Sharon Osbourne and Tony Iommi tell us about Black Sabbath’s finale: “Usually this thing is done when you’re dead”

Sharon Osbourne and Tony Iommi have spoken to NME about what to expect from Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne‘s final concert – letting a few surprises slip – and what it means to be going out with such a bang on home turf.

It was announced yesterday (Wednesday February 5) that the metal icons would be reuniting with their original line-up of Osbourne, guitarist Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward. It will mark their first time playing live together in two decades, and come as the very last performance from the band and frontman. All profits will go to charities Cure Parkinson’s, Birmingham Children’s Hospital and Acorn Children’s Hospice – a Children’s Hospice supported by Aston Villa.

Dubbed, ‘Back To The Beginning’ their homecoming and finale at Birmingham’s Villa Park will see a stacked line-up of huge names from throughout the ages of rock – including Metallica, Slayer, Pantera, Gojira, Smashing Pumpkins‘ Billy Corgan, Slash and Duff McKagan of Guns N’ Roses, Alice In Chains, members of Limp Bizkit and KoRn, as well as Rage Against The Machine‘s Tom Morello (who also acts of musical director of the concert).

• READ MORE: Ozzy Osbourne: a rock’n’roll showman like no other

It’s a packed bill gathered to say goodbye to pioneers of the genre, however, speaking to NME shortly after the announcement at Villa Park, Sharon said that the band’s legacy was too profound for them to ever really be gone.

“You can’t say goodbye,” Ozzy’s wife and manager told NME. “Look at what they leave – it’s a huge, great body of work that they’ve left for the world. As long as you’ve got that, it’s never goodbye. It’s there for eternity.”

She admitted that husband Ozzy was currently feeling “very emotional” about the final show, and that it is “what he wants”.

“He wants to say thank you to everybody. He didn’t have that chance because of his illness, but now he does have the chance.”

Iommi thanked all of the bands who’d agreed to perform and pay tribute to Sabbath, before Osbourne added: “Can you imagine the photo at the end of it with all of these guys together? One mass of icons together out here. That ending photo will be incredible and it will go down in history.”

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Check out our full interview with Osbourne and Iommi below, where they tell us what to expect, if any new material might be on the way, and the future holds after this.

NME: Hello Sharon and Tony. Exciting that you snuck in late with one of the biggest live events of summer 2025. Did you fancy giving Oasis and their reunion tour a run for their money?

Sharon Osbourne: “Oh, what Oasis do is great! They crack me up, I love them.”

What does it mean to celebrate the beginning and the end here in Birmingham?

Tony Iommi: “It’s really great, I think it’s a great idea and a great thing to do. The amount of bands that have come forward to support it too is just incredible.”

What can you tell us about Tom Morello’s involvement and how he came to be musical director? 

Osbourne: “He is so knowledgeable on all different genres of music, but especially Sabbath. He’s really passionate about everything he does and is such a great mate. He volunteered and the stuff that he’s managing to put together has been amazing. He’s going to take care of all the different bands that are playing together and arranging who does what song. It’s a huge undertaking, and he can manage it all.”

Did you give him any kind of mission statement on who to book or did it just fall this way with the full spectrum of Sabbath’s influence?

Osbourne: “It would just naturally be that Sabbath have passed the torch on to and friends. It’s a small community and the band are blessed that they have so much respect and so many artists want to be a part of the day.”

Tell us about the format of the day. What’s the running of it going to look like?

Osbourne: “It starts at noon, then you’re going to see one icon playing with another icon, doing a Sabbath song and one or two of their own songs, and people playing with each other that you never you’d see. Tom Morello is going to play with the drummer from Tool [Danny Carey] and they’re going to have Billy Corgan with them – they’re all from Chicago so they’re all doing their bit.

“Then you’ll see Slash and Duff [McKagan] and whoever they choose to play with. David Draiman [Disturbed] is going to come up and sing, Jonathan [Davis] from KoRn is going to be here and he could be playing with [Red Hot Chili Peppers’] Chad Smith or whoever! Alice In Chains are coming and they’re playing as the band.”

Wow. You didn’t fancy the easier task of just Sabbath and a few support bands? 

Osbourne: “No, this is a celebration – of the genre and the pioneers who started it and passed it on to all these bands. Usually this thing is done when you’re dead – so it’s nice that these guys can be alive to be appreciated!”

Iommi: “I was just thinking that! We’re having it before we go now.”

Tony, will you be jamming with anyone else on stage throughout the day?

Iommi: “No, I’ll be jamming with my band.”

Fair enough! Who else are you most looking forward to seeing? 

Osbourne: “All your old mates?”

Iommi: “It’s going to be quite the event to take in with everybody. I won’t be standing there all day, that’s for sure. It’s going to be great that they’re all up there for us.”

Osbourne: “We’ve even got Jack Black. He’s filming in New Zealand so he can’t make it, but he’s doing a video with his son and Tom Morello’s son and some other kids doing School Of Rock. It’s amazing to see that people’s children are influenced by Sabbath still to do this day. We’re here 53 years later and it’s gone from generation to generation.”

There’s been a lot of talk about the new acts stepping to headline Download this year over the legacy bands. What do you think of the current wave of rock and metal bands?

Osbourne: “Well KoRn are a legacy band – we’ve been working with them for over 25 years. Time goes like that; same for Disturbed. That’s great. What people don’t realise is that bands like KoRn, [Judas] Priest, AC/DC and Sabbath are bigger than they’ve ever been. The music industry always goes in cycles and it’s turning again. People want to see real musicians that are playing their own songs with instruments instead of it being done from a computer in your bedroom. There’s that appreciation once again of the guitar.

“These bands stand the test of time. Look at Sabbath: how can something that was made 57 years ago still be selling and sound as current today as it did then? There are certain albums and artists that stand the test of time and don’t sound dated.”

Iommi: “It’s incredible really – how we’ve stood the test of time. When you think back to when we did those first albums, we did them live in two days. It was great to be able to know that we did it that way. Those days were great.”

• READ MORE: Ozzy Osbourne: a rock’n’roll showman like no other

How is Ozzy at the moment?

Osbourne: “He’s really great. He’s got Parkinson’s, which we all know, but he’s great and it doesn’t affect his voice.”

Iommi: “This will do him good, to do this show. It really will. That’s what it’s all about: he wants to get out and do something.”

Osbourne: “He feels like he’s never had a chance to thank the fans; to say ‘thank you for this unbelievable life’.”

And it’s great that you’ve chosen these charities too, so it’s not just a payday.

Iommi: “I thought we were going to keep the money?”

Osbourne: “Stop it!”

Iommi: “No, these are really great causes.”

Osbourne: “Birmingham has done so much and is such a huge part of who they are. They’re not one of these bands that drop the accent and suddenly become rockstars. Sabbath have always been Birmingham born-and-bred. This is the home of metal and this is where it started. Ozzy’s dad worked in a metal factory literally making metal!”

Iommi: “He made these aluminium crosses for us and that’s what started that off for us.”

Osbourne: “It’s all organic and pure and never contrived. It means a lot to come back and say thank you because that’s who they are. They were regular guys that had a dream, and the dream came true. To be in a position in your life to do this and give it back to the city, ‘because you made me’.”

Iommi: “They’re really proud of us, Birmingham are now. In the early days of course they weren’t as they didn’t know what we were about, but now they can’t say enough about us. The tables have turned right around.”

Osbourne: “They’ve just been awarded the freedom of the city.”

What does that allow you to do?

Osbourne: “They can do whatever they want!”

Might there be some new material dropping or a cheeky single in time for the gig or is this just about saying goodbye?

Osbourne: “It’s just about celebrating the old music that still lives on. You get to a stage in your career where whatever you do just doesn’t stand up to what you did before. To be able to rest on your laurels and stay, ‘People still love that and it’s still selling and we can’t do better than what we’ve done’, that’s enough.”

Iommi: “It’s amazing what those albums have done.”

Osbourne: “I always say to people, ‘It’s not the same people buying another copy of the record – it’s new generations’. You’re educating new people about this body of work. This is about celebrating that. Sometimes when people go on and make new music as they get older, it just doesn’t stand up to what they did before.  I don’t ever want to see them be less than Number One.”

Has Hollywood been calling to make a Sabbath biopic and finish off the story?

Iommi: “Who knows? We never thought this was going to happen.”

• READ MORE: Ozzy Osbourne on the cover: “This album saved my life”

Who would play you guys?

Osbourne: “God only knows! If it were to happen, I don’t know well-known actors would be good to do it. With these characters, you’d need to get somebody new. You can get these phenomenal actors: if you got Johnny Depp playing Ozzy, all you’d see in the movie is Johnny Depp. It has to be somebody faceless at that time.”

And as for life the show – what’s happens then?

Iommi: “Who knows?”

Osbourne: “Exactly. They’ve achieved and done so much. Now it’s their time to just do their thing.”

Black Sabbath’s ‘Back The The Beginning’ takes place at Birmingham’s Villa Park on Saturday July 5. Tickets go on sale next Friday (February 14) at 10am GMT and will be available here.

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