(Credits: Far Out / Ozzy Osbourne)
Thu 12 February 2026 12:00, UK
In a career that lasted virtually up until the moment Ozzy Osbourne took his last breath, Black Sabbath were blessed to have shared the stage with a wide variety of acts over the course of 55 years together.
Of course, not all of these moments were spent as the same unit that they started and ended as, but their longevity as a group is something that can’t be ignored. Some may argue that the eras they spent with different members coming into the fold were some of their greatest, but when reminded of the existence of the ensemble featuring Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward, you’re unlikely to desire anything else.
Having started out small, as all bands do, this lineup that ran from 1968 to 1977 would have had a plethora of different names joining them on tours and stages throughout the period, and they were blessed with the chance to do this with a combination of high-profile names and acts they personally adored.
As they grew as a band and began to gain more notoriety, the calibre of the bands they were playing alongside would have shifted with it, but it also gave them the freedom to hand-pick acts they were fond of to accompany them on tours. At the same time, they’d have also had the misfortune of sharing stages with acts they certainly weren’t fans of, but such is the nature of festival bills that try to cater to too broad a clientele; they had to suck up the fact that there were going to be some stinkers among the support acts.
However, picking an absolute favourite act that they ever played with would have been a difficult task given the sheer quantity of bands they had the luxury of performing alongside, but one particular lineup that they appeared on in 1974 in support of the release of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath had a lineup that completely blew Osbourne away.
Having been selected to perform at the California Jam festival, which also saw the likes of Eagles, Deep Purple, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, and others grace the stage, there were clearly just as many clashes in sound among the lineup as there were perfect fits.
Osbourne’s absolute favourites on the bill, however, were Black Oak Arkansas, who were a sadly overlooked act despite seemingly having all of the credentials to have made it big. As a consequence of his fandom, the band were asked to accompany them on the whole of the UK leg of the Sabbath Bloody Sabbath tour, with them spending two months on the road together.
“I really enjoyed touring with Black Oak Arkansas,” Osbourne later proclaimed in a 2017 interview with Metal Hammer. “Their frontman, Jim Dandy, used to do this duet of Wings’ ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’ with a girl singer. I used to enjoy that, because I’m a massive Beatles fan. I played with Black Oak’s drummer, Tommy Aldridge, when I went solo. He was phenomenal.”
What’s more incredible about Black Oak Arkansas is that they’ve shown even more longevity as a group than Sabbath, having formed in 1963 and still operating today, but their immense musicianship and theatrical stage show were enough to convince Osbourne that they were the real deal, even if the rest of the world failed to catch onto the same notion.