Black Sabbath recently announced their final concert which will happen next July 5 at the Villa Park in Birmingham, the city where the band was formed. It will be the first time in 20 years that the original line-up will play together, featuring Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward. Many famous artists were invited to be part of the celebration which will also be a mini-festival. The Rush guitarist and co-founder Alex Lifeson revealed in an interview with Loudwire Nights that he and his bandmate Geddy Lee were invited to be part of the show but had to decline. As he said, they first accepted the invitation but other “things came up” and they had to back out of it.
Alex Lifeson explains why Rush had to decline invitation for Black Sabbath’s final show
“Oh, for sure (I liked them). I mean, those were very early days. We were playing high schools and eventually clubs and things like that. I don’t know if I was a really a fan of Black Sabbath, but I did get a couple records back then and I enjoyed listening to them. I respected Tony’s (Iommi) guitar playing.”
“That whole thing that they’re doing this summer, (Geddy and I) were asked to be a part of it, and we had agreed to do it, but other things came up, and sadly we had to back out of it, ’cause it would have been a lot of fun. And we enjoy playing with other people, and it gets Geddy and me together to do stuff, and all of that.”
“There was an interesting parallel for their beginnings and our beginnings. I (was) aware of (Black Sabbath), but nothing more than that, really,” he said (Transcribed by Blabbermouth).
Besides the band’s original line-up, the celebration will also have special guests like: Guns N’ Roses, Tool, Rival Sons, Andrew Watt, Dave Ellefson, Vernon Reid, Whitfield Crane and the actor Jason Momoa as the host. Other previously announced acts are Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax, Pantera, Alice in Chains, Slash, Sammy Hagar, KK Downing, Jake E. Lee, Papa V Perpetua (Ghost), Rudy Sarzo, Tom Morello and Wolfgang Van Halen.
