{"id":8954,"date":"2025-07-20T17:47:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-20T17:47:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/8954\/"},"modified":"2025-07-20T17:47:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-20T17:47:13","slug":"megadeth-skipped-black-sabbath-tribute-simply-because-no-one-asked-says-james-lomenzo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/8954\/","title":{"rendered":"MEGADETH Skipped BLACK SABBATH Tribute Simply Because No One Asked, Says JAMES LOMENZO"},"content":{"rendered":"

Megadeth bassist James Lomenzo recently addressed the band\u2019s absence from the Back To The Beginning charity concert held earlier this month in Birmingham, United Kingdom. Speaking to Charrie Foglio<\/a> for Japan\u2019s Burrn! magazine, Lomenzo confirmed that Megadeth was never invited to participate in the event, which celebrated Black Sabbath and featured three of the so-called \u201cBig Four\u201d thrash bands: Metallica, Slayer, and Anthrax.<\/p>\n

\u201cCharrie, I\u2019m going to let the cat out of the bag. The truth of the matter is, I don\u2019t believe that anybody asked us, which was fine. Not everybody gets invited to every party,\u201d Lomenzo explained. \u201cBut at the same time, when we were in Europe last week, David said that he was reaching out to everybody and telling them that we were in the neighborhood and that we were close enough to come. And if they wanted us to, we could stay over for a few days and work it out\u2026 If they wanted us to. I don\u2019t know what our manager had accomplished with that, but it didn\u2019t get accomplished, so we just came home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lomenzo also acknowledged that fans noticed the absence of Megadeth from the lineup. \u201cSo I know what you\u2019re saying [about one \u2018Big Four\u2018 band missing from the event]. Even before all of this started, everyone was saying, \u2018Well, what about Megadeth?\u2019 It was really funny to read because there was no invite and there was no talking to people, there was actually nothing to do with any of it. It was this exciting situation where we\u2019re celebrating Ozzy [Osbourne] in his retirement\u2026 Anyway, the show was amazing! I would have loved to have been there. I knew about the show months and months ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked about Sharon Osbourne\u2018s public comments suggesting that someone demanded payment to perform \u2014 a statement she said left her \u201cdisgusted\u201d \u2014 Lomenzo responded: \u201cWell, from my professional wrestling point of view, the show is done, so I don\u2019t care about the hype. Whoever couldn\u2019t come to terms couldn\u2019t come to terms. We couldn\u2019t do a show, that\u2019s all. But I\u2019ve got nothing but love for everyone there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lomenzo also shared that he has been collaborating with original Black Sabbath drummer Bill Ward on his new solo record. \u201cI\u2019ve been recording with Bill Ward [original Black Sabbath drummer],\u201d he revealed. \u201cHe\u2019s been doing his [new solo] record, and every now and then I\u2019ll get this wonderful phone call from his assistant Walter saying that \u2018Bill would love to have you come down and do a song with him.\u2019 And you don\u2019t know what that sounds like to my brain. It frazzles me, but I\u2019ve been working with him for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continued, \u201cAnd he intimated about the show. I would ask him if he had spoken to any of the guys in Black Sabbath, and he said that he spoke to Ozzy every day because Ozzy wasn\u2019t feeling very well at that time, so I was curious. He said, \u2018By the way, it looks we may do this final show.\u2019 So he knew about it, obviously, before they announced it. So I was excited when it came to fruition because I knew that it meant a lot to all the guys in Black Sabbath to have Bill up there.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the topic of Megadeth\u2018s missing presence at Back To The Beginning, Lomenzo added, \u201cI don\u2019t see it as controversy or anything. I do know that conspicuously we were missing, but nobody was invited.\u201d<\/p>\n

Interestingly, former Megadeth bassist David Ellefson, who was dismissed from the band in May 2021, did take part in the Birmingham event. Ellefson performed in the first of two supergroups assembled for the show, joining performances of \u201cThe Ultimate Sin\u201d alongside Lzzy Hale, Nuno Bettencourt, Jake E. Lee, Mike Bordin, and Adam Wakeman; \u201cShot In The Dark\u201d with David Draiman, Jake E. Lee, Mike Bordin, and Adam Wakeman; and \u201cSweet Leaf\u201d with David Draiman, Nuno Bettencourt, Scott Ian, Mike Bordin, and Adam Wakeman.<\/p>\n

Back To The Beginning, held on July 5 at Villa Park in Black Sabbath\u2019s hometown, attracted 42,000 attendees, with over five million viewers streaming the event via VOD. A theatrical release of the Back To The Beginning movie<\/a> is scheduled for early 2026, followed by a physical edition later that year. Additional release details are expected to be announced in the coming months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Megadeth bassist James Lomenzo recently addressed the band\u2019s absence from the Back To The Beginning charity concert held…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8955,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[64,63,134,136],"class_list":["post-8954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8954","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=8954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}