Black Sabbath is preparing for their highly anticipated farewell show, which takes place this Saturday, July 5th, at Villa Park in Birmingham, United Kingdom.
Titled Back To The Beginning , the final show of the greatest heavy metal band will reunite the four original members of the band – vocalist Ozzy Osbourne , bassist Geezer Butler , guitarist Tony Iommi and drummer Bill Ward – to play for the first and last time in 20 years.
Tickets for the show sold out quickly after the announcement in February; however, the band confirmed a live stream of the event. Tickets for the streaming are now on sale .
In addition to the band, the festival lineup features rock and metal giants such as Metallica , Guns N' Roses , Tool , Slayer , Alice In Chains , Pantera , Gojira , Halestorm , Lamb of God , Anthrax , Mastodon , Rival Sons , as well as other bands already confirmed.
Expectations are high, and everyone is curious to know which Black Sabbath songs each artist will cover . The only one who has revealed their participation is Sammy Hagar , who previously announced that he will cover "Flying High Again" .
Wikimetal has listed below some predictions given by the website Ultimate Classic Rock :
Black Sabbath and the classics
It's only fair that the headliners play the most popular songs. There couldn't be a better opening act than "Black Sabbath," "Iron Man," and "Paranoid." However, "Children of the Grave" can't be missing either. It's likely that some guests will join Ozzy on stage to support him during Black Sabbath's performance.
Ozzy Osbourne's solo career
Certainly, Ozzy will also be saying goodbye to his solo career. He might play some of his songs before joining his bandmates. We suggest the songs "Crazy Train" and "Mama, I'm Coming Home" – and of course, "Bark at the Moon" is a must.
Metallica can play whatever they want.
Metallica can play whatever they want. They've done several Sabbath covers, including a great medley of "Sabbra Cadabra" and "A National Acrobat" on the album Garage Inc. (1998). They also performed at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005, playing "Iron Man" and "Hole in the Sky".
However, in a 2023 interview, James Hetfield offered another tantalizing possibility, citing "Into the Void" as his favorite Sabbath song while praising Tony Iommi : "He can go from the heaviest doom riff to a cheerful mode and it would still sound heavy."
Guns N' Roses
Axl Rose already covered Sabbath's "It's Alright" on Guns N' Roses ' Live Era '87-'93 . But perhaps the band will play a more famous song at their farewell show.
TOOL
The psychedelic “Planet Caravan” seems like the perfect fit for Tool, and for Maynard James Keenan . But the track could belong to Pantera , who have had a great command of this song for over 30 years, having re-recorded it on their album Far Beyond Drive . “NIB” or “Killing Yourself to Live” could be good choices, but how about “Megalomania”?
Panther
As mentioned above, Pantera could probably play “Planet Caravan.” But if they prefer a change, there are still some cool tracks left. Zakk Wylde, currently touring as a member of Pantera, and the most enthusiastic ever, declared to Chaz and AJ in the Morning : “As far as I’m concerned, I’m a team player. Whatever you need me to do—any passing route you need me to run, I’ll run it.”
Slayer
Kerry King of Slayer promises fans will be delighted with the song he chose for Sabbath's farewell show. The guitarist told Rolling Stone Brazil : “I dragged my feet and chose our song pretty late, when there weren't so many obvious options. But the one I chose is going to be really cool… It's going to be amazing.” Slayer covered “Hand of Doom,” but some fans on Reddit offered another good idea: “Symptom of the Universe” by Sabotage .
Alice in Chains
Alice in Chains opened many shows for Ozzy and Black Sabbath early in their career, and recruited longtime bassist Mike Inez from Osbourne's solo band in 1993. The band has covered "Sweet Leaf" on at least two occasions, and it sounds great, so perhaps this is a good choice. Jerry Cantrell told Rock Feed : "I'm really excited to see this and try to do justice to these songs, learning some cool songs to play at the show."
READ ALSO: Black Sabbath: See the first photo of the original lineup since the band's end in 2011
