The original lineup of Black Sabbath took the stage for the final time over the weekend, playing a handful of their iconic songs to a sold-out crowd in their hometown of Birmingham, England. Turns out, however, the band didn’t play every song they’d practiced.
Speaking SiriusXM’s Trunk Nation with Eddie Trunk, Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi revealed that Sabbath had also prepared “Black Sabbath” and “Fairies Wear Boots.” Explaining why they did not perform the tunes, Iommi said: “We worked out what we were gonna play… And it was really a case of how long Ozzy could do it, because we didn’t know.”
He continued: “With him doing his own set… I said to him I didn’t think he should do, because I didn’t want him to get burnt out by the time he’d come with us. But he didn’t, and he did his own set.” (Not to speculate unfoundedly, but it does sound like there’s a little resentment in Iommi’s words over Ozzy doing his solo set.)
During their Back to the Beginning performance, Black Sabbath played featured “War Pigs,” “Iron Man,” “N.I.B.” and “Paranoid.” This was after Osbourne did his solo set from a custom-made throne, singing for one last time live: “I Don’t Know,” “Mr. Crowley,” “Suicide Solution,” “Mama, I’m Coming Home” and “Crazy Train.”
Black Sabbath’s Back to the Beginning Concert reportedly raised millions of dollars for charity.
It’s been reported that the big heavy metal and rock music festival generated almost $200 million in donations for three important causes: Cure Parkinson’s, Birmingham Children’s Hospital, and Acorn Children’s Hospice. This news was first shared by Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello — who served as the musical director for the event — in an Instagram post shown below.
The concert wasn’t done to make a profit, and all of the participating artists — including Metallica, Slayer, and Pantera — did so for free. Metal Sucks noted that, while raising almost $200 million for charity from the event is a major accomplishment, the eye-opening part realy is that the math works out to meaning that the livestream generated upwards of $150 million, at $30 a ticket.
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