Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi recently recalled his final phone call with Ozzy Osbourne, which took place the night before the singer’s death. During an appearance on Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk, Iommi also discussed Black Sabbath’s final performance at the “Back to the Beginning” concert.
Iommi explained that he was initially hesitant to participate in the event because he believed Black Sabbath’s previous farewell tour, “The End,” should have marked the group’s final appearance.
“It was a great event,” Iommi said. “At first I didn’t agree with doing it, purely because I thought, well hang on, we’ve done the End Tour, and that should have been the end. You know, I didn’t want to do The End, and, oh, here we are again, we’re back. I didn’t want to do that.”
However, the charity purpose of the concert ultimately changed his mind.
“But since they said it was for charity and the whole thing’s going to be done and all these bands are going to come forward and it’ll all be for charity, I thought, well yeah, that’s good. And so I did it, and I’m glad we did now, because we had a chance for the four of us to really finish off where we started.”
Iommi said Osbourne was thrilled that the original Black Sabbath members had reunited. He also recalled speaking with him the night before his death.
“And, you know, I spoke to Ozzy afterwards, after the show, well the next day, and he was really thrilled that we could go and do it, you know, that we’d done it. In fact, I spoke to him the night before he passed, which was really strange, because he said, ‘I’m feeling really tired.’ I said, ‘Well yeah, I’m tired.’ You know, it’s the aftereffects of everything and thinking, well, you know. And then of course the next thing, he’d gone.”
Iommi described Osbourne’s death as “a hell of a shock” and said the singer had faced a demanding schedule during the concert.
“Yeah, and he had done two sets, of course. He did one. He done two sets, and which I did say to him, I don’t think you should do two sets. You’ve got to do one or the other, because I think it’s too much.”
The guitarist said Osbourne ultimately performed both his solo set and the Black Sabbath set despite concerns about the strain on his voice.
“But it was already set that he was doing his own set and then the Sabbath set. Because I said, well look, you know, we could just walk out afterwards and say thanks to everybody. But no, we ended up playing and he ended up doing his set. So I think it was, you know, he had to do a lot of… It was tough for him.”
The final performance carried additional significance because “Back to the Beginning” took place at Villa Park in Birmingham on July 5, 2025. The concert marked Osbourne’s final performance and featured a reunion of Black Sabbath’s classic lineup.
The event was organized as a benefit for three causes. The concert’s profits were to be shared equally between Cure Parkinson’s, Birmingham Children’s Hospital and Acorns Children’s Hospice.
Osbourne died on July 22, 2025, just 17 days after the Birmingham concert. His family announced the news in a statement, describing his passing as a profound loss.
Iommi and Osbourne’s relationship extended back to the formation of Black Sabbath in the late 1960s. Following Osbourne’s death, Iommi described him as a brother and wrote, “Geezer, Bill, and I have lost our brother.” His recollection of their final show and phone call adds a personal dimension to the band’s farewell and the loss of its iconic frontman.
