Megadeth explain band’s absence from Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne farewell gig

Megadeth have explained why they were conspicuously absent from Black Sabbath’s recent ‘Back To The Beginning’ farewell concert.

• READ MORE: Ozzy Osbourne, 1948-2025: culture-smashing revolutionary that redefined rock and reality TV

The epic show took place at Villa Park in the band’s hometown of Birmingham on July 5, the final show from the iconic heavy metal band that took on extra poignancy less than three weeks later when Ozzy Osbourne tragically passed away at the age of 76.

A who’s who of hard rock music history played sets at ‘Back To The Beginning’, with Rage Against The Machine’s Tom Morello serving as musical director and names on the bill including Guns N’ Roses, KoRn, Tool, Slayer, Pantera, Metallica, Alice In Chains, Gojira, Anthrax, and Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler.

One major name in the history of metal that was not present, however, was Megadeth, and now the band’s bassist James LoMenzo has revealed the reason for their absence.

In an interview with Burn! magazine, it was pointed out to LoMenzo that his band were the only one of the traditional ‘Big Four’ that did not play. “I’m going to let the cat out of the bag,” LoMenzo replied. “The truth of the matter is, I don’t believe that anybody asked us, which was fine.”

“Not everybody gets invited to every party,” he continued. “But at the same time, when we were in Europe last week, David [Mustaine] 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. . . . If they wanted us to. I don’t know what our manager had accomplished with that, but it didn’t get accomplished, so we just came home.”

It has since been confirmed that the show has become the highest-grossing charity concert of all time, bringing in over $190million for their chosen charities Cure Parkinson’s, Birmingham Children’s Hospital and Acorns Children’s Hospice.

We also know now that a film documenting the gig is currently in production from Mercury Studios and is set to arrive in cinemas in 2026. It has a reported run time of 100 minutes and is described as “a love letter to Ozzy and the pioneering sound of Black Sabbath”.

Since the news of Osbourne’s death broke, countless stars of the music world have been paying tribute, including Oasis, Judas Priest, Metallica, Yungblud, Elton John, Ronnie Wood, Tom Morello and Alice Cooper.

The likes of Coldplay, Ghost, Gojira and Drake have also dedicated performances to Osbourne, as fans shared footage and memories from the artist’s final live appearances.

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