Soundgarden were a no-show at Black Sabbath’s Back To The Beginning concert due to scheduling issues.
The Grunge legends were listed on the lineup of the seminal heavy metal band’s final concert at Birmingham’s Villa Park on July 5, but fans were gutted they didn’t partake in the epic send-off.
Thanking Sabbath – Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward – for inspiring “scores” of musicians and for the huge “honour” of being invited to perform at the farewell show, the Black Hole Sun rockers went on to explain why they were forced to pull out of their planned appearance.
Writing on their Nudedragons Instagram page, they said: “Congratulations to Black Sabbath on the grand and final pealing of their vesper bells.
“Thank you for an astounding career that provided us and your legion of fans with a lifetime of beauty, horror, love, power, happiness, melancholy and a profoundly sublime, yet viscerally rocking transcendence informed by both doom and hope.”
Soundgarden continued: “Your majestic brilliance has inspired greatness in scores of other bands, musicians and songwriters. However, the crown will forever remain yours.
“We are very grateful to Tony, Ozzy, Geezer and Bill, as well as Sharon Osbourne and music director, Tom Morello for the honour and invitation to Soundgarden to perform at the Back to the Beginning festival!”
Getting to why they were absent, they explained: “We are super bummed and regret that we were unable to coordinate the schedules of our individual and collective projects to attend and contribute to the festival.
“The warmth, love and support from the Black Sabbath team has been a continuing source of encouragement and strength throughout our career.”
Sharon Osbourne was the mastermind being the concert and Rage Against The Machine’s Tom Morello directed proceedings.
As well as the War Pigs rockers, members of Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, Slayer, Tool, Pantera, Lamb of God, Anthrax, Sleep Token and more took to the stage.
Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler, Blink-182’s Travis Barker, The Rolling Stones’ Ronnie Wood and Yungblud also performed.
The latter will release his standout cover of Sabbath’s Changes from the show on Friday (18.07.25), to raise funds for Cure Parkinson’s, Birmingham’s Children’s Hospital, and Acorns Hospice.