The guitarist Kerry King had the chance to pay tribute to Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne since Slayer was part of their final festival/show “Back to The Beginning”, which happened last July 5. The musician revealed in an interview Metalshop TV, that he managed to watch almost all the shows that day.
Slayer’s Kerry King recalls watching almost all the shows at Black Sabbath’s final festival
“Yeah, I made a point to be there all day at the ‘Back To The Beginning’ show. My friends in Mastodon were playing first, so I wanted to see them. I know Halestorm was playing early; I wanted to see them, I saw Alice in Chains soundcheck the day before. I watched Ozzy and Black Sabbath play… They had something set up like a giant LED screen backstage with its own P.A., so I just parked myself right in front of it and I had basically a front-row seat to the whole show for those two. I was on stage for Metallica.”
“It was a good day. When you do a festival, like we’re doing today (at Brutal Assault), a lot of times I don’t know who we’re playing with, but I knew ‘Back To The Beginning’ for months, so I had a whole day planned out to watch my friends play. And it was cool. And with Ozzy passing away very soon thereafter, I’m very happy that I was able to be a part of that.”
He also recalled the first time he met Ozzy: “(It) probably would’ve been the late ’90s. ‘Cause when they were testing Ozzfest, we did all the original ones, when they were like one gig or two gigs, maybe Southern California and Phoenix, just to see if it was a feasible idea. So I’m assuming it was around then, but I don’t have that memory. (Laughs),” Kerry King said (Transcribed by Blabbermouth).
Slayer was one of the final bands to play before Ozzy and Black Sabbath. The band that reunited recently, played the songs “Disciple”, “War Ensemble”, “South of Heaven”, “Raining Blood”, “Angel of Death” and covered Sabbath’s “Wicked World”.