Metal
“Back to the Beginning”, the film and soundtrack of Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath’s Villa Park farewell show, comes out on 11 December on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, CD, vinyl and digital. Pre-orders opened today, the same day the film reaches cinemas, and Osbourne’s live “Mr. Crowley” is already streaming, with a video to go with it. It’s a Mercury Studios release.
Besides standard black, the vinyl comes in three exclusive colour variants: grey splatter at Osbourne’s store, purple splatter at Black Sabbath’s and metallic at independent shops.
The Blu-ray runs three and a half hours, with Dolby Atmos sound. Besides the concert, it includes Jack Black’s “Mr. Crowley” and Fred Durst’s “Changes”, a behind-the-scenes featurette, video tributes from Dolly Parton, AC/DC and Ricky Gervais, among others, and the documentary “Sounds of Birmingham”. The deluxe box set can be pre-ordered from today but won’t be out until April 2027: it adds a Blu-ray with all thirty-five Osbourne and Black Sabbath songs played that day, including those performed by the guests.
The show took place on 5 July 2025 in Birmingham, the city where Black Sabbath formed in 1968. Seated on a black throne, Osbourne sang five songs with his solo band (Zakk Wylde, Mike Inez, Adam Wakeman and Tommy Clufetos), four from “Blizzard of Ozz” plus “Mama, I’m Coming Home”, and then four with Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward: “War Pigs”, “Iron Man”, “N.I.B.” and “Paranoid”. According to the organisers, there were more than three million requests for 44,000 tickets.
“Ozzy suffered from chronic pain during the final six years of his life. His only wish was to perform one last time to thank his fans and say goodbye,” says Sharon Osbourne, who executive-produced the film. Osbourne died seventeen days later, on 22 July 2025.
Text by Roger Estivill