Black Sabbath to continue as band despite playing final gig

Band played final show in Birmingham at the weekend

Black Sabbath‘s Tomy Iommi has said that he’s “sure” they will continue as a band despite playing their final show at the weekend (February 4) in their home city of Birmingham.

Playing 15 songs from their back catalogue at Birmingham’s NEC Arena, the heavy metal legends bowed out with closing song ‘Paranoid’, taken from the 1970 album of the same name. The final performance – which wrapped up the 81-date The End tour – was streamed live on the band’s Facebook page. They also performed classics ‘War Pigs’, ‘Iron Man’ and ‘Children of the Grave’. Members Ozzy Osbourne, guitarist Tony Iommi and bassist Geezer Butler helped form the band in 1968, and all three took part in the tour.

Speaking to Planet Rock, Iommi has now said that it is simply the end of the live aspect of the band. “It’s just the touring for me. It’s time to stop roaming the world and be at home for a bit. When you’re touring you’ve got to go out for six, eight, 12 months or whatever, and you’ve got a schedule that you have to do. Now, if I want to do some TV for a month, I can do that.”

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Iommi said he was open to releasing more music with Black Sabbath but that they haven’t discussed it yet: “I don’t think we’ve ruled anything out, apart from me not wanting to tour any more. Who knows? We may do something. We haven’t spoken about it. We haven’t talked about anything, really – but I’m sure something can happen somewhere.”

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Back in November, Osbourne claimed he would continue making music following the band’s final tour. “It’s not me that wants to retire, it’s Black Sabbath,” he told Ultimate Classic Rock. “I’ll be continuing my own musical thing. My wife is good at telling me partial information, but I know I’m not hanging my boots up for a while.”

Last month, keyboardist Geoff Nicholls died at 68 after a long-fought battle with cancer – he had performed with Black Sabbath for 25 years. “Geoff Nicholls was a great friend of mine for a long time. He will be greatly missed. I’m very saddened at the news,” Osbourne said in tribute.

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