In Loudwire’s July Digital Cover Story revisiting Back to the Beginning one year later, Jack Osbourne recalls two of the most emotional moments of one historic weekend. One involved his children as they toured Birmingham and the other was an intimate setting that fans did not get to see.
Before rock and metal’s hand-selected elite and over 40,000 fans overtook the Villa Park stadium in Birmingham on July 5, 2025, the city spent a week paying special tribute to Ozzy Osbourne and his Black Sabbath bandmates.
The previously erected Black Sabbath bench was seeing a record turnout while the Working Class Hero exhibit honoring Ozzy brought hordes of metalheads to the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery. The Crown Pub, where the members of Black Sabbath played their first-ever show (under a previous moniker) together back in 1968, further decorating the streets with vintage supersized photos along the outside walls and, on another street, an incredible mural signed by Sabbath’s original members.
Many fans made their way to Birmingham via railway, arriving at New Street Station and were immediately confronted with the hulking mechanical bull that had been named Ozzy after a public vote. The bull was a feature of the 2023 Commonwealth Games which had famously reunited Osbourne and Tony Iommi onstage together for the first time since Black Sabbath’s 2017 farewell.
“I’d never seen so much purple and black in my life,” Osbourne tells Loudwire. “Like, the whole city was just… it was like Sabbath and Ozzy day. It was awesome. I had not seen any of the installations or anything like that. I hadn’t gone to the bench before. We got there two days before the show and I was completely like, “Holy shit.” Like, “This is a thing.”
As attendees of Back to the Beginning ourselves, we can attest that there was a pervasive energy that radiated across the working class city, along the same streets the mighty Black Sabbath had walked themselves as unassuming kids of a post-World War II era.
Jack’s Kids Feel the Enormity of Their Grandfather’s Legacy
For Jack, this takeover helped open the eyes of the ones who get to call Ozzy “grandpa.”
“So, we just walked around Birmingham with my kids and just saw everything. The funny thing was seeing it through my kids’ eyes was really kind of unique because for most of my kids’ lives, my dad’s been sick,” he laments. “My older two, they got to see him play a bunch so they have those memories. But they were still very young. When he got sick, my eldest was about 6 or 7. They didn’t really understand how big [Black Sabbath’s] reach is and was, so cruising around the city with them, seeing all the installations and the museum and the bench and just how the whole city was just embracing it, it was cool to see.”
READ MORE: ‘Forever My Husband’ – Sharon Osbourne Reflects on First Wedding Anniversary Without Ozzy
Even for someone who has been around the family business his whole life, Back to the Beginning was unlike anything he’d experienced before. “I’d gone to plenty of gigs in cities that were really ramped [up],” he says, but this one was “different.”
Soundcheck Was Something Special
No event of this caliber is pulled off without a proper rehearsal as the big day’s stars all did a soundcheck before the July 5 homecoming.
“I went to soundcheck. That was the coolest part,” Jack recalls. “The thing about soundcheck was it was relaxed. No one was like… no pressure and…” He pauses to recollect himself, feeling on obvious and strong tug of emotion when looking back on the intimate day before sharing his father’s last onstage performances with the rest of the world.
Jack continues, “The thing with soundcheck was that it was like our own little private show. And it was just cool. It was mellow. The stadium was empty. It was a couple guys from different bands. [I] stood there with Mike Bordin and just different… it was just… it was great,” he reflects, the memory again grappling with his heart.
“It was just a cool experience. My kids were just running around. I’m happy we made it up there for that, for sure,” he enthuses, acknowledging, “That kind of sticks out to me in some ways more than the actual show.”
Watch the complete interview directly below and keep scrolling for another soundcheck recollection from one of the day’s stars further down the page.
Jack Osbourne on the Emotional Back to the Beginning Moment Fans Didn’t See
Billy Corgan Has the Same Feeling About Soundcheck
“I watched them soundcheck and it was just me and another alternative musician whose name I haven’t shared because I want to respect their privacy,” Smashing Pumpkins‘ Billy Corgan told Loudwire Nights radio host Chuck Armstrong shortly after Ozzy’s death last year.
“It was just the two of us standing in an empty stadium watching Sabbath soundcheck for the last time. And we both started crying. We were both like, ‘Do we know what we’re watching here?’ You understand? This is the end of our band. It’s so personal.”
“When he was out there in the chair, he gave us the classic Ozzy peace sign, just for me and this other guy. And we gave it to him back. That’s the thing I’m going to hold onto like a piece of gold for the rest of my life.”
More From Loudwire’s ‘Back to the Beginning: Revisited’ Cover Story With Jack Osbourne
Further recollecting Back to the Beginning, from its early idea state to the health challenges Ozzy faced before brushing off doctor’s concerns to the Prince of Darkness stepping out on the stage to play for his fans one last time and the elation after it was all over, Jack recalls the emotional rollercoaster of it all.
Read the complete Back to the Beginning: Revisited cover story here.
See the favorite Black Sabbath album of rock and metal legends below.
Favorite Black Sabbath Album of 21 Rock + Metal Legends
Members of Metallica, Iron Maiden, and even Sabbath themselves reveal their favorite titles from the band’s catalog.
Gallery Credit: Rob Carroll