Black Sabbath: Behind the Scenes at Heavy Metal’s Ultimate Goodbye Bash

back to the beginning Jason Mamoa, Andrew Watt, Ronnie Wood and Chad Smith about to walk onstage and perform with their supergroup.

It’s easy to be cynical about farewell concerts, since the vast majority of them in rock history have been little more than cynical cash-ins. But when Black Sabbath announced their Back to the Beginning farewell show in their hometown of Birmingham, England, it felt very different. Ozzy Osbourne has been suffering from serious health issues for several years that now make it impossible for him to walk, and drummer Bill Ward is 77 and, by his own admission, no longer has the stamina to tour. Prior to this show, Ward hadn’t played a note of music with the band in 20 years.

Once word got out that Sabbath were throwing a goodbye party in Birmingham on July 5, it wasn’t hard to book Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, Tool, Steven Tyler, Tom Morello, Billy Corgan, and many of the other biggest names in hard rock and heavy metal. It was a long, emotional day of music, and our photographer was on site to capture the history as it unfolded.