozzy Osbourne‘s ‘Back To The Beginning’ finale has raked in a massive amount of money for charity – find out more below.
When the band first announced the larger-than-life farewell gig, they revealed that all proceeds from the show would be donated to charity – being split equally among Cure Parkinson’s, Birmingham Children’s Hospital and Acom Children’s Hospice.
Now, the show’s music director and Rage Against The Machine legend Tom Morello has revealed just how much money was raised for these charities through tickets to the once-in-a-lifetime event, and pay-per-view livestreams.
He wrote on Instagram on Tuesday (July 8) that “more than $190million will be donated to houses and hospitals for children.” Morello continued in his caption: “We raised a ton of money for a great cause and so many great musicians & bands & fans all over the world paid tribute to the ALL TIME greats.”
Elsewhere during the show, Ozzy Osbourne a final solo performance that saw him rise up from beneath the stage on a giant winged throne and launched into ‘I Don’t Know’ and ‘Mr. Crowley’. He rounded out his set with 1991’s ‘Mama, I’m Coming Home’ and ‘Crazy Train’, the song played before kick-off at every Aston Villa game at Villa Park.
Sabbath were welcomed to the stage shortly after 10pm, with air raid sirens and red strobe lights signalling their arrival. Within moments, the opening strains of ‘War Pigs’ filled Villa Park. Sabbath played a streamlined four-song set comprised of songs from their first two albums, including ‘Iron Man’ and ‘N.I.B.’, with the huge crowd throwing up devil horns and shouting every word.
As Black Sabbath introduced ‘Paranoid’ to bring the show to an end, Osbourne told the crowd: “It’s the last song ever. Your support has enabled us to live an amazing lifestyle, thank you from the bottom of our hearts”.
Those performing alongside Sabbath included Metallica, Slayer, Pantera, Alice In Chains, Gojira, Anthrax, Guns N’ Roses, KoRn, Tool, Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler, and many more.
Other standout moments of Saturday’s show included Tool’s Danny Carey, Blink-182’s Travis Barker and Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Chad Smith taking part in a drum-off while covering Sabbath’s ‘Symptom Of The Universe’. They were also joined by Tom Morello, bassist Rudy Sarzo (Quiet Riot, Ozzy Osbourne’s solo material), and Extreme guitarist Nuno Bettencourt.
As well as that, Morello, Steven Tyler, Travis Barker and The Rolling Stones’ Ronnie Wood came together to cover Led Zeppelin, and Yungblud led another supergroup in a version of ‘Changes’, which they dedicated to the late footballer Diogo Jota. Find out more about what went down at the event here.
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Surej Singh
NME
