Judas Priest found out too late that Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath would be playing a star-studded farewell concert this summer to join in on the festivities, frontman Rob Halford recently told Metal Hammer. A talent agent in Germany recruited the band to perform at the 60th anniversary concert for another venerated metal band, the Scorpions, on July 5, and despite Sharon Osbourne offering to fly the band to and from Birmingham, England for Ozzy’s final bow in time to honor their Scorpions commitment, Judas Priest declined.
“It all got announced and was a big deal — Scorpions and Priest — and suddenly I get this phone call [from Sharon Osbourne]: ‘Robbie, I know you’ve got this gig with Scorpions, but could you consider coming over to do a thing with Ozzy and the guys, he’d love to see you.’”
Halford mulled over Sharon’s offer to ferry the band via private jet between the concerts, but the singer didn’t want to leave anything to chance. “Even with a private plane, there’s a word called ‘technical’, where something could go wrong, or the weather that time of year could cause problems… I was absolutely gutted,” he said.
He nevertheless said that he was excited for the concert, even Judas Priest would be there, since it reinforces Birmingham’s status as the birthplace of heavy metal. Like Black Sabbath, Judas Priest formed in the city. (And incidentally, ex-Priest guitarist, K.K. Downing, will be performing at the event.
In addition to Osbourne and Black Sabbath, the concert, dubbed Back to the Beginning, will feature sets by Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, Tool, Slayer, Pantera, Gojira, Alice in Chains, and many others. It will take place at Birmingham’s Villa Park. “All my mates are going to be there though, great bands and artists,” Halford told Metal Hammer. “It’s a wonderful and epic moment for Sabbath and heavy metal.”
Halford may be missing out on Black Sabbath’s farewell, but he should take some comfort that he was actually one of the few headbangers to have been there at the actual beginning. In 2020, he told Rolling Stone what it was like to see Sabbath’s early club gigs in Birmingham. “I have vague memories of seeing them as Earth in an obscure club in Birmingham, and they were in a sort of heavy-blues, jazzy-prog mode musically,” he said. “I can only recall the very first Sabbath songs like [Crow’s] ‘Evil Woman,’ which was a cover. There was still some freeform noodling going on when they played live, but essentially the heaviness was dominating.”
He was also present for the first time when the original Black Sabbath lineup said goodbye at the conclusion of Osbourne’s No More Tours tour in 1992. At the time, Osbourne had been worried about his health and decided to take a final bow, before reversing course a couple of years later with the Retirement Sucks tour. Black Sabbath had reunited with Ronnie James Dio. When the idea of Black Sabbath opening for Osbourne’s final shows came up, Dio quit, and Halford became their frontman for two shows. The rest of the band — guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler, and drummer Bill Ward — then joined Osbourne for encores later in the evening. Halford also fronted Sabbath for a short set in Camden, New Jersey, in 2004 when Osbourne fell ill.
