Post #406
On July 5th, 2025, from Villa Park, Birmingham, England, Ozzy Osbourne- the proverbial "Prince of Darkness", gave a memorable and unforgettable final performance. Ozzy, struggling for years with Parkinson's disease and unable to walk, fulfilled a long-standing dream of playing one final show* with the original Black Sabbath lineup in front of a hometown stadium crowd. What's even more- the entire, day-long celebration of all things Ozzy & Black Sabbath was live-streamed so that fans around the world could watch this momentous farewell performance. I was one of those fans, and while I could not watch the entire show in a single sitting, the live-stream ticket gave me a few days to re-watch the event, and I managed to see every band's set.
Part of the theme was to have each band that performed include a cover of a song by either Black Sabbath or from Ozzy's solo career. This is the element I will focus on for this post. To review every band's set completely would take forever. Besides, they'll probably release the whole concert on DVD or Streaming platforms eventually, right? We can hope!
So then, I will review each Sabbath/Ozzy cover song, and therefor build the most memorable send-off for the ultimate heavy metal icon in a setlist-to-end-all-setlists. Here goes nothing...
As the event began, our opening band was Mastadon. Their choice of a cover song was ‘Supernaut’ from the Volume 4 album. Drummer Brann Dailor sang lead vocals.
The next band was Rival Sons. I was not surprised to see them in the lineup, as they had opened for Black Sabbath on their 2016 The End Tour. They covered ‘Electric Funeral’ from Paranoid.
Big-Four thrash titans Anthrax were next, and they delivered an awesome version of ‘Into The Void’ off of the Master of Reality album.
Halestorm kept the show rolling and delivered the first cover song from Ozzy’s solo material with ‘Perry Mason’ from the Ozzmosis album.
Then came Lamb of God. Before launching into their Sabbath cover, vocalist Randy Blythe talked about how the world is a divisive place, as it was in 1971, and said how this song was a call to love ourselves and love our brothers and neighbors. The song was ‘Children of the Grave’.
As much as the A-list bands were doing an amazing job of showing the love and respect for Ozzy and Black Sabbath, what came next would raise the bar. A rotating lineup of a Supergroup, dubbed ‘Tom Morello’s All-Stars' took the stage and their set was primarily filled with cover songs. During this first set, here are the Ozzy & Sabbath cover tunes, with lead vocals credited:
-'The Ultimate Sin' (Lizzy Hale of Halestorm)
-'Shot In The Dark' (David Draiman of Disturbed)
-'Sweet Leaf' (David Draiman of Disturbed)
-'Believer' (Whitfield Crane of Ugly Kid Joe)
-'Changes' (YUNGBLUD)
During the intermission between the Supergroup and the next band, they played a video of a pre-recorded song by Jack Black and some School of Rock musicians: ‘Mr. Crowley’.
The next band was Alice In Chains and their choice of cover song was ‘Faeries Wear Boots’ from the Paranoid album.
Gojira came next, playing a short set that concluded with a cover of ‘Under the Sun’ from Volume 4. It was good to see a European band in the lineup, because otherwise, aside from Black Sabbath & Ozzy, all the other bands were American.
The next act was really more of a jam session that featured a drum-off between several drummers. They jammed to the riff from ‘Symptom of the Universe’. The drummers featured: Travis Barker, Danny Carey and Chad Smith.
The Supergroup returned for a flurry of more Sabbath and Ozzy covers mixed into their set of several other classic rock and metal songs. They included:
-'Snowblind' (Billy Corgan from Smashing Pumpkins)
-'Flying High Again' (Sammy Hagar)
-'Bark at the Moon' (Papa V Perpetua from Ghost)
Pantera were up next. Their ‘legacy lineup’ features Phil Anselmo and Rex Brown as original members, while Charlie Benante of Anthrax and Zakk Wylde are playing drums and guitar respectively. Giving credit where credit is due, Pantera raised the bar, being the first original band to perform 2 Sabbath covers in their limited set time. They played ‘Planet Caravan’ and ‘Electric Funeral’, both from the Paranoid album, and both songs they had covered before.
Tool performed next. They covered ‘Hand of Doom’, another track from Paranoid. It was a fitting choice as it is a ‘prog-rock’ type of song that moves into different sections from beginning to end.
Another Big-4 thrash titan, Slayer, were next up. When it came time for their cover, they played ‘Wicked World’ from Black Sabbath’s eponymous debut album. I loved this choice on so many levels. One: the lyrical themes are right on par with Slayer classics like ‘World Painted Blood’. Two: it was great to see Sabbath’s first album represented it the choice of covers. I’ve often thought that album is unfairly underrated.
There was another prerecorded video played between set-changes, this time by Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit. He performed ‘Changes’ from the Volume 4 album.
Side note: I was aware by this point that more than one song was performed twice. I was slightly annoyed that the bands seemingly didn’t coordinate their song choices for the sake of avoiding repeats such as this, but under the circumstances I tried not to hold it against them. However, in this case I happened to prefer Yungblud’s version.
By this point the show was escalating towards the inevitable climax, as the performers were now clearly at the A-list level. The next band was Guns N’ Roses. GN'R raised the bar with their song selection, opening with not just one, not two, not even 3, but 4 Black Sabbath covers! Those were: 'It's Alright', 'Never Say Die', 'Junior's Eyes' and 'Sabbath Bloody Sabbath'. With their selections, GN'R went deeper into the Sabbath catalog than we had heard up to this point. They were the first band to play selections from Black Sabbath's 7th and 8th albums with Ozzy: Technical Ecstasy and Never Say Die! Three of their four covers came from these albums, and one of those tracks ('It's Alright') was originally sung by original Sabbath drummer, Bill Ward!
The final "opener" before Ozzy would take the stage was Metallica. Arguably the world's most popular heavy metal band, Metallica got the final opening slot, and were beyond honored to be able to be a part of this finale to the Black Sabbath/Ozzy Osbourne legacy. With Guns N' Roses' honorable inclusion of several deep-tracks from often-overlooked albums, could Metallica do anything to top that? Arguably, they did just as well. They opened with 'Hole in the Sky' from the Sabotage album, the only other track from this album performed on this day was the 'Symptom of the Universe' drum-off (which didn't feature any of the lyrics!). Then, before their set was finished, they also honored the Never Say Die! album with a performance of 'Johnny Blade'!
At long last it was time for the living legend himself: OZZY FUCKING OSBOURNE!
(* Ozzy passed away just weeks after this performance. Ozzy has often sang about his love of performing music, as the lyrics of songs like 'I Don't Wanna Stop' or 'Not Going Away' have depicted. The timing of his death makes these and so many more of his songs all the more prophetic. I will have much more to write on Ozzy, Black Sabbath, and his bandmates in other upcoming posts very soon...)
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