Back to the Beginning: Ozzy’s Final Bow

On 5 July 2025 Black Sabbath played their last concert at Villa Park in Birmingham, in the city where the band began. The original line-up — Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward — stood on a stage together for the first time in twenty years. Osbourne could not walk, because of his Parkinson's disease, and sang the whole show from a throne-like seat. More than forty thousand people were in the stadium; the tickets had sold out in sixteen minutes.

Seventeen days later, on 22 July, Ozzy Osbourne died. The Villa Park evening was his final performance, and this film is the record of it.

The bill was not about one band. The concert ran for ten hours, and fourteen supporting acts played, each mixing Black Sabbath and Ozzy songs into their own material: Mastodon, Rival Sons, Anthrax, Halestorm, Lamb of God, Alice in Chains, Gojira, Pantera, Tool, Slayer, Guns N' Roses and Metallica. Tom Morello was the day's musical director and also assembled two supergroups — among those who played in them were Steven Tyler, Ronnie Wood, Billy Corgan, Sammy Hagar, K. K. Downing, Travis Barker, Chad Smith, Danny Carey, Adam Jones, Nuno Bettencourt, Vernon Reid, Rudy Sarzo, Lzzy Hale and Yungblud. Jason Momoa hosted the day, Sid Wilson played a DJ set as the gates opened, Jack Black and Fred Durst contributed pre-recorded numbers, and video tributes came in from AC/DC, Def Leppard, Judas Priest, Billy Idol, Elton John, Cyndi Lauper and Dolly Parton. None of the performers were paid; they received only their travel expenses. The day raised around a hundred and forty million pounds, divided equally between Acorns Children's Hospice, Birmingham Children's Hospital and Cure Parkinson's — the last of these funding research into the disease that had put Osbourne in that chair.

Out of those ten hours the film makes a hundred and forty-five minutes. Tim Van Someren directed the concert itself for the stage, while the film was directed by Ben Wainwright-Pearce, who has previously worked on concert films for Taylor Swift and George Michael; Mercury Studios and Monowise produced it. It opens in cinemas worldwide for a limited run from 28 October, with Dolby Atmos sound.