Anthrax added to Black Sabbath’s ‘Back To The Beginning’ final gig line-up

Anthrax have been added to the line-up for Black Sabbath‘s final-ever live show – find all the details below.

The New York thrash metal band are due to perform at Ozzy Osbourne and co’s huge ‘Back To The Beginning’ concert at Villa Park in the latter’s hometown of Birmingham on Saturday July 5.

• READ MORE: Sharon Osbourne and Tony Iommi tell us about Black Sabbath’s finale: “Usually this thing is done when you’re dead”

They join the likes of Metallica, Slayer, Pantera, Alice In Chains, Gojira, Smashing Pumpkins‘ Billy Corgan, Slash and Duff McKagan of Guns N’ Roses, and KoRn on the stacked bill. Tom Morello will be performing and serving as the gig’s musical director. Guns N’ Roses, Tool and more joined the line-up earlier this year.

It’ll mark the first time Anthrax have shared a stage with the legendary metal outfit. They toured with Sabbath on their 1986 ‘Seventh Star Tour’, which was also Anthrax’s first arena trek. The last time the two groups were on the same bill was at Download Festival 2005.

“I’m a huge Black Sabbath fan,” explained Anthrax’s Charlie Benante, “and Black Sabbath was so, so instrumental in the sound of Anthrax back in the day.

“Back in ’86, when we were working on our third album, we wanted to do a B-side of a Black Sabbath song. ’Sabbath Bloody Sabbath’ was the song that we chose. We did it as a B-side, we played it live, and it became a big thing for us.”

He continued: “Growing up Catholic, in a Catholic household, my mom did not appreciate Black Sabbath. One day when I came home, my sister took me to the record store and I got one of those iron-on Black Sabbath t-shirts, it was the cover of ’Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath’.

“I got it home, my mother saw it, she made my sister take me back to the store and return it. She would not have it in the house because it had the ‘666’ on it. I was still a Black Sabbath fan so I had to kind of keep it hidden from my mom.”

Scott Ian added: “I discovered Black Sabbath when I was about eight years old, sitting in my uncle’s room at my grandparents’ house. My uncle was 17 or 18, had a big vinyl collection and blacklight posters all over his walls, and I thought he was the coolest dude in the world.

“I would go through his albums, pull records out and he’d play them for me. I remember pulling out this record that said ‘Black Sabbath’ on it, the album cover was kind of scary, so I asked him ‘what’s Black Sabbath?’ And he said, ‘Oh, they’re acid rock…’, and I didn’t know what that meant… I thought maybe that was the terminology back then for a genre.

“And then he put the album on. Everyone knows how that record starts, with the sound effects and the rain and the bell, and then the band kicks in…there’s nothing like it. At that point in time, the scariest, heaviest thing I’d ever heard in my life.”

He went on: “Maybe still to this day, when that song ‘Black Sabbath’ kicks in, there’s just nothing like it. I started playing guitar when I was about 10, and Tony was definitely an influence, so I’d try and figure out how to play ‘Iron Man’ or ‘Paranoid.’ Just listening to the records, Tony Iommi was essentially my guitar teacher.”

 

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Vocalist Joey Belladonna said: “I’m definitely a huge Sabbath fan, and over the years I have covered many Sabbath and Ozzy songs. We toured with Sabbath on the ’86 tour, and it was so electric. That was a huge tour for us, and we were just overwhelmed to be part of it.

“That Anthrax was asked to be part of Sabbath’s ‘Back To The Beginning’ concert is quite a big honour.”

Frank Bello remembered: “I heard about Sabbath through my friends at school, who said the band was great. Plus, I thought the album cover was scary as hell. Although I love most Black Sabbath albums, that first one, ‘Black Sabbath’, is still my favorite because it was my introduction to them, and the songs are still amazing.

“I’m also a HUGE Geezer [Butler] fan, I grew up on his playing, and I’m honoured now to say he’s a friend. Geezer was and still is one of my main influences on bass. He always puts beautiful musicality & melody into everything he plays. His bass lines make you want to play bass. He is also an amazing person.

“It’s an honor to be part of this show and I’m very grateful to Black Sabbath & Sharon Osbourne for asking us to be part of it.”

Guitarist Jon Donais explained: “I’m absolutely, 100 per cent a Black Sabbath fan. I was an Ozzy fan first because I grew up in the ‘80s, and of course, Ozzy was on MTV all the time, so he’s who I got into first. And then, my teen years were in the 90s, and I started getting into Black Sabbath.

“When I start to lean into a band, I usually get the band’s greatest hits or some kind of compilation. But my first Black Sabbath album was ‘Sabotage’, which is actually my favourite Sabbath record. ‘Sabotage’ was a little darker than the others, and I would listen to it all the way through as soon as I put it on.

“A good friend of mine and I went to the same college, and we’d be up until three or four in the morning just listening to ‘Sabotage’ and then having to get up for school the next day, and that sucked.”

Anthrax are also scheduled to open for Slayer at the band’s massive show at London’s Finsbury Park this summer, as well as at the Blackweir Fields in Cardiff.

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When talking to NME alongside Tony Iommi at Villa Park in February, Sharon Osbourne explained that her husband was doing “really great” at the moment. She told us that Ozzy was feeling “very emotional” about the last Sabbath show, and that it was “what he wants”.

“He wants to say thank you to everybody,” Sharon said. “He didn’t have that chance because of his illness, but now he does have the chance.”

Speaking further about Ozzy’s health, she continued: “He’s got Parkinson’s, which we all know, but he’s great and it doesn’t affect his voice.” Iommi then told NME that the Sabbath show would “do him good”, explaining: “That’s what it’s all about: he wants to get out and do something.”

Sharon said: “He feels like he’s never had a chance to thank the fans; to say ‘thank you for this unbelievable life.’”

Elsewhere in NME‘s interview, Sharon said that the concert would be “just about celebrating the old music that still lives on” rather than Black Sabbath releasing any new music to coincide with the date.

“You get to a stage in your career where whatever you do just doesn’t stand up to what you did before,” she told NME. “To be able to rest on your laurels and say, ‘People still love that and it’s still selling and we can’t do better than what we’ve done’, that’s enough.”

Sharon said: “This is a celebration – of the genre and the pioneers who started it and passed it on to all these bands. Usually this thing is done when you’re dead – so it’s nice that these guys can be alive to be appreciated!”

Iommi added: “I was just thinking that! We’re having it before we go now.”

Meanwhile, Tom Morello has teased some “huge superstars” as “surprises” for the Birmingham show, and said he is “honoured” to serve as musical director.

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