Black Sabbath: which songs have tried but not played at farewell

A few days after the event that marked the end of the live activities of Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath (here our story), Tony Iommi He reflected on the performance of the historic band at the Villa Park in Birmingham. During a recent interview with Eddie Trunk in his “Trunk Nation” radio show on Siriusxm, the British guitarist rethought at the concert “Back to the Beginning“, Which saw the classic training of the Sabbath gather on stage for the first time in twenty years.

Focusing in particular on the contribution of Ozzy Osbourne and Bill Ward At the set, as reported by Blabbermouth, Iommi stressed: “Well, I am really a little perfectionist, but they can only do what they succeedyou can’t expect anything else. We are seventy years old, and some of us also towards the end of the seventies, therefore It can only be done up to a certain point. Expecting perfection from everyone is simply impossible, right now. But they did what they could do, and everyone took it well. And I think that the public also understood and accepted it. They did not expect it to be very good on stage and be perfect musicians. We played how we are now, and for what we are now“.

Revealing the fear that the solo performance of Ozzy, who preceded that of the “godparents of Heavy Metal”, would have exhausted him before the final set, the 77 -year -old musician told:

“We decided together what we would play, and what songs. But it was really a matter of how much Ozzy would make it, because we didn’t know – since he also did his set alone, which I had told him that I shouldn’t have done – because I didn’t want it to come exhausted when it would be up to us. But it didn’t happen, he did his set”.

On the stage set up at Villa Park, the Black Sabbath proposed four songs from their repertoire: “War Pigs”, “Nib”, “Iron Man” and Paranoid “. Tony Iommi, however, revealed to Eddie Trunk who The band had initially tried six or seven songs for the farewell concert, including “Black Sabbath” And “Fairs Wear Boots“.

“It was a bit difficult for Billbecause he hadn’t played them for a long time, “added Iommi, thinking about the drummer’s performance, who had never found himself with the other members of the historical formation of Black Sabbath Since 2005, or from the end of the “Ozzfest Tour”. Between 2016 and 2017 Tony, Geezer and Ozzy, albeit without Bill, had undertaken a first final tour of the group with the tour and the EP “The End”. The guitarist continued: “Obviously Geezer and I had played them on the last tour. And Bill, let’s not forget it, hasn’t been going on tour for a long time. We could have played six, but in the end we made four”.

In another passage of the interview, Iommi also said: “We didn’t play live with Bill for twenty years, so there was a little apprehensionwe didn’t know what to expect, because Bill, when he plays, always does different things every time. So you have to stay on the piece. But in the end, it went well“.

In the meantime, he metre the artistic director of the event Tom Morello dei Rage Against The Machine thanked Ozzy Osbourne and revealed that “Back to the Beginning” collected 190 million dollars for charitythe audio recording with the isolated items of the performance of the “prince of darkness”.

In his solo set, which in addition to being his Last show ever It was his too first real live after almost seven yearsOzzy proposed five songs (“I Don’t Know”, “Mr. Crowley”, “Suicide Solution”, “Mama, I’m coming home“,” Crazy Train “). The 1991 Ballad, Ozzy’s favorite passage from his repertoire, was one of the most touching moments, despite the performance not always technically perfect. But no one expected an impeccable vocal test, also considered the many health problems that have hit him in recent years, including Parkinson’s. But as he listened to the hearing with the isolated voice, It was precisely the interpretation marked by time to give a greater emotional charge.