The bat-munching messiah of metal music, Ozzy Osbourne, has bid an emotional farewell to tens of thousands of adoring fans at his final live performance. Ozzy’s beloved Villa Park – the football ground just yards from where he grew up in Aston, Birmingham – raucously welcomed the 76-year-old for one last heavy metal homecoming on Saturday.
Guns N’ Roses, Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler, Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello, Metallica, RonnieWood and a host of other stadium-filling legends lined up to pay harmonious homage to their rock king in the 12-hour musical marathon dubbed Back to the Beginning. More than 42,000 fans packed the venue, with a peak live stream audience of 5.8 million watching online.
One final time, Ozzy reunited with the original 1970s Black Sabbath band members – Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and BillWard.
The singer, who is battling Parkinson’s disease, showed incredible stage presence as he orchestrated the crowd to fist pump and clap in unison, despite his poor health meaning he had to perform seated in a giant, black batthemed throne.
It was clear the Godfather of Heavy Metal wanted to stand up at times.
And as his voice wavered in emotional scenes, his adoring audience rose up with one voice to sing the anthems they knew so well alongside their idol.
In return, Ozzy gave them everything he had, in between drinking water and using a mouth spray, he belted out powerful renditions of classics Paranoid,War Pigs and Iron Man – to rip-roaring applause and adulation.
“I f***ing love you all,” Ozzy said to his subjects. Hollywood leading man Jason Momoa compered the giant gig.
And he seemed just as in awe of his musical heroes as the mascaradaubed multitudes causing mayhem in the mosh pits below the stage. The muscled actor even managed to get in a bit of crowd surfing in one incredible moment.
Ricky Gervais, AC/DC, Judas Priest and Dolly Parton all appeared on the giant monitors to share messages of thanks and support for Ozzy and his wife Sharon for their legacy, which has spawned an entire music genre and generations of fans.
They had celebrated their 43rd wedding anniversary the day before the event.
The acoustics in the stadium were body-shakingly brilliant, as each act belted out another guitar thrashing anthem for the frenzied crowd awaiting the appearance of Ozzy, their very own Prince of Darkness.
More swirling mosh pits seemed to crop up like terrifying human whirlpools, but each time a poleaxed participant fell to the ground they were picked up by their fellow moshers and enthusiastically re-joined the fray. The scenes seemed to perfectly sum up the camaraderie of a day, on which the heavy metal world came together as one to lift up their musical monarch with an incredible headbanging goodbye.
Review score: 5/5