Recommendations of the Editorial team
Geezer Butler has spoken about rehearsals for Black Sabbath’s farewell concert, Back to the Beginning. He was shocked by Ozzy Osbourne’s poor health.
The co-founder and bassist of Black Sabbath remembered the preparations for the final concert in Birmingham in his wife Gloria’s podcast, “Gabbing with Girlfriends”, and answered questions from interested listeners.
“I guess I was just wondering how it would go for everyone,” Geezer said, according to Consequence, when asked how it felt to be asked to attend the final concert. “I knew Ozzy wasn’t in the best of health. I knew Bill [Ward] had not been in a good mood for some time. Tony [Iommi] was there, and I was there as long as everyone else was there.” That’s why he agreed immediately. “Especially because it took place at Villa Park, [dem Heimstadion] my soccer team and one of the first places I ever went as a little kid.”
Ozzy Osbourne could only rehearse each song once
He initially rehearsed with drummer Bill Ward and guitarist Tony Iommi. Osbourne joined on the third day. “The only shocking thing was when Ozzy came in,” Butler said. “I knew Ozzy was very sick, but I didn’t realize how sick he really was. … On the third day, Ozzy came in with two helpers supporting him. I was just shocked to see him like that,” Butler recalled. “And of course Ozzy, being the man he is, had to make a few jokes. They had provided a chair so he could sit down and sing the songs because he couldn’t stand.”
Butler added: “I think we rehearsed about six or seven songs and chose four or five. We knew we could only do four or five because of the time constraints, and chose the ones that sounded best and that we were most comfortable with. After that, we fell back into the old Sabbath rhythm. Ozzy could only do it once, could only rehearse once, go through the songs once, and then he left and we kind of carried on.”
In July, Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath said goodbye to their fans with the farewell concert “Back to the Beginning” in Birmingham. Less than three weeks later, Osbourne died after a long illness. Other well-known musicians and bands also took part in the show, including Yungblud, Extreme’s Nuno Bettencourt, Sleep Token’s II and Adam Wakeman from Osbourne’s solo band.