Connect with us

Top Stories

TONY IOMMI Says OZZY OSBOURNE Will ‘Do Four Songs’ At BLACK SABBATH’s Final Concert: ‘He’s Singing Fine’

Published

on


In a new interview with BBC Midlands Today, BLACK SABBATH guitarist Tony Iommi spoke about the band’s upcoming “Back To The Beginning” show, which will be held on July 5 at Villa Park in Birmingham, United Kingdom. The farewell gig will see the original members of BLACK SABBATH — consisting of Iommi, singer Ozzy Osbourne, bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward — reunite for the first time in 20 years, to play in their former hometown one last time. For Ozzy, who lives with Parkinson’s disease, the event will also mark his final performance on stage. More than 40,000 fans are expected to attend the event, which will also see performances from METALLICA, SLAYER, PANTERA, LAMB OF GOD and ANTHRAX, among others. Profits from the show will be shared equally between the charities Cure Parkinson’s, Birmingham Children’s Hospital and Acorn Children’s Hospice.

“This is totally different from anything else we’ve done,” Iommi said. “You know, we’ve played to 300,000 people, but this is nerve-racking. We’re playing in our hometown, we’ve got all these bands on with us, and we haven’t played together for 20 years.”

Addressing Ozzy‘s health ahead of SABBATH‘s final concert, Iommi said: “He might not be able to do the whole show, but he’s gonna do four songs. He’s singing fine. It’s just a shame to see the way it is. But that’s life, I suppose. You’ve just gotta get on with it. But we’re all looking forward to it, and all nervous as well, which is very unusual.”

After fans snapped up tickets to “Back To The Beginning” in just 16 minutes, it was announced that the event will be streamed worldwide. Fans will have access to the raw livestream from 3:00 p.m. on July 5, and will also have exclusive access to rewatch the concert in its entirety for another 48 hours.

For more information, visit www.backtothebeginning.com.

“Back To The Beginning” will be captured, produced and distributed by Mercury Studios (“One To One: John & Yoko”, “American Symphony”, “Metallica Saved My Life”),who are pioneering the way for premium, music-driven storytelling across film, television, podcasts and immersive formats. Mercury has partnered with Kiswe — the global D2C streaming partner behind the record-breaking BTS concert livestream — to deliver this moment of music history to fans across the globe.

The all-day event at Villa Park, produced by Live Nation, will be hosted and compered by American actor Jason Momoa, and feature a supergroup of musicians.

Last month, Iommi told Music Week about “Back To The Beginning”: “This would be a big, monumental thing if it all comes good. The worrying thing for me is the unknown. We don’t know what’s going to happen.

“Normally, when we’d tour, we’d rehearse and run through the thing for a while, and it’s just us,” he explained. “But with this event there are so many other moving parts.”

Acknowledging the fact that Ozzy has publicly stated that he is not able to walk due to his battle with Parkinson’s disease, Tony added: “You’re used to Ozzy running around, but he certainly won’t be doing that for this show. I don’t know if he’s going to be standing or sitting on a throne or what.”

Iommi went on to say that he is approaching this show with “excitement mixed with fear”. He clarified: “Once we start playing, then we’ll know we’re doing it. It’s always a worry, even when we did tours before, there’s always that build-up, and then it gets to the point that we do it and it’s okay.”

In May, Iommi revealed to The Guardian that it took some serious convincing to get him on board for “Back To The Beginning”.

“I’m the one that said, ‘I don’t know if we should do it’, because we did a farewell tour and I didn’t want to get into that thing like all the other bands are doing, saying it’s the last tour and then reappearing again,” he explained.

As for what changed his mind, Tony said: “I’ve been convinced, because we’re doing it for a reason… No one’s getting paid or anything.”

For his part, Butler admitted to The Guardian that he was stressing about the gig. “I’m already having palpitations,” he revealed. “In fact, I had a nightmare last night. I dreamed everything went wrong on stage and we all turned to dust. It’s important that we leave a great impression, since it’s the final time that people will experience us live. So it has to be great on the night.”

This past February, Sharon told The Sun that her husband is struggling to walk amid his battle with Parkinsons disease, but that his singing voice is “as good as ever”. She said: “[Ozzy‘s] very happy to be coming back and very emotional about this.

“Parkinson’s is a progressive disease. It’s not something you can stabilize. It affects different parts of the body and it’s affected his legs. But his voice is as good as it’s ever been.”

According to Sharon, Ozzy, who paused touring “for now” in 2023 after extensive spinal surgery and rescheduled his “No More Tours 2” shows from going ahead several times because of illness, the pandemic and logistical issues, will not play any more shows after the Villa Park event.

Ozzy didn’t have a chance to say goodbye to his friends, to his fans, and he feels there’s no been no full stop,” she explained. “This is his full stop.”

In addition, there will be a performance by a “supergroup of musicians” including Duff McKagan and Slash (GUNS ‘N’ ROSES),Billy Corgan (THE SMASHING PUMPKINS),Fred Durst (LIMP BIZKIT),K.K. Downing (JUDAS PRIEST),Jake E. Lee (OZZY OSBOURNE) and Tom Morello (RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE).

“It’s an endless amount of people,” said Sharon. “They’re going to be doing some SABBATH songs, some Ozzy songs, and they’ll all mix together. Different little groups will be coming on, but they’re all icons.”

The original lineup of BLACK SABBATH last performed in 2005. Since then, SABBATH has played in partial reunions but never in its original lineup.

“For Ozzy right now, it’s definitely: ‘I love you and good night’,” Sharon told Reuters.

She added that Ozzy was doing well and excited about the gig. “It’s stimulated him,” she said. “He’s very, very excited and very thankful that he can do it.”

The legendary BLACK SABBATH frontman was diagnosed in 2003 with Parkin 2 — a very rare genetic form of Parkinson’s. During a TV appearance in January 2020, the singer disclosed that he was ‘stricken” with the disease which occurs when the nerve cells of the body degenerate and levels of dopamine are reduced. Dopamine is an essential chemical that is produced by these nerve cells which send signals to different parts of the brain to control movements of the body.

Ozzy‘s health issues, including suffering a nasty fall and dislodging metal rods placed in his spine following a quad-bike accident in 2003, as well as catching COVID-19 three years ago, forced him to cancel some of his previously announced tours.

While Osbourne‘s health issues forced him to scrap most of his live appearances, the musician said he would return if his condition improved.

Osbourne‘s previously announced European tour with guests JUDAS PRIEST, originally set for 2019 and then rescheduled three times, was officially canceled in early February 2023.

Despite his health problems, Osbourne has performed a couple of times in the last three years, including at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in August 2022 and at the NFL halftime show at the season opener Los Angeles Rams and Buffalo Bills game in September 2022.

Photo credit: Gibson





Source link

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Top Stories

Texas pediatrician ‘no longer employed’ after post about pro-Trump flood victims | Texas floods 2025

Published

on


A pediatrician for a chain of clinics affiliated with a prominent Houston hospital system is “no longer employed” there, according to officials, after a social media account associated with her published a post wishing the “Maga” voters of a Donald Trump-supporting county in Texas to “get what they voted for” amid flash flooding that killed more than 100 people, including many children.

“We were made aware of a social media comment from one of our physicians,” read a statement from Blue Fish Pediatrics circulated late Sunday. “The individual is no longer employed by Blue Fish Pediatrics.”

The statement also said: “We strongly condemn the comments that were made in that post. That post does not reflect the values, standards or mission of Blue Fish Pediatrics. We do not support or condone any statement that politicizes tragedy, diminishes human dignity, or fails to clearly uphold compassion for every child and family, regardless of background or beliefs.”

Blue Fish Pediatrics’ statement neither named the physician in question nor specified whether she had resigned or was dismissed. But multiple publicly accessible social media posts identified her as Dr Christina Propst. A Guardian source familiar with the situation confirmed the accuracy of the posts naming Propst. And, at the time it issued the statement, Blue Fish Pediatrics had recently unpublished Propst’s biographical page from its website.

Attempts to contact Propst weren’t immediately successful.

The post attributed to Propst prompted many – including on social media – to pressure Blue Fish Pediatrics to take action against her. For one, while they are entitled to the same constitutional free speech rights everyone else in the country is, many US healthcare providers are required by their employers to avoid publicizing opinions which could undermine trust in their profession among members of the public.

But the timing of the post also caused offense, coming after communities along Texas’s Guadalupe River were overwhelmed early Friday from flash flooding triggered by torrential rain. The river rose 26ft (8 meters) in 45 minutes after 1.8tn gallons of rain fell over a region including Kerr county, Texas, about 286 miles (460km ) west of Texas.

As of Monday, officials were reporting more than 90 people had died – with others missing – during the flood. Many of those reported dead were in Kerr county. And many were children, including some who were attending Camp Mystic, a 99-year-old, all-girls, nondenominational Christian institution.

In the post that preceded the end of her time at Blue Fish Pediatrics, Propst alluded to how Kerr county had – like Texas as a whole – voted in favor of Trump as he defeated former vice-president Kamala Harris in November’s White House election. Trump’s administration has since eliminated mentions of the ongoing climate crisis and its consequences, one of which is downpours like the one that devastated Kerr becoming more common. He has also mused about “phasing out” the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema), in part so that the president’s office could be in charge of distributing disaster relief funds and ultimately “give out less money”.

“May all visitors, children, non-Maga voters and pets be safe and dry,” said the post, which invoked an acronym for Trump’s “Make America great again” slogan. “Kerr county Maga voted to gut Fema. They deny climate change. May they get what they voted for.”

The post concluded with the phrase: “Bless their hearts,” which in the US south is often used as a condescending insult.

Kerr county residents who survived the flood have since spoken about losing all of their possessions, including their homes. They have also recounted seeking what have proven to be elusive answers about the level of preparedness from authorities in charge of protecting their communities.

In short order, the post made its way to Blue Fish Pediatrics, which is described as an independent partner of Houston’s well-known Memorial Hermann hospital network. The clinic chain – which was tagged by users demanding that it act against Propst – said in a statement that the group was immediately placing the message’s author on leave. A subsequent statement indicated that the post’s author was no longer an employee of the chain while expressing “full support to the families and the surrounding communities who are grieving, recovering and searching for hope”.

Meanwhile, a statement from Memorial Hermann said that the post’s author was not directly employed by the network. The statement, though, made it a point to say, “We … strongly condemn these statements … [and] we have zero tolerance for such rhetoric which does not reflect the mission, vision or values of our system.”

Propst’s unpublished biography described her as a native of New York who graduated from Princeton University in 1991. She later graduated from New Orleans’s Tulane medical school, received certifications from the American board and academy of pediatrics and spent 17 years in group practice in Houston before joining Blue Fish in 2018.

According to the unpublished biography, Propst was voted “best pediatrician” in numerous reader polls conducted by Houston’s Bellaire Examiner newspaper.



Source link

Continue Reading

Top Stories

No breakthrough on Middle East peace as Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu meet – Financial Times

Published

on


  1. No breakthrough on Middle East peace as Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu meet  Financial Times
  2. LIVE: Israel pounds Gaza; Trump hosts Netanyahu amid push for ceasefire  Al Jazeera
  3. In Washington, Netanyahu maintains uncertainty over a possible truce in Gaza  Le Monde.fr
  4. Netanyahu says any future Palestinian state would be a platform to destroy Israel  Reuters
  5. Netanyahu visits the White House; Trump threatens more tariffs on trade partners  NBC News



Source link

Continue Reading

Top Stories

Russia probes ex-minister’s death as body found hours after sacking | Politics News

Published

on


Roman Starovoit was found dead near his car in the Moscow region hours after President Vladimir Putin dismissed him.

Russia’s top criminal investigation agency is probing the death of Roman Starovoit, a former transport minister whose body was found with a gunshot wound near his car, hours after President Vladimir Putin dismissed him from his post.

Authorities on Monday said the 53-year-old politician’s body was discovered near a Tesla vehicle abandoned near a park in the Moscow region, with a pistol, registered in Starovoit’s name, located nearby.

The Investigative Committee has opened a case to determine the full circumstances of his death, suggesting it could be suicide. Russian media, citing law enforcement sources, said the gunshot appeared to be self-inflicted.

However, the timing of the death has prompted speculation.

Putin issued a decree earlier on Monday, removing Starovoit as transport minister, a role he had held for just more than a year. No explanation was provided.

Political commentators quickly linked the decision to a long-running corruption investigation in the Kursk region, where Starovoit previously served as governor.

The probe centres on whether 19.4 billion roubles ($246m) allocated in 2022 to bolster border defences in Kursk were embezzled.

The funds were meant to reinforce Russia’s frontier with Ukraine, but Ukrainian forces launched a cross-border assault into the region three months into Starovoit’s ministerial term – the largest such incursion since World War II.

In April, his successor and former deputy in Kursk, Alexei Smirnov, was charged with embezzling defence funds. Several Russian outlets reported on Monday that Smirnov, who denies wrongdoing, had told investigators Starovoit was also involved in the alleged fraud.

The incident casts a shadow over Russia’s transport sector, already grappling with wartime pressures.

Western sanctions have left the aviation industry struggling for spare parts, while soaring interest rates have pushed Russian Railways – the country’s largest employer – into financial strain.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s drone attacks continue to disrupt domestic air traffic, forcing temporary airport closures and leading to logistical uncertainty.

Following Starovoit’s dismissal, the Kremlin announced that Andrei Nikitin, former governor of the Novgorod region, had been appointed as acting transport minister. Photographs released by state media showed him shaking hands with Putin.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Putin believed Nikitin had the necessary experience to steer the ministry through current challenges. At his meeting with the president, Nikitin pledged to modernise the sector by boosting digital infrastructure to improve cargo flows and cross-border trade.



Source link

Continue Reading

Trending