We got half a Black Sabbath reunion at the closing ceremony of the Commonwealth Games earlier this month, but we almost had more. Black Sabbath vocalist Ozzy Osbourne and guitarist Tony Iommi took the stage during the ceremony to rip through the Black Sabbath classic "Paranoid," though Iommi said in an interview with BirminghamLive that bassist Geezer Butler was also invited.
"I don't think he wanted to come over as he hadn't been well with Covid," said Iommi. "He'd been on holiday to Kenya and to Italy and had had an accident on a boat, cracking or breaking a rib about three weeks ago, so he was not quite in fine fettle to come over to play. It's a shame because we'd talked for a long time about the possibility of playing at the Commonwealth Games."
Iommi also expressed his surprise about Osbourne being there, saying "I never thought that Ozzy would be able to come and perform at the Commonwealth Games because of his operation. And then when he said he was coming over we were asked to keep it all a secret so that nobody would know."
Instead of Butler, the duo was joined by final Black Sabbath drummer Tommy Clufetos and live Black Sabbath musician Adam Wakeman. You can check out footage of the closing ceremony below.
