Two Songs Black Sabbath Rehearsed, but Didn’t Perform With Ozzy Osbourne During Final Concert

Wanting to end his career on his own terms, Ozzy Osbourne took the stage one last time with the original lineup of Black Sabbath. Helping inspire countless generations of heavy metal groups, the Back to the Beginning concert was a historic moment for the genre. Not to mention the concert raised nearly $190 million for charity. While fans packed the arena to see Ozzy one last time, Tony Iommi revealed that the group rehearsed not just the songs performed on stage but two others that didn’t make it. 

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Appearing on SiriusXM’s Trunk Nation with Eddie Trunk, Iommi shared some insight into the charity event. Although Black Sabbath performed “Iron Man”, “Paranoid”, “N.I.B.”, and “War Pigs”, Iommi said they also practiced “Fairies Wear Boots” and “Black Sabbath.” “We worked out what we were gonna play… And it was really a case of how long Ozzy could do it, because we didn’t know.”

[RELATED: Jake E. Lee Recalls How Ozzy Osbourne “Stumped” Him During 1983 Performance of “War Pigs”]

Tony Iommi Wasn’t Looking To Be Perfect With Back To The Beginning Concert

Outside of his time with Black Sabbath, Ozzy also performed a solo set with songs like “Mr. Crowley”, “Suicide Solution”, “I Don’t Know”, “Crazy Train”, and “Mama, I’m Coming Home.” It was for that reason that the group cut the songs. “With him doing his own set… I said to him I didn’t think he should do, because I didn’t want him to get burnt out by the time he’d come with us. But he didn’t, and he did his own set.”

With all the members of Black Sabbath in the 70s, Iommi explained how they weren’t looking to be perfect. “We’re in our 70s and late 70s… to expect perfection from everybody is just impossible.” And besides Ozzy’s health issues, they also wondered about drummer Bill Ward. “It was a little difficult for Bill ‘cause he hadn’t played [the songs] for so long. Geezer and I, of course, we played them on the last tour. … Bill hasn’t toured, don’t forget, for a long time. So we could have done six, but we ended up doing four.”

Thrilled about what they accomplished on stage, Iommi concluded, “They did what they could do, and everybody was fine about it. And I think the audience would know that and accepted that – they weren’t expecting us to go on and be absolutely just brilliant players. We played as we played and as we are now.”

(Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)