Key events
Alice in Chains now, opening with Man in a Box. Frontman William DuVall (who replaced the late Layne Staley in 2006) swooshes around in tasselled leathers and is another one honouring a whole style of Ozzy-ish singing.
Not in person, but here’s Jack Black doing Ozzy’s Mr Crowley backed by a band of children – including Roman Morello, son of Tom, doing some insane lead guitar soloing, and Revel Ian, son of Scott, on bass. In this context it’s clearer than ever how much Black’s singing style is inspired by Osbourne almost to the point of parody (that’s a compliment).
Next it’s the aforementioned Yungblud performance of Changes, who pays tribute to the Portuguese footballer Diogo Jota who died in a car crash earlier this week aged 28. I honestly do not understand how Yungblud has had three back-to-back UK No 1 albums (the most recent one last week) when he seems to have an actively repellent force on melodies or hooks – but there’s no doubting he can connect when he actually has some, as he does here, bringing a lovely rasp into the edges of of his otherwise soaring voice. This power ballad was first done by Sabbath on Vol 4 in 1972, then again to chart-topping effect by Ozzy and his daughter Kelly in 2003.
Pop quiz: it was the second father-daughter duet to top the UK charts, but what was the first? Answer in five mins.
Jog on, Draiman! Ugly Kid Joe frontman Whitfield Crane replaces him, flanked by Frank Bello from Anthrax (joining bandmate Scott Ian who came on for the last song, Sweet Leaf) and Sleep Token’s drummer II (not what his mum calls him), the latter with his face typically obscured, today behind a golden skull. They’re doing Ozzy’s Believer and it’s a stately but mad-eyed rendition, further enlivened by a show of sheer technical guitar heroics by a soloing Bettencourt.
Another missive from Michael from two hours in the future. Fresh from being a surprise guest at Rod Stewart’s Glastonbury performance last weekend, Ronnie Wood has now appeared here too, joining Steven Tyler to perform Train Kept a Rollin’.
David Draiman from Disturbed comes on to replace Hale out front and perform Shot in the Dark, to some cheers but a substantial chorus of boos and middle fingers. Why? Well, he earned no small amount of controversy for sharing a picture of himself signing artillery shells used by the IDF in their assault on Gaza, specifically the words “Fuck Hamas”. He went on to say he is “pro peace and coexistence between all people”, though how that squares with signing artillery shells … Think we’ll sit this performance out.
Supergroup time
Momoa heralds metal as “a coping mechanism for the rebels, the renegades … this is still our safe haven, we are still here”. He introduces the supergroup, which it turns out is correct per the leaked info. Except Jake E Lee hasn’t turned up! And he was the one behind the leak! No wait, he’s here after all.
So it’s Lee, Dave Ellefson, Adam Wakeman, Nuno Bettencourt, Faith No More drummer Mike Bordin, plus Halestorm’s Lzzy Hale back out for another frontwoman stint, doing Ultimate Sin. This track, with one of Osbourne’s more androgynous vocal performances, suits her voice incredibly well and while it’s a slightly forgotten mid-80s Osbourne number they make a real case for it as a classic.
Tom Morello’s All-Stars next (so that Supergroup A info before may be wrong now, soz). Morello said in a recent interview: “You don’t even know, there are some surprises on the bill — you have no idea and you’re going to lose your mind.”
He added: “It’s not just heavy metal that is in the music of Black Sabbath. It’s in every country and western stage show. Every time a pop musician brings out a distorted guitar. It’s in hip-hop. It’s in the music of Run-DMC. It’s in the music of Rage Against the Machine. Every band from the 90s era has at least one person who worships at the altar of Black Sabbath.”
A couple more crowd shots coming in.
“Look at this! Look around at every one of you, my brothers and sisters,” Blythe says, getting a giant “Sabbath!” chant echoing around the arena. He refers back to the dismal, wartorn 1970s when Geezer Butler wrote Children of the Grave: “This song is a warning, and a command to love yourself and love your brothers and sisters … Let the sunshine in!” Ozzy’s searchlight-beam of a voice doesn’t come as naturally to Blythe as it does to Hale, Belladonna or Buchanan, but it’s still excellent fun to hear Lamb of God tear into this really substantial Sabbath hit.
And the lyrics – “Must the world live in the shadow of atomic fear? / Can they win the fight, or will they disappear?” – feel as apposite now as they did in the nuclear-fearing 70s.
Lamb of God now, kicking into the pottymouthed Laid to Rest. Considering Ozzy has spoken about this livestream as a bit of an afterthought in all the planning, it’s really well executed. Not too late to drop £25 on it, there’s still about eight hours left!! Up to 411,000 watching there now.
Redneck next. They’ve given Randy Blythe a comically long mic cord, to allow him to stalk up and down the stage like an extremely aggressive standup comedian. Some great drumstick acrobatics by Art Cruz too.
Billy Idol just came on the livestream with a message of love for Ozzy and a really gorgeous cherry-blossom hue of lipstick. Looked like the hardest barmaid in a five-mile radius.
Halestorm are covering Perry Mason, a solo Ozzy song that was a reasonable No 23 UK chart hit in November 1995 – I remember this sounding really eerie and odd amid all the Britpop and dance of the era.
Hale and co actually paid tribute to Sabbath in song: 2015’s I Like It Heavy, a manifesto for rawwwk, has this:
I love to crank it up, make it thump, and lead on to the core
Head bangin’ in the pit and throwin’ my horns
And just like old school Sabbath, Zeppelin, and Lemmy
I need to drop it down low and make it heavy
“Where are all my women of heavy metal?” Hale asks the audience to some joyful female screams, and it’s a question you might ask of this lineup. Unless there are some other surprises incoming, this gig isn’t so much a sausage fest as the joint AGM for Richmond and Wall’s: Hale is the only woman among dozens of men on the lineup. “I see you, I fucking hear you, and I got you,” she tells the women in the audience, “this one’s for you.” Halestorm play a new unreleased song, Rain Your Blood On Me. Perhaps shorn of the need to preserve her voice for a whole set, Hale is absolutely shredding her vocal cords for this and it gets an admiring response.
