Ozzy Osbourne at the Back to the Beginning concert at Villa Park, Birmingham, on July 5, 2025.
The last sound Black Sabbath made together on a stage came from Villa Park in Birmingham on July 5, 2025: Ozzy Osbourne singing from a gilded throne, with Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward playing behind him for the first time in more than 20 years. Seventeen days later, Osbourne was dead. That night is now a film.
Ozzy & Black Sabbath: Back to the Beginning opens in cinemas worldwide on October 28 for a limited run, after a world premiere hosted by the Osbourne family at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles on October 14. Produced by Mercury Studios and distributed by Trafalgar Releasing, it is billed as the definitive record of the show that closed one of heavy music’s founding stories in the city where it started, according to the official announcement on Ozzy Osbourne’s website.
What the Film Captures
The film documents the final live performance of the original Black Sabbath line-up: Ozzy on vocals, Tony Iommi on guitar, Geezer Butler on bass and Bill Ward on drums. The sold-out show also included a solo set from Osbourne, and the film adds personal reflections from the musicians the band inspired, plus a behind-the-scenes look at the day itself.
It was directed for the screen by Ben Wainwright-Pearce, whose credits include Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour and George Michael: The Faith Tour. Tim van Someren directed the live concert, and Jim Parsons, Jamie Silk and Dan Seliger produced it. The film is presented in Dolby Atmos and 5.1 surround sound and was “crafted specifically for cinematic presentation”, the announcement says, to carry both the scale of a stadium production and the intimacy of a farewell.
For anyone who watched the livestream, the cinema version is the chance to hear the riffs at proper volume. The cinematic release runs to two and a half hours, according to Grateful Web, and includes insight from the show’s host, Jason Momoa, and its musical director, Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello.
Why Sharon Osbourne Built the Show
The idea came from a simple question. “Back to the Beginning came about because I asked Ozzy what would really make him happy,” said Sharon Osbourne, his wife and manager, who oversaw the event. “And he said the only thing that would make him happy was if he could perform again and say goodbye to his fans. That’s all he wanted to do. He wanted to say goodbye and thank you.”
That goodbye came against the odds. Osbourne battled a range of medical issues in his final years and had trouble standing and walking near the end of his life, which is why he sang from a gilded throne, Billboard reported. He died on July 22, 2025, aged 76, following a yearslong struggle with Parkinson’s disease, Variety noted.
The setting mattered too. Villa Park is the home of Aston Villa, Osbourne’s beloved football club, in the city where Black Sabbath formed. Few farewells have been staged so close to the place where the sound was born.
Iommi, Butler and Ward on the Last Night
The three surviving members have each described the night in their own terms, in comments published with the film’s announcement and reported by Blabbermouth.
- Tony Iommi: “It was a closure for the band and it was a good way to go out, I think.”
- Geezer Butler: “To me it was like pure love. It was just a wave of love. It’s the only way I can describe it, really. I mean, I could feel it as if it is like tangible.”
- Bill Ward: “Felt completely at home in a place where I belong. It almost felt like I was in a dream.”
Ward’s line carries extra weight. The reunion was the first time the four original members had played together in more than 20 years, and his presence behind the kit is what made the night the original band’s ending, rather than one more chapter in a long history of line-up changes.
A Bill Built Around Black Sabbath’s Influence
The show was as much a tribute as a farewell. Hosted by Momoa, with Morello as musical director, it included sets from Alice in Chains, Anthrax, Gojira, Guns N’ Roses, Halestorm, Lamb of God, Mastodon, Metallica, Pantera, Rival Sons, Slayer and Tool. All-star segments brought in guests including Billy Corgan, Chad Smith, David Draiman, K.K. Downing, Nuno Bettencourt, Papa V Perpetua of Ghost, Ronnie Wood, Sammy Hagar, Steven Tyler, Travis Barker, Vernon Reid and Yungblud.
“There’s never been anything like that that’s happened in the history of rock and roll,” Morello said. “There’s never been a precedent for a show like this.” In his view, Black Sabbath got “to play their final show basically in the Ground Zero of where they created heavy metal.”
Demand matched the bill. There were more than three million requests for the 44,000 available tickets, according to Grateful Web, and the show sold out in minutes. On the day, 42,000 people attended in person at Villa Park, with another 3 million watching through a paid livestream, Variety reported.
Premiere Night and the Cinema Run
The world premiere takes place on Wednesday, October 14, at 8 p.m. at The Orpheum Theatre, 842 South Broadway, Los Angeles, with a purple carpet hosted by the Osbourne family. A limited number of tickets were put on sale, and 50% of each ticket sold is being donated to Los Angeles homeless charities.
The worldwide release follows on October 28, for a limited time only. Tickets went on sale on September 24, and participating cinemas, showtimes and tickets are listed at backtothebeginning.com. Trafalgar Releasing, which handled the theatrical runs of Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour internationally, says it brings event releases to more than 15,000 cinemas across 132 countries.
“Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath’s Back to the Beginning concert was a landmark cultural moment,” said Marc Allenby, chief executive of Trafalgar Releasing. Mercury Studios co-leads Ken Danquah and Andrea Dunn described the film as “the next chapter” after the livestream, “giving fans a new way to experience that night on the big screen.”
What Comes Next for Tony Iommi
The film arrives five days after new music from Black Sabbath’s guitarist. Tony Iommi releases From the Dark on October 23 through BMG, his third solo album after 2000’s Iommi and 2005’s Fused, Blabbermouth reported when it was announced. Norwegian vocalist Jorn Lande sings throughout and shares writing credits on every song, with bassist Becky Baldwin and drummer Karl Brazil completing the line-up.
The record was co-produced by Iommi and Mike Exeter, his longtime collaborator, and the first single, “World Alone”, was premiered at a streaming event in Birmingham close to the Black Sabbath Bridge, opened as a civic tribute to the band in 2019. “It’s an album we’ve really enjoyed making,” Iommi said. “We’re not trying to prove anything.” Iommi, who was awarded an MBE in June, is still writing riffs; he once said he had “four or five hundred” unused ones stored on his phone.
The timing is neat. Within days of cinemas showing the final Black Sabbath performance, the man who wrote its riffs puts out new ones, a reminder that the catalogue the band started is still being added to.
Why Back to the Beginning Matters
Most farewell concerts are announced as the end and turn out not to be. This one was. The band reunited, played its last set in its home city, and its singer died 17 days later. That gives the film a weight no ordinary concert release can have, and it explains why Mercury Studios and Trafalgar have framed it as an event rather than a home video.
Heavy music’s back catalogue has been busy this autumn, and rockrevival.news recently looked at how Sad Wings of Destiny gets the running order Priest wanted. Back to the Beginning is a different kind of record: not a remaster or a reissue, but the only footage of a goodbye that cannot be repeated.
For fans who were not among the 42,000 at Villa Park, October 28 is the closest they will get to standing there. Ozzy Osbourne said he wanted to say goodbye and thank you. On a cinema screen, with the sound turned up, that is exactly what the film lets him do.
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