Farewell to Black Sabbath...

[Yessongs]

  Well, you know you are getting in the older guy category, when you start getting nostalgic about bands you saw back in the day when you were younger. Such was the case for me this past week, seeing the final Black Sabbath show on various You Tube videos here. Seeing Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward come together one last time was great. This has been in the works for years, trying to get all these guys back together. Of course this was suppose to happen many years ago, but Ozzy being Ozzy, telling the press and social media, that Bill ward can’t play with the band anymore, cause he cannot fit behind his drum kit and being a “Bloody Fat Pig” did not help matters either! 

Apparently Bill Ward did not take too kindly to his comments and threatened to “Beat the Shit out of him” if they ever meet up again. Ahhhhhh…the life of a rock star in the most heavy metal band on the planet….they did not speak for years I am told, but Ozzy eventually a few years back apologized to him, bought him a “Jenny Craig” membership and a treadmill and Bill Ward is looking pretty good these days now? Well…after seeing him with his shirt off this past week-end, in 8 years I will be 77 years old too….I am personally feeling pretty good about myself LOL!  Bill Ward looks like the grandpa we all had as kids back in the day. Remember my parents taking my Brother and I over to my grandparents house back in Los Angeles, we would walk in and and there he would be, sitting in his chair, shirt off, in his boxers, smoking non filter Lucky Strike Cigarettes and a pint of “Jim Beam” sitting next to him. My grandmother would come in, she would say to him “For Christ Sake Vic, put on some clothes” He would get up, stumble down the hallway and come back with a t-shirt on that looks like it had not been washed in a month LOL! 

So my first and only concert with Black Sabbath was exactly 50 years ago at Winterland, in San Francisco with my buddy John. We were both struggling college students back then, no money and no camera….god I wish I had a camera back then being so close. First camera was not until 1976…what a shame. Found this picture of that show at Winterland…we were right down there somewhere on the main floor, general admission. Sabbath was the final band of the night and out they came….Ozzy was last, came out with this rifle that was shooting lasers at everyone. He was laughing like a little kid, the bully on the block you know. To think at this show he was only 26 years old….good lord. 

Having watched the videos and all of the festivities this past week, with all the rehearsals, tons of other band members coming out for this final show paying their respects to Black Sabbath, seeing all of the band members hugging Ozzy like Steven Tyler and Axl Rose, Tony Iommi getting hugs from James Hatfield, Geezer Butler getting hugs from Flea and Jack Bruce and Bill Ward getting hugs from Lars Ulrich and Chad Smith was really great to see. 

How in god’s name Ozzy pulled all of this off with his vocals was beyond me, this guy has Parkinson Disease, can’t walk, can barely talk, has had multiple spine surgeries….god all the tribute bands he played with and belting out songs like “Crazy Train, Momma I’m Coming Home” and then the final 4 songs with Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward to finish the night was incredible…..god Sabbath sounded great in the night time air in Birmingham, England one last time where it all started.

Well done boys……..well done. 

[sakik2024]

Some members of G&R were at the farewell. 

I'll feel really old when they retire as a 70s kid.

[Glasseye]

4th retirement.

 

I saw the Stones Farewell Tour, 1976.       55555555555555555 !

[coxyhog]

Saw them in Paris in 1995 or 6....probably one of the reasons I have an appointment with my GP in about 20 minutes about my deafness in my right ear😂....

[Nightcrawler]

[Yessongs]

13 hours ago, coxyhog said:

Saw them in Paris in 1995 or 6....probably one of the reasons I have an appointment with my GP in about 20 minutes about my deafness in my right ear😂....

No doubt about that, those 70's bands did not care how loud they played. It just HAD to be loud. In many concerts at Winterland that I went to, always being right there on the floor, close to the band, I was trying to remember who was the loudest? It was definelty a tie between Sabbath, Robin Trower and The Who...

And.....the second hand pot smoke I would inhale was legendary...I'm still "high" 😧

Those were the days huh?

[forcebwithu]

21 minutes ago, Yessongs said:

No doubt about that, those 70's bands did not care how loud they played. It just HAD to be loud. In many concerts at Winterland that I went to, always being right there on the floor, close to the band, I was trying to remember who was the loudest? It was definelty a tie between Sabbath, Robin Trower and The Who...

And.....the second hand pot smoke I would inhale was legendary...I'm still "high" 😧

Those were the days huh?

How is your hearing these days? Any damage from the exposure to the loud music from the days when you were young, dumb and full of cum? 

[Pumpuynarak]

Saw them in the late 60's in Portsmouth Guildhall, they were good and loud lol.

[Britboy]

5 hours ago, forcebwithu said:

How is your hearing these days? Any damage from the exposure to the loud music from the days when you were young, dumb and full of cum? 

Pardon? 😂

[coxyhog]

10 hours ago, Yessongs said:

Those were the days huh?

The worst was Deep Purple in Hammersmith,me & my mate walked out after a few minutes as our ears were hurting.

[Glasseye]

14 hours ago, Yessongs said:

No doubt about that, those 70's bands did not care how loud they played. It just HAD to be loud. In many concerts at Winterland that I went to, always being right there on the floor, close to the band, I was trying to remember who was the loudest? It was definelty a tie between Sabbath, Robin Trower and The Who...

And.....the second hand pot smoke I would inhale was legendary...I'm still "high" 😧

Those were the days huh?

 

The loudest concert I have ever attended was Quick Silver Messenger (Chicago, Arie Crown Theater, not sure what year it was). I had to leave early because of the pain. Sound crew had no idea what they were doing.

[Yessongs]

Some more pics off the net.....and a final few thoughts. 

Looking over alot of media, some of the big names that were invited, but did not show up at all was quite surprising.

No Robert Plant, Jimmy Page or John Paul Jones from Led Zeppelin and no Ritchie Blackmore or Ian Paice from Deep Purple showed up either..Hmmmmmmm. 

Sadly as alot of people including Ozzy had mentioned, Lemmy (Motorhead) Randy Rhoads and Ronnie James Dio have all sadly passed away. 

One of the other Social Media things that have come out was, one guy posting up a poster from shows back from Ohio back in 1973....take a look at the prices to go see some of these bands back in the day? 

Take a look too at the prices they were charging to see Sabbath, then look at the price they were charging to see The Osmond Brothers? That tells me the promoter was paying The Osmond Brothers more then they were paying Sabbath????   Can you hear Ozzy saying " Bloody Hell Mate, the Osmond Brothers were making more then we were?  Sharon!!!! 😧

[Horizondave]

On 7/9/2025 at 11:05 AM, coxyhog said:

The worst was Deep Purple in Hammersmith,me & my mate walked out after a few minutes as our ears were hurting.

I would agree with Deep Purple. I was at a concert at the Fairfield Halls Croydon, that I believe was in the Guinness Book Of Records, for a while, as being the loudest concert..

[Glasseye]

On 7/10/2025 at 6:37 AM, Yessongs said:

Some more pics off the net.....and a final few thoughts. 

Looking over alot of media, some of the big names that were invited, but did not show up at all was quite surprising.

No Robert Plant, Jimmy Page or John Paul Jones from Led Zeppelin and no Ritchie Blackmore or Ian Paice from Deep Purple showed up either..Hmmmmmmm. 

Sadly as alot of people including Ozzy had mentioned, Lemmy (Motorhead) Randy Rhoads and Ronnie James Dio have all sadly passed away. 

One of the other Social Media things that have come out was, one guy posting up a poster from shows back from Ohio back in 1973....take a look at the prices to go see some of these bands back in the day? 

Take a look too at the prices they were charging to see Sabbath, then look at the price they were charging to see The Osmond Brothers? That tells me the promoter was paying The Osmond Brothers more then they were paying Sabbath????   Can you hear Ozzy saying " Bloody Hell Mate, the Osmond Brothers were making more then we were?  Sharon!!!! 😧

 

Would have been great to see Humble Pie. After that I think I probably would have left.

 

 

[coxyhog]

4 hours ago, Glasseye said:

Would have been great to see Humble Pie.

A truly great band & Steve Marriott was a true genius.

[Glasseye]

7 minutes ago, coxyhog said:

A truly great band & Steve Marriott was a true genius.

 

 

👍👍👍

[Pumpuynarak]

15 hours ago, coxyhog said:

A truly great band & Steve Marriott was a true genius.

Saw the Small Faces in the mid 60's at Southampton Top Rank suite, they were good..... 

[Trip]

 

[thunder367]

10 hrs of great music and well worth it.was supposed to be there myself but tickmaster f***d up.got presale and selected my ticket.day later i was informed id selected disabled seated area and need to prove i was disabled.emailed straight away say i wasnt but could they plaz me to a seated arse for general area.but over a week i tried to get it chance but never got a reply in ened they voided my ticket.so in end i got the stream and t shirt option and watch it on my tv.oh what a show loved ever minute of it.but dotn think neighbours where happy while i had the sound system turned up for it.only thing id liek to of seen would of all the acts to of come out at the end a join ozzy and black sabbath on stage behind them and give then a huge thanks.

    what ive been reading aswell the gig made £150million for the 3 charties or $200 million in us which is absoultly brillant for birmingham childrens hospital which my mum worked at and was sister of the ward before she had me and the the otehr 2 charties he raised money is brillant.tell me if oasis are goign to give their profits to charity.no there doing it to fund the divorces they just goen through

[Glasseye]

Dog bless them for donating that money.

[richy65]

Fantastic gesture from Sabbath. Absolute stars.

[Trip]

[thunder367]

 

[thunder367]

 

[thunder367]