Robert Plant Reveals Why He Turned Down Invitation to Black Sabbath’s Farewell Show originally appeared on Parade.

Tony Iommi invited Robert Plant to attend Black Sabbath’s farewell show, and the Led Zeppelin legend recently revealed why he turned down the invitation.

“I said, Tony, I’d love to come, but I can’t come,” Plant, 76, told Mojo about the historic concert in an interview published on Tuesday, August 12. “I just can’t. I’m not saying that I’d rather hang out with Peter Gabriel or Youssou N’Dour, but I don’t know anything about what’s going on in that world now, at all. I don’t decry it, I’ve got nothing against it. It’s just I found these other places that are so rich.”

The concert was titled “Back to the Beginning” and was held at Villa Park in Aston, Birmingham, England, on July 5. Approximately 40,000 people attended in person, while roughly 5 million watched the event via livestream.

Not only did the concert mark the last time that original Black Sabbath members Iommi, 77, Ozzy Osbourne, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward performed together, but it was also Osbourne’s final show before he died on July 22 at the age of 76 following a cardiac arrest.

Parade Daily🎬 SIGN UP for Parade’s Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox 🎬

Also during the interview, Plant shared his current perspective on gigging. “For me, because I’ve been from a very questionable Live Aid to the O2, to Obama and the White House and all those things, I was beatified. I felt the tug of doing this — Saving Grace needed just to move on up in glory, as Mavis [Staples] would say. We’ve got to be very careful now that we make sure it stays closer to Bert Jansch than Axl Rose,” he said.

“The gigs are small enough so that if nobody wants to go, it’s not the end of the world. And so, by having that laissez-faire, easy-going, whatever it’s called — suicidal! — attitude, instead of doing the football stadium with some old mates, there it was: we were free,” the artist continued. “We could mess about.”

Robert Plant Reveals Why He Turned Down Invitation to Black Sabbath’s Farewell Show first appeared on Parade on Aug 13, 2025

This story was originally reported by Parade on Aug 13, 2025, where it first appeared.