During an appearance on today’s (Wednesday, August 6) episode of “The Howard Stern Show” on SiriusXM, METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich reflected on his band’s participation in the “Back To The Beginning” event, which marked Ozzy Osbourne and BLACK SABBATH‘s final performance. Asked if there were any “pinch-me moments” at the concert for him, Lars said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Well, of course. I mean, listen, my relationships with these guys go back to opening for Ozzy on ‘The Ultimate Sin’ tour in 1986. Really, Ozzy and [his wife and manager] Sharon introduced METALLICA to a mainstream audience.
“Tom [Morello, RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE guitarist and ‘Back To The Beginning’ music curator] called and said, ‘We think this can happen next summer. Will you be there?’ And, of course, we were, ‘Fuck yeah.’ You walk in and it’s, ‘Oh my God. There’s Steven Tyler [AEROSMITH].’ ‘Oh my God. There’s Chad Smith [RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS].’ ‘Oh my god. There’s Sammy Hagar [VAN HALEN].’ And then [photographer] Ross [Halfin] asked me to sit on the armrest of Ozzy‘s throne next to him. That was kind of like front row. And we hugged it out. The soundcheck was the next day.”
Ulrich added: “I think there was a sense from all the musicians and fans of BLACK SABBATH, we were hoping for the best, we wanted it to be the best, we wanted it to be a grand slam, but we didn’t know, because ultimately none of us knew what kind of shape they were in. And then they started playing ‘War Pigs’, and I think instantly for all of us who were watching, it was just, like, ‘Okay, it’s gonna be fine. They sound great, if not better than ever.’ And then Ozzy came in singing. Everybody was just, like, ‘They’re gonna fucking kill it.’ Nobody walked away going, ‘That’s the last time we’ll see Ozzy.’ [We thought], ‘We’ll see him at some event, or we’ll be there to present another award for him.’ So when he passed two weeks later, we were all just so stunned. That was the word that was being texted around to everybody on the text chains that I was on: ‘This is just so fucking stunning.’ At the same time, he got to accomplish that concert that had been in him since before COVID. Maybe it was just the load off his shoulders that he got to accomplish what he wanted, and then maybe he just sort of let go. Who knows?”
On the day of Ozzy‘s death, METALLICA paid tribute to the BLACK SABBATH singer, writing on social media: “OZZY RIP. It’s impossible to put into words what Ozzy Osbourne has meant to METALLICA. Hero, icon, pioneer, inspiration, mentor, and most of all, friend are a few that come to mind. Ozzy and Sharon believed in us and transformed our lives and careers. He taught us how to play in the big leagues while at the same time being warm, welcoming, engaging, and all around brilliant.
“We are heartbroken and devastated by this loss and send our love and condolences to Sharon and their family, bandmates, and his very large circle of friends. He left an incredible legacy and will be sorely missed.”
METALLICA played a six-song set at BLACK SABBATH‘s “Back To The Beginning” charity event on July 5. The San Francisco Bay Area metal legends opened their performance with the SABBATH “Sabotage” classic “Hole In The Sky” and continued with two of their own songs, “Creeping Death” and “For Whom The Bell Tolls” before returning to covering SABBATH with “Johnny Blade” off the latter’s “Never Say Die!” album. METALLICA concluded its set by playing two more of its classic songs: “Battery” and “Master Of Puppets”.
In a recent interview with Heavy Consequence, METALLICA guitarist Kirk Hammett stated about his band’s appearance at “Back To The Beginning”: “It’s a real opportunity to say thank you to Ozzy and Tony [Iommi] and Geezer [Butler] and Bill [Ward], ’cause they fricking wrote the book on the genre. They developed it, they fleshed it out so that we can use what they did as a stepping stone to other ways to do this.”
Hammett continued: “If it wasn’t for those four guys, man, we might still be just kind of like wandering around in the dark. But the fact that they created a genre — not only created it, but then developed it and, and, and then turned it into like a few different things over the course of their career — is completely awe inspiring to me and my peers musically. I mean, how do you thank someone like that? … I feel lucky and blessed that I’m in a situation where I can actually say thank you to the progenitors of a fricking genre. I love those guys. I have love for them for what they did. And I just want them to know that I’m just extremely thankful, ’cause my life would be extremely different if they didn’t do what they did.”
Nearly two decades ago, METALLICA frontman James Hetfield told Rolling Stone magazine that he was surprised at how choked up he had gotten while honoring BLACK SABBATH at the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction ceremony in March 2006 at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. Hetfield — dressed in black jeans and a black shirt amid a sea of tuxedos — fought back tears as he recalled a young James, nine years old, stealing SABBATH records from his older brother. “Those monstrous riffs lived inside of him and spoke the feelings he could never put into words, sending chills of inspiration through him,” Hetfield said. “They helped crack the shell he was stuck in. Also, scaring his mom and sister was an extra bonus. And now, as the former nine-year-old speaks to you here, as an adult musician — I know those two words really don’t go together — I realize that without their defining sound, there would be no METALLICA, especially with one James Hetfield. Never have I known a more timeless and influential band. They have spread their wonderful disease through generations of musicians. They are always listed as an influence by heavy bands to this day. They are loved and highly respected as the fathers of heavy music.”
Afterward, Hetfield told Rolling Stone, “It was like, ‘Oh, no, I’m going to start crying,'” he said. “I’d never known it until I had to access all those emotions in front of that crowd, but it just goes to show how much SABBATH mean.”
In addition to inducting SABBATH into the Rock Hall, METALLICA performed a medley of SABBATH songs (“Hole In The Sky” and “Iron Man”) during the ceremony.
In his induction speech, Ulrich said about BLACK SABBATH: “Bill, Geezer, Ozzy and Tony, if it weren’t for you, we wouldn’t be here. Obviously if there was no BLACK SABBATH, there would be no METALLICA. If there was no BLACK SABBATH, hard rock and heavy metal as we know it today would look, sound and be shaped very, very differently. So if there was no BLACK SABBATH, I could possibly still be a morning newspaper delivery boy — no fun, no fun. So thank you for meeting, thank you for knowing each other, and thank you for forming a band.
“As one who has fought labeling at any opportunity given, I hereby not only acknowledge but scream from every fucking rooftop that BLACK SABBATH is and always will be synonymous with the term ‘heavy metal.’
“SABBATH join what I consider a very short list of artists who can claim to be synonymous with their specific genre of music — one being Bob Marley with reggae, Bob Dylan with folk, Johnny Cash with country, perhaps Bill Haley with rockabilly, but no matter how you fucking slice and dice it, when you say ‘heavy metal,’ the words BLACK SABBATH hover in the shadows fighting for pole position. On any given day, the heavy metal genre might as well be subtitled ‘music derivative of BLACK SABBATH.’ Sure, we’re all respectful to BLUE CHEER, we’re enamored with LED ZEPPELIN, we’re in awe of DEEP PURPLE and of course admiring of STEPPENWOLF and John Kay‘s first uttering of the words ‘heavy metal,’ but when it comes to defining a genre within the world of heavy music, SABBATH stand alone. They took pre-existing elements of blues, rock and soul, threw in the right amount of darkness and street cred, and fused those elements with a previously undiscovered ‘X’ factor — whatever the fuck that was — creating something unheard, unexperienced, unique and utterly groundbreaking with their huge hymns of doom. BLACK SABBATH are an entity of their own — in my mind, the only word that fits is the word ‘pioneer.’ They were, and much more importantly, still are considered pioneers of all things heavy. All the metal bands and all the so-called subgenres of metal still trace their lineage to one place: four kids in their late teens from the black country of Birmingham who named their band after a 1963 Italian horror movie starring Boris Karloff. Subsequently they changed hard rock and by doing so the entire family tree of metal and everything that metal, for better or worse, stands for, was and will be forever both invigorated and elevated.”
More than 40,000 fans attended “Back To The Beginning”, which also saw performances from BLACK SABBATH, Ozzy Osbourne, GUNS N’ ROSES, 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.
The all-day event at Villa Park, produced by Live Nation, was hosted and compered by American actor Jason Momoa, and featured a supergroup of musicians.
A livestream of the daylong event was announced in June. While it was called a livestream, the video was delayed two hours from the in-arena start time.
