{"id":70670,"date":"2025-08-15T16:55:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T16:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/70670\/"},"modified":"2025-08-15T16:55:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T16:55:08","slug":"robert-plant-explains-why-he-declined-invite-to-ozzy-osbourne-and-black-sabbaths-back-to-the-beginning-gig","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/70670\/","title":{"rendered":"Robert Plant explains why he declined invite to Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath’s ‘Back To The Beginning’ gig"},"content":{"rendered":"

Robert Plant<\/a> has revealed the reason he declined an invite to Ozzy Osbourne<\/a>\u2018s last ever live show, Black Sabbath<\/a>\u2018s \u2018Back To The Beginning\u2019 gig.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0Ozzy Osbourne, 1948-2025: culture-smashing revolutionary that redefined rock and reality TV<\/a><\/p>\n

Heavy metal pioneer Ozzy died last month<\/a>\u00a0at age 76, which came shortly after he\u00a0took to the stage for his final-ever live show at the huge \u2018Back To The Beginning\u2019 event<\/a> in Birmingham on July 5, which was attended by a host of rock royalty.<\/p>\n

However, former Led Zeppelin<\/a> frontman Plant was not among them, and has since told Mojo<\/a> that while Tony Iommi<\/a> did extend an invitation, he declined it at the time, without specifying whether he was asked to perform at the gig, only saying that he was asked to \u201cattend\u201d.<\/p>\n

He was speaking to the publication about his upcoming album with Saving Grace, which the band will celebrate with a European and North American tour this autumn<\/a>, and shed light on his intent to move away from large-scale venues on the forthcoming trek.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me,\u201d he explained, \u201cbecause I\u2019ve 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 \u2013 Saving Grace needed just to move on up in glory, as Mavis [Staples] would say. We\u2019ve got to be very careful now that we make sure it stays closer to Bert Jansch than Axl Rose,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He continued to shed light on feeling more \u201cfree\u201d to play smaller venues with Saving Grace, which may have impacted his decision to decline \u2018Back to the Beginning\u2019. The landmark show was watched by millions around the globes and roughly 40,000 attendees live in Villa Park \u2013 with Plant seemingly referring to the performance as \u201cdoing the football stadium with some old mates.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe gigs are small enough so that if nobody wants to go, it\u2019s not the end of the world. And so, by having that laissez-faire, easy-going, whatever it\u2019s called \u2013 suicidal! \u2013 attitude, instead of doing the football stadium with some old mates, there it was: we were free. We could mess about.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI said, Tony, I\u2019d love to come, but I can\u2019t come,\u201d Plant said. \u201cI just can\u2019t. I\u2019m not saying that I\u2019d rather hang out with Peter Gabriel or Youssou N\u2019Dour, but I don\u2019t know anything about what\u2019s going on in that world now, at all. I don\u2019t decry it, I\u2019ve got nothing against it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just I found these other places that are so rich.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saving Grace are set to play play dates across New York, Vancouver, Chicago, Los Angeles and more later this year, with four intimate shows in London set for next month. You can visit here<\/a>\u00a0for tickets and check out a list of dates below.<\/p>\n

Robert Plant\u2019s upcoming shows are<\/p>\n

SEPTEMBER\u00a0<\/p>\n

28 \u2013 Kingston, LDN, Circuit (Show one at 5pm, show 2 at 7pm)
29 \u2013 Kingston, LDN, Circuit (Show one at 5pm, show 2 at 7pm)<\/p>\n

OCTOBER
30 \u2013 Wheeling, WV \u2013 Capitol Theatre Wheeling<\/p>\n

NOVEMBER
2 \u2013 Charlottesville, VA \u2013 The Paramount Theater of Charlottesville
3 \u2013 Washington, D.C. \u2013 Lincoln Theatre
5 \u2013 Brooklyn, NY \u2013 Brooklyn Paramount
6 \u2013 Boston, MA \u2013 Boch Center Shubert Theatre
8 \u2013 Port Chester, NY \u2013 Capitol Theatre
10 \u2013 Toronto, Ontario \u2013 Massey Hall
12 \u2013 Chicago, IL \u2013 The Vic
13 \u2013 Chicago, IL \u2013 Old Town School of Folk Music
15 \u2013 Denver, CO \u2013 Ellie Caulkins Opera House
18 \u2013 Seattle, WA \u2013 The Moore Theatre
19 \u2013 Vancouver, British Columbia \u2013 Vogue Theatre
21 \u2013 Oakland, CA \u2013 The Fox
22 \u2013 Los Angeles, CA \u2013 United Theater on Broadway<\/p>\n

Plant was among those who paid tribute to Ozzy following his death<\/a>, saying he had \u201ctruly changed the planet of rock\u201d.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, it was announced earlier this month that the flowers and tributes laid by fans in Ozzy\u2019s hometown Birmingham were being preserved<\/a> by the Central Bid Birmingham to be sent to the late singer\u2019s family.<\/p>\n

Reports have since emerged that a man has been arrested for theft of tribute flowers one of the memorial sites.<\/a><\/p>\n

The exhibition \u2018Ozzy Osbourne: Working Class Hero\u2019, which showcases his most prestigious international honours,\u00a0will remain open at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery until January 2026<\/a>. Additionally, a\u00a0biopic of Ozzy and Sharon\u2019s lives is in the works at Sony Pictures<\/a>, with negotiations with a director ongoing.\u00a0The project was first announced in 2021<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Robert Plant has revealed the reason he declined an invite to Ozzy Osbourne\u2018s last ever live show, Black…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70671,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[64,63,134,3088,136,1771],"class_list":["post-70670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-metal","tag-music","tag-rock"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70670\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}