Black Sabbath guitarist Tommy Iommi has admitted that he is “worried about the unknown” ahead of their farewell gig in Birmingham this summer.
The storied metal band will play a huge homecoming show, titled Back to the Beginning, on Saturday 5 July at Villa Park, with additional performances from Metallica, Slayer, Alice in Chains, Pantera and Gojira.
The event, which is being directed by Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello, is billed as “the greatest metal show ever”.
Speaking to Music Week, however, founding member Iommi said it would be “a monumental thing if it all comes good. The worrying thing for me is the unknown.”
“We don’t know what’s going to happen,” he continued. “Normally, when we’d tour, we’d rehearse and run through the thing for a while, and it’s just us. But with this event there are so many other moving parts.”
He added: “You’re used to Ozzy running around, but he certainly won’t be doing that for this show. I don’t know if he’s going to be standing or sitting on a throne or what.”
Osbourne, 76, has insisted that he will perform at what is being billed as his final concert, in spite of his ongoing health struggles.
The “Prince of Darkness” has undergone several surgeries on his neck and spine in recent years, after damaging his neck vertebrae in a 2003 quad bike accident – and then exacerbating the injury in a freak fall at home in 2019. He also has Parkinson’s disease.
While some of Osbourne’s fellow artists – including Tool frontman Maynard James – have expressed doubt as to whether he would be well enough to perform, he pointed out that he’d only be playing a few songs each.
However, the rocker told The Guardian in a recent interview: “I’ll be there, and I’ll do the best I can. So all I can do is turn up.”
His wife and manager, Sharon Osbourne, added that the upcoming show is his “reason to get up in the morning”.
The line-up for the show, which was curated between Osbourne, his wife and manager Sharon, and musical director Tom Morello, includes bands such as Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, Slayer, Alice in Chains, Tool and members of Red Hot Chili Peppers, Judas Priest, Van Halen and Limp Bizkit.
The show will also mark the first time the four original members of Black Sabbath have performed together in two decades.
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