Wolfgang Van Halen was forced to “back out” of Black Sabbath’s final concert.
The son of late guitar-slayer Eddie Van Halen has explained that he will no longer be performing at the Back To The Beginning concert at Birmingham’s Villa Park on July 5, due to his band Mammoth’s support tour with Creed.
Speaking on WRIF Detroit recently, Wolfgang Van Halen explained of the situation: “I, unfortunately, had to back out because the Creed tour starts the day after, and I wouldn’t be able to pull it off — unfortunately. I’m very excited to watch it, but I unfortunately had to back out.”
He’s not the only one to leave the lineup, as frontman Ozzy Osbourne’s wife Sharon recently revealed she dropped a band from the concert after having a “huge to-do” with their manager.
It remains a mystery which band are no longer playing the charity concert as a result of the fallout with music mogul Sharon.
She told Metal Hammer: “I had a huge, huge to-do with a manager over this celebration for Ozzy and Sabbath.
“And it was probably the worst way I’ve felt in years.
“I don’t care what this person says about me, thinks about it, because he doesn’t know me.
“And he’s now going around making up bull**** lies because I threw his band off the bill.”
There was speculation that Tool were the band in question after their name was removed from the lineup online, however, it has since returned.
Sharon continued: “Because do you know what? I don’t love them. I care about people who love me, what they say about me. You can’t care what an industry says, because you don’t love them, so how can it hurt you? It doesn’t.”
The loaded bill also includes Metallica, Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan, Duff McKagan and Slash of Guns ‘N Roses, Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst, Korn star Jonathan Davis, and Anthrax.
The concert is set to be Ozzy’s final show after he was struck by a series of health issues, and he recently admitted the impact of preparing for the gig.
He told the Ozzy Speaks podcast on SiriusXM: “All I can say is I’m giving 120 percent. If my God wants me to do the show, I’ll do it.”
The performance at Villa Park marks Ozzy’s first live appearance since 2018 and follows a series of health setbacks, including his 2020 public disclosure of a Parkinson’s disease diagnosis.
He added on his podcast about the mental toll of preparing to return to the stage: “My head’s crazy. ADHD – I have that badly. I will have done the show and died a death before I even started my exercises.
“So I try and put it on the back burner. I’m not going up there saying, ‘It’s going to be great. I’m really confident.’”
Ozzy also admitted he is still uncertain whether he will perform standing up or seated, following multiple spinal surgeries related to a 2003 quad bike accident at his Buckinghamshire home.
A fall in 2019 displaced metal rods inserted into his back from the crash, which he said has caused more complications than Parkinson’s itself.
Ozzy was diagnosed with a mild form of Parkinson’s in 2003 and delayed going public with his news until 2020.