Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi has addressed whether the band’s legacy will continue following the group’s final performance and the death of frontman Ozzy Osbourne. He shared his thoughts in a new interview with Rolling Stone.
Iommi reflected on Black Sabbath’s farewell show, Back to the Beginning, held in 2025. He talked about how the event brought together fans and fellow musicians for one last celebration of the band. When asked whether he was satisfied with the legacy being complete, he offered his perspective on closing that chapter.
“Are you satisfied with Black Sabbath’s legacy being done?”
“Yeah. The legacy’s been fantastic, really,” Iommi said. “I think it was a good thing to finish off when we did the Back to the Beginning one, because all the bands who were fans of Sabbath came onto that show, which was just brilliant.”
“And it was so nice of them to all put themselves out to come and play on the same show and no egos or anything,” he continued. “Everybody just got on with it and played. It was great for a final thing with Sabbath to take it together as the original band and finish it off as it should.”
Iommi was asked how it felt to take part in that last performance. He described the emotional and physical differences of sharing the stage with Osbourne and drummer Bill Ward one final time.
“How did doing that last performance feel for you?”
“On the night, it felt very strange for me because obviously we’d never been onstage with Ozzy in a throne before, sitting down,” Iommi said. “He was always jumping around, pulling faces, and making me and Geezer laugh. But on this occasion, I couldn’t see him because he’s in that throne at the front.”
“Obviously, we hadn’t played with Bill [Ward, Black Sabbath’s drummer] for 20 years, so Bill wanted me to stand back by him just because he was unsure of some bits,” he added. “And so I did.”
The reflections come weeks after Osbourne’s death. They mark a poignant coda to Black Sabbath’s decades-long history, following what is being regarded as the band’s final show together.
That finality carries even more weight when placed against the timeline of the concert itself and the events that followed it.
Back to the Beginning took place at Villa Park in Birmingham, the city where Black Sabbath formed decades earlier. The show marked the first time since 2005 that the original lineup of Osbourne, Iommi, Geezer Butler, and Bill Ward had performed together live. This makes Iommi’s description of the reunion’s atmosphere all the more significant, given how rare such a gathering had become.
Osbourne’s health had already been a growing concern in the years leading up to the show. He battled Parkinson’s disease and could no longer stand or move around the stage as he once did. That reality shaped much of what Iommi recalled about the night, including Osbourne’s use of a throne and the adjustments the band made to accommodate him and Ward.
Osbourne died on July 22, 2025, just 17 days after the farewell performance, at age 76. The narrow gap between the concert and his death has since turned Back to the Beginning into more than a celebratory send-off. It cements the show as the literal final act of his career and of Black Sabbath as a live act.
Sharon Osbourne later revealed that her husband had defied repeated warnings from doctors who told him he was too ill to perform. He insisted on going ahead with the show despite the risks. That determination underscores why Iommi views the concert as such a fitting closing chapter, one built on Osbourne’s refusal to let his declining health keep him from one last performance with the band that defined his career.
