In a recent interview on SiriusXM’s “Trunk Nation with Eddie Trunk,” guitarist Tony Iommi reflected on Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne’s farewell show “Back to the Beginning” – which took place on July 5th at Villa Park in Birmingham, UK.
During the discussion, Iommi revealed that before they began preparing for the event, he hadn’t seen the other members of Sabbath for quite some time.
“I live in England and the other three are in the States. So by everybody coming over, yes, we had time to talk and talk of old times,” the guitarist explained. “And it just slotted straight back into like we hadn’t left each other, which was great.
“And of course, a lot’s happened in the last — whatever — 10 years or whatever it was [since] we’d done a show [with Sabbath], and, of course, as I said to you before, we hadn’t played with Bill [Ward, drummer] live for 20 years, so it was hairy wondering what’s gonna happen, really. Because Bill, when he plays, he plays different things every time. So you just have to be on your toes.
“But no, it went well. I mean, it was strange for us going on a big stage in a big audience, and then also being streamed to millions of people. It’s very nerve racking for a one-off show. Normally we would do a tour and we’d be rolling, but to get all worked up for one show and then — bang, it’s over — seemed really strange.”
