{"id":42827,"date":"2025-09-04T10:17:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T10:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/42827\/"},"modified":"2025-09-04T10:17:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T10:17:07","slug":"zakk-wylde-on-the-pressures-of-playing-with-ozzy-osbourne-at-black-sabbaths-final-gig","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/42827\/","title":{"rendered":"Zakk Wylde on the pressures of playing with Ozzy Osbourne at Black Sabbath\u2019s final gig"},"content":{"rendered":"

During the lead up to Back To The Beginning, it was looking like the organisation of the event was going to be pretty hectic. According to Zakk Wylde<\/a>, that was certainly the case on the big day, as he likens the experience to \u201cjuggling chainsaws\u201d.<\/p>\n

Of course the madness all turned out to be worth it, with the event drawing in millions in ticket sales that will go on to support Ozzy Osbourne<\/a>\u2019s chosen charities. The final gig also brought a beautiful close to the Black Sabbath<\/a> story, with Osbourne sadly passing away just a matter of weeks after.<\/p>\n

Back in early July before the event took place in Birmingham, England on the 5th, Wylde shared that plans for the event were still up in the air<\/a>: \u201cNobody knows what\u2019s going on\u201d, he said, and likened it to \u201cOzzfest on steroids\u201d. Even now,\u00a0he tells Guitar World<\/a>\u00a0(in its print magazine) just how chaotic it continued to be on the day itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just more worried about making sure Oz was okay for the whole performance, you know? So, with Mama, I\u2019m Coming Home, when we got the acoustic out, I had to be like, \u2018Keep the guitar away from the microphone so I can sing,\u2019 because Oz\u2019s voice was having trouble at certain notes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just like, \u2018I need to make sure I\u2019m always there so I can double him,\u2019 and I was three feet away from the microphone when I started playing the song,\u201d he continues. \u201cI started, and I go, \u2018Wait, hold on a second, I\u2019m like three, four feet from the friggin\u2019 microphone.\u2019 [Laughs] I was like, \u2018I gotta gear near the microphone,\u2019 so I had to almost stop playing, lift the guitar up and put it over the mic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wylde concludes, \u201cIt was like juggling balls or chainsaws while being on a skateboard. It was actually pretty funny, but it was business as usual. But yeah\u2026 It\u2019s supposed to be the most important show ever, and everything\u2019s on the fly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though the total amount of money Back To The Beginning has made has been disputed, namely by Sharon Osbourne<\/a> herself, a group of economists at the University of Birmingham have suggested that they have a better estimate of the actual numbers from ticket sales<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to Dr. Matt Lyons of the University of Birmingham, tickets for the monumental Villa Park show brought in a total of \u00a333.8 million. The money raised is going to Cure Parkinson\u2019s, the Birmingham Children\u2019s Hospital, and Acorns Children\u2019s Hospice.<\/p>\n

\"Rachel<\/p>\n

Rachel began writing for Guitar.com in 2021 while finishing up her degree. A proud DIY guitarist, she has been playing for over 10 years and has written for the likes of Kerrang!, The Forty-Five, and MusicTech. An enjoyer of all things heavy, you\u2019ll find her at a festival or downtuning her guitars when away from her desk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"During the lead up to Back To The Beginning, it was looking like the organisation of the event…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42828,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[264],"tags":[18890,18,117,19,17,337,6318],"class_list":{"0":"post-42827","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-artist","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-music","14":"tag-rock"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42827\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}