On February 4, 2017, Black Sabbath played their final show together with founding members Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, and Geezer Butler. Original drummer Bill Ward, who was in a financial dispute with the band at the time, did not partake in the band’s last run of shows, which concluded in their home city of Birmingham, England at the Genting Arena.
The band kicked off The End Tour in January 2016 and wanted to end it where everything began.
“My emotions are flying all over the place,” said Osbourne a day before the band’s final concert. “Since I’ve got to this building today, I’ve been happy, I’ve been tearful.”
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Formed in 1968 as the Polka Tulk Blues Band—a reference to a brand of UK talcum powder—the band changed their name to Earth, which was already taken by a UK pop band, before settling on Black Sabbath a year later.
Along with drummer Tommy Clufetos and Adam Wakeman on keyboards and guitar, the band streamed the show live from their official Facebook. Black Sabbath’s final 16-song set spanned the band’s career, opening right at the beginning with their 1970 debut Black Sabbath title track. “N.I.B.” and “Behind the Wall of Sleep” from Black Sabbath were also delivered mid-way through the set.
From there, more Paranoid flooded in with “Fairies Wear Boots,” “War Pigs,” “Iron Man,” “Hand of Doom,” and more before ending with their iconic title track for the encore. The band also slipped in their Vol. 4 track “Snowblind” along with “Dirty Women” from their seventh album Technical Ecstasy in 1976.
Towards the end of the set, Sabbath delivered an instrumental medley of “Supernaut,” “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath,” and “Megalomania,” along with another slip back to Paranoid with “Rat Salad” before closing on Master of Reality track “Children of the Grave.”
“It did get a bit nostalgic,” said Tony Iommi of the final show. “I definitely thought of how long the whole thing has gone over the years, and how long we’ve known each other. I felt all that onstage. It was a bit, it felt sad, really. All these people from all over the world came to see us, including many that followed us from the very beginning, and you could see they were upset and crying, so it was an emotional experience.”
Iommi added, “There was this one couple who came to see us all the time in South America. We would play one of those shows in front of 80,000, and they would somehow squash through and make it to the front. And, lo and behold, I look down at our last show in Birmingham, and there they are, in the front row.”
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Months after the show, Butler also described the emotions around the band’s final concert together. “I felt relief that it was all over, that it was done with, that we’d done a good show, and quite sad in a way to think that we’d never do it again,” said Butler. “It really wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be, actually. It just felt right.”
When Sabbath was first formed, Osbourne didn’t think it would go beyond a few jam sessions after their first show at The Crown when they were still Earth. “I remember playing The Crown pub in Birmingham and thinking, ‘This’ll be good for a couple of years—drink a few beers and have a jam,'” said Osbourne. “But it was the beginning of the most incredible adventure you could think of. I’ve had the best life out of it.
Osbourne added, “One of the proudest things I have in my heart is the fact that Black Sabbath wasn’t a band that was created by some big mogul. It was four guys who said, ‘Let’s have a dream’, and it came true beyond our wildest expectations.”
Black Sabbath Setlist
Genting Arena, Birmingham, England
February 4, 2017
- “Black Sabbath”
- “Fairies Wear Boots”
- “Under the Sun / Every Day Comes and Goes”
- “After Forever”
- “Into the Void”
- “Snowblind”
- “War Pigs”
- “Behind the Wall of Sleep”
- “N.I.B.”
- “Hand of Doom”
- “Supernaut” / “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath” / “Megalomania”
- “Rat Salad”
- “Iron Man”
- “Dirty Women”
- “Children of the Grave”
Encore - “Paranoid”
Photo: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for ABA
