Members of The Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, Rage Against The Machine, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Blink-182 came together at the final Black Sabbath show.
The historic gig, dubbed ‘Back To The Beginning’, is set to be the final farewell for the iconic heavy metal band. The all-day event is going down at Villa Park in Birmingham today (July 5) and features a who’s who of hard rock music, with RATM’s Tom Morello serving as musical director for the concert.
Morello also made an appearance on stage during what was listed as the ‘Supergroup B’ section of the show. Alongside Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler on vocals, The Rolling Stones’ Ronnie Wood and Extreme’s Nuno Bettencourt on guitar, Quiet Riot’s Rudy Sarzo on bass and Blink-182’s Travis Barker on drums, they played the ‘50s blues song ‘Train Kept A Rollin’.
Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Chad Smith then replaced Barker on drums and they played a medley of Aerosmith’s ‘Walk This Way’ and Led Zeppelin’s ‘Whole Lotta Love’. Watch clips from the performance below.
エアロのスティーブンタイラーとローリングストーンズのロンウッドとレイジのトムモレロ、レッチリのフリーでツェペリン‼️#BackToTheBeginning pic.twitter.com/LfrJQmn1OJ
Steven Tyler of Aerosmith performingLed Zeppelin’s Whole Lotta Love live at Black Sabbath’s Back to the Beginning concert. The greatest show of decades started with banger performances! pic.twitter.com/tWgGoLOl4H
Steven Tyler #BlackSabbath #BackToTheBeginning pic.twitter.com/7jv8HjlRrX
#BackToTheBeginning Travis Barker (blink-182) • Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine) • Steven Taylor (Aerosmith) • Andrew Watt • Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers) pic.twitter.com/22Nnyqnuak
An amazing set by a supergroup made up of Aerosmith Red Hot Chili Peppers Rolling Stones This is getting ridiculous #BackToTheBeginning pic.twitter.com/c04UAPs9sm
VILLA PARK !!!!! Bouncing STEVEN TYLER turned up for OZZIE !!!! ❤️ @AVFCOfficial pic.twitter.com/7Ef6o6zSSh
New photo! Of Black Sabbath alongside members of Metallica, Pantera, Jake E. Lee, Tom Morello, Steven Tyler, Chad Smith, David Ellefson and more Rock and Heavy Metal legends before their final concert called ‘Back To The Beginning’ that’s streaming now! pic.twitter.com/QXqnA4o5u6
The gig is also playing host to many other huge names in the genre, including Metallica, Slayer, Pantera, Alice In Chains, Gojira, Anthrax, Smashing Pumpkins‘ Billy Corgan, Guns N’ Roses, KoRn, Tool, and the surviving members of Soundgarden.
The Prince Of Darkness has not played a full gig since 2018, and has undergone multiple surgeries and experienced numerous health problems, including Parkinson’s disease in recent years.
In an interview with The Guardian earlier this year, Osbourne looked ahead to playing the last Black Sabbath show in good health, saying: “I’ll be there, and I’ll do the best I can. All I can do is turn up.” From there, there were also suggestions that he “may be sitting down” on stage, and rumours that he’d be performing from a “throne that flies over the stadium”.
His wife and manager, Sharon, also said to NME that, although he now “can’t walk” as a result of Parkinson’s, his illness “doesn’t affect his voice”. “He wants to say thank you to everybody,” she explained to us at Villa Park. “He didn’t have that chance because of his illness, but now he does have the chance.”
