Why Black Sabbath's 2025 Reunion Matters More Than All Their Other Ones

Black Sabbath's reunion for one final performance at the 2025 Back to the Beginning concert is the most important reunion of their career. Here's why.

This is about more than just what happens onstage in Birmingham where it all began over than half a century ago. The birthplace of heavy metal, also home to pioneers Judas Priest, was a working class town was defined by the aftermath of World War II and its scarred landscapes, many inhabitants finding lifelong employment within the numerous factories nearby.

The four original members of Black Sabbath — Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward — each sought an escape from a future of hard, but honest and meaningful work.

From the eerie, leaden sounds that emanated from their rehearsal spaces to the furthest corners of the world on the biggest stages, these four men achieved more than an escape. So few musicians in history have ever made as meteoric an impact as Black Sabbath and furthermore with Ozzy being a decades-long household name in pop culture.

READ MORE: Black Sabbath Albums Ranked From Worst to Best

Throughout those decades, things have been... turbulent.

With Iommi remaining the one constant, ever-present force, enduring countless lineup changes (reunions with three different singers, alone), Black Sabbath's flame has burned bright across many eras.

Here, we're going to look at the four different reunions just with Ozzy and explain why this one, absolutely final, they-really-mean-it-this-time performance is the most important of all.

1985: Live Aid

Live Aid was great and Tony Iommi's fringe leather jacket was even greater, but this didn't amount to anything substantial.

Ozzy, as deep into a successful solo career as foreign substances were in his nasal cavities, rejoined his Black Sabbath bandmates Iommi, Butler and Ward for the first time since 1978. It was a wayward time for Iommi and co., having stumbled in the post-Dio era with 1983's Born Again, featuring Deep Purple singer Ian Gillan.

The best thing Live Aid did for Sabbath was simply remind the world the band still exists. Still, there was no followup opportunity as 1986's Seventh Star (confusingly billed as "Black Sabbath featuring Tony Iommi") was another nosedive career moment (it's a fine listen these days though).

This benefit show reunion with Ozzy was for the greater good though, much like Back to the Beginning. So cheers to Sabbath for stepping up in the humanitarian moments!

1997: Ozzfest and Into the 2000s

This reunion had a lot of promise and potential, but was just riddled with more problems.

After the inaugural year of Ozzfest in 1996, the touring festival returned in '97 with a double dose of Ozzy, who co-headlined as a solo act and with Black Sabbath. Drummer Mike Bordin also pulled double duty, playing with Sabbath.

READ MORE: Whatever Happened to the Acts From Ozzfest's Inaugural Lineup?

Bill Ward eventually returned to the lineup, which also featured Geezer Butler, reuniting the original members onstage in December of '97, long after the Ozzfest run had wrapped up.

The group attempted to work on new material (the songs "Selling My Soul" and "Psycho Man" can be heard on the Reunion live album), but no full length ever materialized. Still, it was a great chance for younger generations to witness the classic lineup in action.

This Black Sabbath lineup dissolved in 2006, giving way to Heaven & Hell. The band, essentially Dio-era Sabbath operating under a new moniker, featured Ronnie James Dio, Iommi, Butler and Vinny Appice.

2011: Three Out of Four Classic Members

Okay, this was a pretty damn big reunion. But they kind of built us up only to let us down. That sounds a little harsh, but...

No disrespect to Brad Wilk and Tommy Clufetos, who played on the comeback album 13 and live with Black Sabbath, respectively. They were called into duty and executed the task. After all, who could possibly balk at playing with this band?

But the big reunion press conference featured the original four members, leading fans to believe that, despite decades of bickering and differences, that their story was going to continue and, eventually, end the proper way.

Finger-pointing, disagreements, warring statements... things got downright ugly between Ward and the Sabbath camp not longer after that infamous presser. Rumors of contractual demands and questions about the drummer's health dominated the narrative as Black Sabbath teamed with Rick Rubin on 2013's 13, their first album with Ozzy since 1978.

The release was a success even if the material falls short of the timeless quality of the classics. Since, the members have looked down on the recording sessions and Rubin's insistence that they turn back the clock to 1970 all over again.

Then, on Feb. 4, 2017 in their hometown of Birmingham, Sabbath played their final show without Bill Ward even present onstage for any moment of it.

It appeared not every band was meant to have a storybook ending. This was an important reunion era with one giant asterisk forever clouding it.

2025: The Way It Should Be, for History's Sake!

"Sellouts!" "Cash grab!" "Liars!" 

While countless musicians and fans worldwide celebrated the announcement of the mind-blowing Back to the Beginning concert, there was way, way too much backlash that fell in line with the complaints quoted above.

The question is less about can Ozzy — a 76-year-old man afflicted with Parkinson's Disease who has endured multiple spinal surgeries after dislodging metal rods in his body after a nighttime fall at home a few years ago — deliver the performance of his lifetime and more about the resounding echo this event will have throughout history.

As mind-blowing as the lineup is with a once-on-a-lifetime grouping of rock and metal's most elite, the singular day of July 5, 2025 is about much, much more than a cool, star-studded concert.

This is about righting wrongs. This is about the story future generations of headbangers will read about as the Sabbath story ends with the biggest event possible. This is about taking this genre to a place it has never been before onstage. This is about celebrating the life and career of the Prince of Darkness, metal's most significant individual figure worldwide — Ozzy fucking Osbourne.

It's our chance as fans to show our gratitude. It's the chance for all these musicians to pay their respect to the living while they're still here. It's about one big, collective "THANK YOU." Without Black Sabbath and without Ozzy, we shudder to think of how different our lives would all be and if metal ever would have achieved liftoff at all.

And it's the opportunity for our beloved Ozzy to get onstage and do the thing he loves most in life. It's what fills him with a sense of purpose as he still humbly processes how a go-nowhere kid from Birmingham managed to be one of the most impactful people in music for more than half a century, despite a lifetime of misbehavior fueled by the disease of addiction.

So, for one last time, let's fill Ozzy with that incredible feeling of being onstage, performing and entertaining us all. Let's bask in Tony Iommi's best-in-class guitar tone live. Let's groove to the thump of the magnificent Geezer Butler and welcome Bill Ward back behind the kit for his long overdue salute.