Electric Funeral

TONY IOMMI ADMINISTERS LAST RITES TO BLACK SABBATH, AND SHARES HIS MEMORIES OF THE BAND’S FINAL GIG, FILMED IN ALL ITS GLORY ON THE END OF THE END.

- Tony Iommi

ON FEBRUARY 4, 2017, Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi, singer Ozzy Osbourne and bassist Geezer Butler took the stage for one last sold-out show to-gether in their hometown of Birmingham, England. As they ripped through classic songs like “War Pigs,” “Iron Man” and “Paranoid” in front of 16,000 fist-pumping fans, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.

It was the end of an era—an extremely heavy one. “It did get a bit nostalgic,” says Iommi. “I definitely thought of how long the whole thing has gone over the years, and how long we’ve known each other. I felt all that onstage. It was a bit…it felt sad, really. All these people from all over the world came to see us, including many that followed us from the very beginning, and you could see they were upset and crying, so it was an emotional experience.

“There was this one couple who came to see us all the time in South America. We would play one of those shows in front of 80,000, and they would somehow squash through and make it to the front. And, lo and behold, I look down at our last show in Birmingham, and there they are, in the front row.”

For those unable to attend the band’s grand finale, the performance was captured for posterity by Dick Carruthers, the director behind classic concert films like Led Zeppelin: Celebration Day and The Who Live at the Royal Albert Hall. Titled The End of the End, the DVD documents the entire show plus offers behindthe-scenes footage, personal anecdotes and fabulously intimate studio performances of material not featured on the tour.