Tony Iommi admits he didn’t want to perform at Black Sabbath’s historic final gig in July 2025, and he also turned down an opportunity to record a final album with the band’s original lineup.
The electric-guitar icon tells Classic Rock that he was doubtful when he was approached about performing at last year’s historic Back to the Beginning show at Villa Park in Birmingham, England. The concert — Black Sabbath’s final performance — featured guest appearances from Metallica, Pantera, Guns N’ Roses and Tool, among others, who paid tribute to Sabbath. Proceeds from the event went to charity.
“I said to Ozzy: ‘I don’t think we should do it,’” Iommi says. “I said: ‘We should just let the other bands play our stuff, and us come out at the end and say thank you.’ But it was for a good charitable cause, and eventually we said okay.”
Iommi notes that he hadn’t seen Osbourne since the pair performed Black Sabbath’s hit “Paranoid” at the closing ceremony of the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. Osbourne had publicly revealed his Parkinson’s disease diagnosis in 2020, and his condition had worsened considerably by the time of the band’s final show.
“I hadn’t seen Ozzy for a bit, and it was difficult seeing him like that,” Iommi says. “Fucking hell…”
Iommi was also concerned about Osbourne’s decision to perform a solo set before Sabbath’s closing performance at Back to the Beginning.
“I was concerned he was going to blow himself out, and by the time we came on he’d be struggling.”
Iommi has since said he believes Osbourne continued living only to perform at the show.
“I think he really just held out to do that show. I really feel — me and Geezer were talking about it — that we think he held out to do it, and just after that, he’s done it and said goodbye to the fans. And that was the end of it.”
Iommi also revealed that he had turned down an opportunity to record a final Black Sabbath album with the original lineup. Andrew Watt, who produced Osbourne’s final two albums — 2020’s Ordinary Man and 2022’s Patient Number 9 — approached Iommi about the idea in the early 2020s.
“I’d met Andrew Watt when he was producing Ozzy,” Iommi says. “He was very keen and a bit too excited. He also didn’t know what it was like working with the original Sabbath, working with Bill [drummer Bill Ward]. Also, we’d done 13, and I didn’t like the idea of: ‘Now here’s another album.’”
Iommi’s new album, From the Dark, is due for release October 23 via BMG.
