Ozzy Osbourne made his triumphant return to the stage last night (August 8) with Tony Iommi to close out the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
This year, the Commonwealth Games were held in Birmingham, England, where Black Sabbath was founded. Iommi had previously performed during the opening ceremony of this year’s Commonwealth Games.
Osbourne and Iommi were joined by bassist Adam Wakeman and drummer Tommy Clufetos for a rousing rendition of the Sabbath classic “Paranoid.” The Prince of Darkness was aided during the performance with a back support likely due to having Parkinson’s disease. Nonetheless, he looked thrilled to be back on stage for the first time since performing with Post Malone at the 2019 American Music Awards.
Ozzy closed out the performance yelling, “Thank you, goodnight! You are the best. God bless you all. Birmingham forever!” The performance can be viewed below.
Osbourne and Iommi recently reunited on “Degradation Rules,” a track on Osbourne’s upcoming studio album Patient Number 9. In addition to Iommi, guests on the album include Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Chad Smith, Robert Trujillo, Duff McKagan, Zakk Wylde, Josh Homme and Mike McCready.
Patient Number 9 comes out on September 9 and is available of pre-save/pre-order here.
Black Sabbath: The Best 30 Songs From The Ozzy Osbourne Era(s), Ranked
Fifty years ago this week (September 18), the mighty Black Sabbath released their second album, Paranoid, in America. A bit tighter than their self-titled debut, which came out earlier in the year, Paranoid‘s title track became their biggest radio hit in America. The album also had “Luke’s Wall/War Pigs” and “Iron Man,” But the 41-minute album didn’t waste a second: it’s a perfect album.
In fact, seven of the eight songs made our list that we put together in honor of Paranoid‘s 50th. And yes, Black Sabbath did some incredible stuff with Ozzy’s replacement, the late, great Ronnie James Dio… and that’s probably a list for another day (and yes, both RJD and drummer Vinny Appice should have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the founding four members, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, Ozzy Osbourne and Bill Ward) .
Here, we decided to stick with songs from the Ozzy eras of the band. 1970’s debut album (and the “Evil Woman” single) through 1978’s Never Say Die! and also 2013’s 13. Yes, we know that they put out two new songs in the ’90s, but those didn’t come close to making this list… which, like Paranoid, doesn’t waste a moment. The roots of every heavy metal band can be found in these thirty songs.
