Band removed from legendary metal group’s farewell concert

Sharon Osbourne has pulled a band from her husband Ozzy’s historic farewell concert for Black Sabbath.

The music manager told Metal Hammer that one band was removed from Back to the Beginning concert — scheduled for July 5 at Villa Park in Birmingham, England — due to a dispute with the artist’s manager.

“I had a huge, huge to-do with a manager over this celebration for Ozzy and Sabbath. And it was probably the worst way I’ve felt in years,” Osbourne said without revealing the act’s identity.

“I don’t care what this person says about me, thinks about it, because he doesn’t know me. And he’s now going around making up (expletive) lies because I threw his band off the bill,” she continued. “I don’t care what people say. Because do you know what? I don’t love them. I care about people who love me, what they say about me. You can’t care what an industry says, because you don’t love them, so how can it hurt you? It doesn’t.”

While it’s unclear who was pulled from the show, Billboard reported it wasn’t Iron Maiden, despite previously clashing with Bruce Dickinson at Ozzfest in 2005.

“Oh god, no. Ozzy only has respect for the guys in Maiden,” Sharon told Metal Hammer. “I never told him, until the night that it happened when it was the last show, and he just looked at me and goes, ‘You’re terrible.’”

Tool is also still on the bill, NME confirmed. The Maynard James Keenan-led group’s name was missing from promotional materials when a global livestream was announced for the concert last week, sparking rumors on Reddit that they were nixed from the festival.

Other confirmed performers include Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, Slayer, Pantera, Gojira, Halestorm, Alice in Chains, Lamb of God, Anthrax, Mastodon and Rival Sons.

The event will also feature performances from Billy Corgan (The Smashing Pumpkins), David Draiman (Disturbed), Fred Durst (Limp Bizkit), Mike Bordin (Faith No More), Sleep Token II (Sleep Token), Papa V Perpetua (Ghost) Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine) and Zakk Wylde.

Back to the Beginning will mark Ozzy Osbourne’s final performance both on his own and with Black Sabbath. The “Prince of Darkness” will be joined by his bandmates Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward for the first time in two decades.

Tickets sold out quickly, but fans can now purchase tickets to stream the concert online. Proceeds from the show will benefit charities like Cure Parkinson’s, the Birmingham Children’s Hospital and Acorn Children’s Hospice.

Black Sabbath formed in Birmingham in 1968 and went on to become one of the most successful metal bands of all time.

The band is credited with helping to define metal genre with the albums “Black Sabbath,” “Paranoid,” and “Master of Reality.”

Black Sabbath was ranked by MTV as the “Greatest Metal Band of All Time” and placed second on VH1‘s “100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock” list in 2000. Rolling Stone also ranked the band 85th on its “100 Greatest Artists of All Time” list in 2010.

The band has sold over 75 million albums worldwide, received multiple gold and platinum certifications from the RIAA and won two Grammy Awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019. Black Sabbath was inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005 and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2006.

The last time Black Sabbath’s original lineup was together was in 2005. The band went on a hiatus in 2006 before disbanding in 2009. The original lineup reunited once again in 2011, though Ward left before the band released its final studio album, and 19th overall, “13″ in 2013.

Black Sabbath’s last show was during the band’s “The End Tour” in Birmingham, England in 2017.

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Read the original article on MassLive.