Black Sabbath reach the end of the road, mostly intact
The British heavy metal stalwarts are making one last world tour while they still have the stamina to put on a show befitting their punishingly loud and thunderous back catalogue
The way Ozzy Osbourne put it, his wife, Sharon, might have the final say on whether Black Sabbath really are calling it quits after finishing their 2016 tour, which the band has firmly named The End.
“[We’re] not going to come back together in three years when we all run out of cash,” the heavy metal godfather insists, then ponders the distinct possibility of actually going broke: “[I] certainly will if my wife won’t stop shopping.”
Osbourne is joking, of course. But the most obvious question surrounding this tour gets a straight answer: is this really “the end” for arguably the most legendary and vital band in heavy metal?
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“It’s definitely the end,” says founding member Geezer Butler. “We’re all getting up there in age, and while we’re still at the top of our profession, both musically and aesthetically, we wanted to go out on the top and we feel that this is the right time to do it.”
On the 2016 tour, which moves from North America to Australia and New Zealand next month, then on to Europe in June and July before the final concerts in the US in September, Osbourne is being joined by two of the other three original Sabbath members, guitarist Tony Iommi and bassist Butler.
Osbourne adds: “I think it’s run its course. Black Sabbath [has] been up and down. And it’s good that we’ve come back together at the end, more or less, to finish on a high note.”