Black Sabbath Reunite For Farewell Performance

Bruce Henne | 07-09-2025

(hennemusic) Black Sabbath reunited for the first time in 20 years for a July 5 farewell performance in its UK hometown of Birmingham.

Billed as "Back To The Beginning", the iconic band were joined at the city's Aston Villa by a number of guest artists paying tribute to the influential heavy metal band, including Metallica, Guns N' Roses, Slayer, Tool, and more.

Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward took the stage and delivered four songs from the band's vintage 1970 era, including "N.I.B." from the self-titled album debut, and three tracks from their second release, "Paranoid": "War Pings", "Iron Man" and the closing song, "Paranoid."

Black Sabbath formed in Aston in 1968, going on to create eight albums and selling over 75 million albums worldwide. Considered pioneers of the heavy metal genre they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006, awarded a Lifetime Ivor Novello Songwriting Award in 2015 and were presented with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019.

When announcing the event earlier this year, Ozzy said: "It's my time to go Back to the Beginning....time for me to give back to the place where I was born. How blessed am I to do it with the help of people whom I love. Birmingham is the true home of metal. Birmingham Forever."

Watch fan-filmed footage of Black Sabbath's farewell performance here