Not to be overlooked amid all the kick-ass performances at Black Sabbath’s “Back to the Beginning” farewell concert on Saturday — and there were many — was the surprise showing by Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler. Lest we forget that Aerosmith were forced to pull the plug on their own farewell tour last year due to a serious vocal injury suffered by Tyler a year earlier. But on Saturday, Tyler was front and center, fronting an all-star superjam also featuring Tom Morello, Nuno Bettencourt, Andrew Watt, Rudy Sarzo, and Chad Smith — and he sounding absolutely great in the process.
Tyler sang a total of three songs, including “The Train Kept A-Rollin’” and “Walk This Way,” but it was the cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love” where his vocals really shined. Tyler’s Aerosmith bandmate Joe Perry recently revealed that the band was “talking” about a potential comeback; after Tyler’s appearance at “Back to the Beginning, it’s easy to see why.
Not only was Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne’s Back to the Beginning concert a triumphant finale for the heavy metal legends, but it was also a lucrative one.
Per a report by The Guardian, the livestream for Sabbath’s final show was streamed by over 5 million fans worldwide. With digital tickets for the stream going for $29.99, that equates to roughly $150 million. While proceeds from the concert itself were set to go to charity, it is unclear whether the same is true for the revenue from the livestream, which was on a two-hour delay.
The massive farewell gig at Villa Park will stand as one of the greatest single events in metal history. During the show, Ozzy sang and performed four songs with Black Sabbath (“War Pigs,” “Iron Man,” “N.I.B.,” and “Paranoid”) and five numbers with his solo band (“I Don’t Know,” “Mr. Crowley,” “Suicide Solution,” “Crazy Train,” and the ballad “Mama, I’m Coming Home”). The rest of the bill featured an all-star cast of metal and hard rock talent, several of whom made Consequence’s new list of the 75 Best Metal Albums of All Time.
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