Besides being the biggest Heavy Metal celebration that ever happened, the final Black Sabbath show/festival was also the highest grossing charity concert of all time. Tom Morello (RATM, Audioslave), the event’s musical director, revealed that the show grossed over 190 million dollars. According to Billboard, that’s more than any other major charity concert.
What Tom Morello said about the Black Sabbath farewell charity success
Morello talked about the record on his social media, saying: “1. Boom. We set out to not just create the greatest day in the history of heavy metal. 2. Generals gathered in their masses. @tonyiommi 3. @iamstevent rocked the joint to the ground. 4. @adamjones_tv of @toolmusic & I played in a band together in high school in Libertyville but haven’t shared the stage in decades…until now. 5. I’m a huge @judaspriest fan and doing the synchronized metal chug with @kkspriest during “Breaking The Law” was epic.”
“6. An indisputable statement after last weekend. 7. @jackblack lifting my @romanmorello1 during their “Mr. Crowley” tribute brought a tear. 8. Our great host @prideofgypsies Jason Momoa & I going through his script. 9. And then a dude from @therollingstones showed up. 10. THANKYOU @ozzyosbourne for trusting me to be the Musical Director of the “Back To The Beginning” show. It was over a year of hard work but heavy metal was the music that made me love music and it was a labor of love. We raised a ton of money for a great cause and so many great musicians & bands & fans all over the world paid tribute to the ALL TIME greats,” Tom Morello said.
The celebration
Besides the two headliners, many famous artists were part of the “tribute festival“, like Slayer, Metallica, Anthrax, Guns N’ Roses, Steven Tyler, Papa V Perpetua, Sammy Hagar, Jake E. Lee, Billy Corgan and Nuno Bettencourt.
The bands performed Black Sabbath and Ozzy covers, but also played some of their most famous songs in small sets, of 3 to 6 songs. Many covers from other bands were also performed, like the supergroup with Steven Tyler on vocals, which played, for example, Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love”. Ozzy Osbourne sang five songs of his solo career and four more with Black Sabbath.
