Black Sabbath have played their final ever show together – see footage below.
The historic gig, dubbed ‘Back To The Beginning’, took place at Villa Park in their hometown on Saturday night (July 5), and it was the final farewell for the iconic heavy metal band, with founding members Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward playing alongside each other for the first time since 2005.
At the end of an epic day of music, 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 they 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”.
Watch footage from the final Sabbath show here:
BLACK SABBATH#BackToTheBeginning #BlackSabbath pic.twitter.com/WfkVUyVGRQ
— Duke TV (@OfficialDukeTV) July 5, 2025
Watch Black Sabbath reunite and Ozzy Osbourne perform for the last time to close out tonight’s big Back To The Beginning event in Birmingham pic.twitter.com/QxWrA3n9ni
— Stereogum (@stereogum) July 5, 2025
#BackToTheBeginning pic.twitter.com/3Q4EdIS4h5
— Sharon Osbourne (@MrsSOsbourne) June 28, 2025
✟ ✟ Ready for today ✟ ✟
Photo: @RossHalfin #BackToTheBeginning pic.twitter.com/IBxvWDpF24
— Tony Iommi (@tonyiommi) July 5, 2025
Black Sabbath played:
‘War Pigs’
‘N.I.B.’
‘Iron Man’
‘Paranoid’
A who’s who of hard rock music history played sets at ‘Back To The Beginning’, including members of The Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, Rage Against The Machine, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Blink-182 joining forces for a Led Zeppelin cover and Yungblud leading another supergroup in a version of ‘Changes’, which they dedicated to the late footballer Diogo Jota.
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”.
Before then, he told fans that he was “in heavy training” for the forthcoming farewell concert, and was back in the gym. Osbourne also said he would only be “doing little bits and pieces” with Sabbath at Villa Park amid his health problems: “I am doing what I can, where I feel comfortable.”
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.”
