“Back to regular f—king programming” is how Kesha describes her current status, as if her life and career were parts of a show that had been unexpectedly pre-empted. The interruption lasted years, and no one knew if or when the schedule was going to snap back into place. At long has, Kesha tells Billboard, it has. She’s now returned to “what I’m good at, and what I’m supposed to do. Finally.”

She uses that last word countless times in an extended conversation, and you can’t blame her for doing so. After becoming the brightest new star in pop at the beginning of the 2010s thanks to turbo-charged, party-hard smash hits like “TiK ToK,” “We R Who We R” and the Pitbull collaboration “Timber.” Kesha became entrenched in a series of lawsuits with the primary producer on those songs, Lukasz “Dr. Luke” Gottwald, beginning in 2014. The pop star sued the producer for sexual assault and emotional abuse, among other allegations, and Gottwald filed a countersuit alleging defamation; while Kesha continued releasing music throughout the years of litigation, multiple attempts to be released from her contract with Gottwald’s RCA Records imprint, Kemosabe Records, were unsuccessful.

In May 2023, Kesha released Gag Order, a dark, despondent exploration of her trauma, with minimalist production from Rick Rubin and the image of the pop star with a blast bag over her head as its album artwork. One month after the release of the album (which has since been re-christened Eat The Acid on streaming services), Kesha and Gottwald announced that they had reached a settlement in a joint statement.

Although the years-long legal battle was resolved, Kesha would have to wait until March 2024 for her contract with Kemosabe Records to officially expire — but once it did, she sprinted forward. The pop star set up her own label, Kesha Records; released “Joyride,” an unhinged electro-pop single which became a viral hit last summer and hit the top 10 of the Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart; and worked closely with the pop producer Zhone (Troye Sivan, Kylie Minogue) on an album she describes as “sonically liberated.”

Period, not-so-subtly being released on Independence Day, is both a return to form for Kesha as a collection of brash, celebratory bangers with its ringleader’s tongue planted firmly in her cheek, as well as full-length with more depth and wisdom than the singles collections of her “TiK ToK” days. Tucked in between the arena-ready choruses and revved-up synths are serious messages of hard-fought peace (“It rained all year, but it’s clearing up/ I’m flying high, it’s a miracle,” she sings on “Yippiee-Ki-Yay”) and belatedly acknowledged self-worth (the powerful closing track, “Cathedral,” finds Kesha searching for a place of worship for years, then discovering it in the mirror).

“For anybody who’s survived anything difficult, hopefully it can be an album that they can put on and think, ‘If she can get through something and find this place of joy, then I can do that, too,’” Kesha says of Period. As triumphant as the album is, Kesha sounds even giddier when speaking about it. “Other people think success or money or thinking dating a hot person is the best revenge — it’s none of that. It’s happiness.”

Below, Kesha talks about putting Period together, as well as what might await her life and career from here.

When you thought about this album as a statement, how difficult was it to find a balance between putting out a personally significant piece of art and putting out fun, uptempo songs?

Honestly, it wasn’t difficult. The challenging part was deciding which songs I wanted to put on the record. I grew up as a punk — I like a fast song, I like getting in and out, I like an album with no skips. So the hard part was trying to figure out which of the songs that I’ve written this year go on which projects. I just write so many songs — all day, all night, in my sleep. There are so many songs. 

When I was putting this album together, I wanted to reclaim my joy on my own terms. My entire life, my body of work, every song I put out, there has been some sort of energetic or contractual caveat to it, [as if it’s] not feeling wholly and completely mine. When you hear enough times how the success of what you’re doing is probably due to somebody else, you start to internalize that.

So I went into this project being like, “I’m going to do this on my own, through my label. I’m going to write every single one of my songs, I’m going to produce it, I’m going to executive produce it. I’m going to be in charge of every f—king little thing.” So the successes and the failures, they are my responsibility — but I also can bathe in it being my creation. That’s been a really cool experience, to feel like this is me, 100 f—king percent, for the first time in my career, at 38 years old. I have nobody trying to convince me to do something, and having me question what I want to say and how I want to say it.

In a way, it feels like I get to revisit that space that I entered the world of music with, that I think is what connected me to the world. I have a sense of humor about life. I fancy myself, at times, leaning towards Zen Buddhism, and there’s a humor to my God, and there’s a humor to all of the absurdities of life. But it’s engrained in my spiritual practice as well that you have to laugh at all of this — like the lyric in “Happy,” “Gotta just laugh so I don’t die.” 

I really enjoy being unbridled and joyful and celebratory and silly and having fun, but what I’ve realized is, in order to get to that space, you have to first feel safe. There are basic human needs, to feel safe enough to then play or dance or make jokes. So I had to work really f—king hard to get to this place of safety, and now I can get back to doing what I do best — which is being a little f—khead that likes to create chaos and giggle about it across the world. 

Did that hands-on approach to the album, and amount of creative control, ever feel daunting?

No! I’d been working for over a decade. When “Timber” was the biggest song in the world, I made a choice — and I stopped being the thing that I never intended on being, which was a woman who’s onstage preaching about self-love, who behind-the-scenes is not feeding herself, trying to please everyone except for herself, spiraling about this internalized shame that has been projected onto her by a bunch of external forces. I was trying to portray this image and ideal of what a pop star should be, when that’s not who I am. I’m a very specific, strange creature, and I found myself embodying everything that I don’t stand for. 

There have been micro-ways that I have taken my power back in my career, but finally, this past year has been the first time that I could literally jump in my car and go do whatever the f—k I want with my body, my voice and my face, and I was like, “Get everybody the f—k out of my way.” It was not daunting. I waited for this moment my entire g—damn life. 

Me and Zhone went to Mexico, and I was like, “Zhone, we are gonna go look for stingrays, I’m gonna go try to swim with some sharks, and then we’re gonna go back in the room and record the rest of the vocals for ‘The One.’ And then we’re gonna drink a beer by the pool, and then I’m gonna jump in the ocean. You can do whatever you want, but from 6:00 ’til 7:00, I will be having ocean time.” That’s how we made the record, that’s the way I wanted to make the record, and I think that’s why you hear so much joy.

Why swimming with sharks?

Probably from spending too much time in the music business, I feel really comfortable swimming with sharks. [Laughs.] That’s my happy place — it makes me feel calm and peaceful. I’d do that as a morning meditation, and then we’d work for a long time, and then he would do whatever he wanted to, and I would go do my witchy s—t with the ocean and talk to the universe. Then we would reconvene the next day. It was amazing.

To that point, you sound relaxed throughout the whole album, and comfortable in the moments that contain a greater sense of gravity — like the opener “Freedom,” which is your longest song to date at nearly six and a half minutes, and the closer “Cathedral,” on which you sing, “I’m the savior, I’m the altar, I’m the Holy Ghost,” and you let your voice vibrate on that line in such an interesting way.

I really do feel like it’s been a homecoming in a lot of ways — not only legally, to the rights of my voice, but to letting go of that internalized shame, of letting all that go and coming home to my own body, my joy, myself. And part of that has been healing my relationship with the records that I’ve put out that were difficult to make — that were perceived in a way that wasn’t the way I intended, that were tied to events that I don’t stand for.

There has been a lot of pain surrounding certain parts of my life. Letting go of that — and thinking of my body, my mind and my spirit as my cathedral — has been a really important piece of my spiritual practice. I love that song, and I loved that you connected with that song. It’s one of my favorite songs I’ve ever written.

When did you start working on these songs?

I got a phone call on December 6 [2023], that said, “In three months’ time, you will be a free woman.” And from the moment I became a free woman, I had spent day and night in the studio, in this state of euphoric psychosis. I finally felt free, so the creative muse was just in me, in this flow state. 

It’s been a year and a half, and it still is so intense. I was up ’til 3:00 in the morning last night, after nine hours of rehearsal, writing another song. I feel like I’ve been given this gift from God, that’s almost like, “You went through the hard part, now you have your freedom, and I’m going to turn you into this channel.” That’s what it’s been feeling like lately.

“Joyride” was the first song you released after your previous deal ended — on Independence Day in 2024, exactly one year before Period. And it became this beloved fan song and viral hit.

It was really exciting. In our society, specifically for women in any sort of public-persona position, aging, the concept of time, is made to be our enemy. Growing up, I was made to believe that by 38 years old, nobody would give a f—k about me. I actually had been told the words, by the time I was free, I would be irrelevant. So to see my fans not only connecting to the music, but turning it into this like psychotic, hilarious celebration of the chaos of life, was just so healing to my f—king soul on a very deep level. It was also just like, “Oh my God, it’s not true. I’m not irrelevant! I fought this fight, and I’m free, and people do care, people are connecting.” It made me just feel like, “Okay, keep going. Keep going.”

Was there ever a chance that this new album would be extremely angry instead of joyful — as in, once your deal was over, you’d take aim at those who had wronged you?

But that’s what Eat the Acid [the alternate title for Gag Order] was. If you go back in time, the anger, the disassociation, the feelings of complete isolation, suicidal ideation — all of that, I talk about on that record. Thank God I had Rick Rubin to do that record with, because he was such a safe container for all of those emotions. Up until that point in my life, I had no place to go, and I had all of these emotions that were really overwhelming and really difficult to deal with. Of course, I would work on it with my therapist and my friends, and I would do a lot of spiritual work around it. But when I met Rick Rubin, it felt like such a relief for my system, because I could finally put it into the music.

I had this unsubstantiated idea that I just always had to be happy and keep it together in my music, before I made what is now called Eat the Acid. I got to get out all of that aggression and pain with someone who — I mean, I’ve never met a man that I admire more than Rick Rubin. I got to do it with my one of my heroes, and that was a really beautiful gift. And to be honest, even the way that album performed at the time was painful, but I can now see in hindsight that it led me to my newly found freedom.

How do you see the next few years of your career playing out, especially now that you’re in such a creative groove?

Now that I’ve made it through the battle of a lifetime, what I have emerged with is my name, and I hope that my name can stand for integrity in this world and in this business. So I’m just choosing really carefully where to place that name, and right now, it’s with Kesha Records, my label. It’s with my tour, and it’s in my app called Smash, that will create community for artists and music makers so they can connect, collaborate and hire each other for their services. A big issue in the music business is the gatekeeping of contacts, art not being valued, and artists not getting paid what they should be paid to be the icons that we worship in our times of joy and sorrow. So I’m trying to work on that behind the scenes. 

I’m teaching songwriting. I want to travel the world and teach the thing that has saved my life to as many other people as possible. I think that my life purpose is creating community, and a safe place for people to play. On my tour, I want everyone to come and feel like it’s a safe place for them to play and be celebrated exactly as they are. I’m just excited to see where the world’s going to take me. 

Flavor Flav is doubling down on his stance against firearms, penning an emotional op-ed calling for a total ban on the weapons following the release of Public Enemy‘s new protest song, “March Madness.”

In the essay published Wednesday (July 2) for Newsweek, the hip-hop star details his own personal history with guns while drawing on his concerns for his children’s safety. The piece comes amid a sharp increase in school shootings over the past few years, with CNN reporting that there have already been 23 in the U.S. this year alone as of May 13.

“I fear for my kids when I drop them off at school,” Flav wrote. “Our schools aren’t safe and our kids aren’t safe.”

“This is because gun protection laws are weak,” he continued. “Guns are falling into the hands of the wrong people. I would know. I went to jail because of guns … So I am speaking from firsthand experience.”

Along with bandmate Chuck D, Flav dropped “March Madness” in honor of Juneteenth. Opening with a recording of a teacher reporting a school shooting to a 911 operator, the track finds the duo slamming “crooked politicians” for “acting scared of the NRA.”

“Kids supposed to have fun, none of this ‘Run for cover for your life, son,’” Chuck D spits on his verse.

In his op-ed, Flav shared his thoughts on why gun violence has become so widespread in the U.S., before telling readers about his hopes for the new song. “Fear and power are two of the biggest emotions that drive us,” he wrote. “America is being built on fear. You have people who are scared. And these people are fighting for gun rights to protect themselves. They wouldn’t have to protect themselves if all guns were banned.”

“I hope this song, ‘March Madness,’ reignites the conversation,” the rapper added. “I hope this song sparks change. I hope this anthem gives a voice to those who feel powerless against a system of power and greed. I hope we can come together to create a wall of unity with peace and togetherness that is so strong, no one can divide and tear us down.”

The essay comes as Public Enemy is on its world tour, with the unit most recently stopping in Trondheim, Norway, during one of several shows opening for Guns n’ Roses. The next concerts queued up include stops in Stockholm, Austria, Poland and more European countries.

“March Madness” marked Public Enemy’s first piece of new music since dropping What You Gonna Do When the Grid Goes Down? in 2020. The protest track appears on new LP Black Sky Over the Projects: Apartment 2025, which the group surprise-released as a Bandcamp-only digital download on June 27.

Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler does not hide his amusement — and perhaps bemusement — when asked if the Back to the Beginning mega-concert scheduled for July 5 in the band’s home town of Birmingham, England, will truly be, as advertised, the final stage appearance by the original quartet, as well as by frontman Ozzy Osbourne.

“With this band, I have given up trying to predict a ‘last ever’ performance,” Butler tells Billboard. “Every time I have stated ‘never again,’ something comes up, like this Villa Park gig.”

It’s certainly true that this is not the first time Sabbath and Osbourne as a solo artist have hung the farewell banner on an enterprise; the former’s last tour was even dubbed The End. But there’s a real acceptance that due to age and especially Osbourne’s well-documented health issues — including Parkinson’s disease and emphysema — Back to the Beginning will be the real end to a landmark career that began in 1968 as Earth and is widely accepted as the progenitor for all that the world knows as heavy metal.

“It’s incredible, but it’s also sad because this is the final show for them, and that’s definite,” notes Robert Trujillo, who played bass for Osbourne from 1996 to 2003 before joining Metallica, who is part of the Back to the Beginning bill. And Sharon Osbourne — who is married to Ozzy, has managed him since he first went solo in 1979 and has also handled Sabbath — promises that “there’s no way on God’s Earth” there will be more.

“We’re done,” she declares. “I’ve been doing this since I was 15, and I’m done. We just want to live our life and do what we want to do and not have to follow an itinerary anymore.”

Sabbath, who is reuniting with original drummer Bill Ward (he dropped out of the band acrimoniously in 2012), and Osbourne will certainly be going out in style on July 5. Similar to the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert back in 1992 in London, they’ll be joined by a who’s-who roster of metal and hard rock luminaries such as Guns N’ Roses, Slayer, Tool, Pantera, Gojira, Halestorm, Alice In Chains, Lamb of God, Anthrax, Mastodon and Rival Sons. Also on the docket are Sammy Hagar, Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan, Korn’s Jonathan Davis, Ghost’s Tobias Forge, Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst and former Osbourne guitarists Zakk Wylde and Jake E. Lee. Musical director Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine promises there will be “a few unadvertised global, international superstars that people will be very, very happy to see.”

Actor Jason Momoa will serve as emcee, and proceeds — including from a global livestream (tickets via the event’s website) — will go to Cure Parkinson’s, the Birmingham Children’s Hospital and Acorns Children’s Hospice. Ozzy has also contributed his DNA to 10 cans of Liquid Death Iced Tea, which will be sold for $450 apiece.

“The goal from day one was very, very simple — to make it the greatest day, the most important day in the history of heavy metal music,” says Morello, who’s predicting the show, which begins at 3 p.m. in Birmingham and 10 a.m. ET, will last about 10 hours. “There’s never gonna be a dull moment. We’ve unearthed some incredible footage of things and people that no one’s ever seen, and a lot of surprises in a lot of other areas, too.”

Sabbath’s Butler adds, “It has been overwhelmingly gratifying to have so many major bands showing their love for this band, and willingly doing it all for charity. We were always hated by the music press, but the people that matter — the fans and other musicians — have been overwhelmingly supportive of Sabbath and were always proud to acknowledge our influence on them.”

Morello was approached more than a year ago by the Osbournes with the idea for the concert. “It was my idea,” Sharon says, “because [Ozzy’s] one regret was he didn’t get the chance to say thank you to his fans before he finished his world tour. We were in the middle of his [2018 No More Tours 2] world tour, his retirement tour; we’d only done about nine months of the tour and he got sick.”

Osbourne has made only three public stage appearances since the end of 2018: with Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi at the Commonwealth Games Closing Ceremony in Birmingham on Aug. 8, 2022; at the NFL Kickoff a month later in Inglewood, Calif.; and at last October’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in Cleveland, where he sat in a throne while being feted by another all-star array of musical friends, many of whom are part of Back to the Beginning.

But, Sharon continues, “He kept saying, ‘It’s my one regret’ and ‘I want a chance to really say thank you.’ And this is what we thought would be the best way to do it. It’s a celebration of Ozzy and Sabbath and the music. “

Morello says curating the event has been “a labor of love,” even among the machinations “of figuring out who’s gonna play, what they’re gonna play, what order they’re gonna play in.” Few arms had to be twisted — “You call up folks and say, ‘Would you like to play at the last Black Sabbath show ever?’ people pick up the phone,” Morello notes — though Wolfgang Van Halen had to drop out due to logistics of tour commitments back in North America, and Scorpions were locked into a 60th anniversary concert in Hanover, Germany, which also includes Judas Priest.

And Sharon — who will join her family at the Birmingham Comic Con July 12-13 — has revealed that one band was disinvited because it “wanted to make a profit, and it’s not the time to make a profit. After the show I’ll let everybody know who it was. I think people will be shocked.”

Having Ward back in the Sabbath lineup was also key to the event, according to all concerned. “It had to be the original four of us or nothing — otherwise, it would be pointless,” Butler says. “I sincerely hope people go away happy to have seen a great final performance from us.” The four musicians were presented with Birmingham Freedom of the City scrolls and medals on June 28.

Morello adds, “Having Bill Ward play is really, really important. He was the guy who is playing on all those records that created the genre of heavy metal music, and one of the greatest drummers of all time.

“The show is back to the beginning,” Morello continues. “They’re playing in the soccer stadium that is literally a block and half from where half the band grew up where they could hear the cheer of the crowd when they couldn’t afford a ticket. So for the four of them to be back home in Birmingham, where the original heavy metal was forged, is going to be a special thing.”

When the dust — or pyrotechnics — settle, meanwhile, Morello hopes Back to the Beginning will have told a story that pays tribute to both Osbourne and Black Sabbath.

“While it’s universally accepted that Black Sabbath is the greatest metal band of all time,” Morello – who’s releasing his topical new single “Pretend You Remember Me” on July 10 — explains, “I think that the world doesn’t really get that it’s one of the most important musical artists of all time. The DNA of Black Sabbath is everywhere, in every stage, from every pop, country stage show, in every Lady Gaga performance. Every band from the ’90s era has at least one dude who grew up learning Black Sabbath songs, from Rage [Against the Machine] to Tool to Alice In Chains, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam — all those bands. It was very much in our DNA.

“So the hope here is really to give those guys the celebration that their careers deserve, but also to let the world know that Black Sabbath stands among the all-time titans of rock n’ roll.”

There is, of course, great excitement from the Back to the Beginning participants, and even from those who will be watching from afar, and many were happy to share their expectations and reasons for being part of the day.

The Smashing Pumpkins was managed for a time by Sharon Osbourne, and despite an acrimonious parting, frontman Billy Corgan says that “we made our peace years ago,” and even hosted her on his podcast, The Magnificent Others, which is when she invited him to be part of Back to the Beginning.

“I was stunned and very honored,” says Corgan, who’s expected to be part of a Boys From Illinoize performance with fellow Chicagoland natives Morello and Adam Jones of Tool. “When you look at the bill, you could argue this might be the greatest one-day lineup in the history of rock n’ roll. It’s just crazy who’s gonna be there, It’s such a beautiful story — even their years apart, the acrimony, the fighting, the silliness, and here they are, home together, even with Bill [Ward] playing drums. To think they’re gonna go out on their musical shield together — I think it’s so beautiful.”

Corgan — who co-wrote and played on the track “Black Oblivion” on Tony Iommi’s 2000 album Iommi — maintains that “Sabbath is probably my favorite band of all time” and recalls taking some lumps from the alt-rock world for championing the group. “No joke — there was a fanzine interview from 1988 and they asked us who we listen to and I mention Sabbath, and the girl starts making fun of me,” Corgan says. “Back then it wasn’t cool to like Sabbath, right? But I think their worth has been proven. It’s so durable, so influential — it’s mind-boggling, the influence.

“What I really look forward to is not only seeing them play, but I know how much they mean to the Metallicas and the Slayers of the world. Even they’ll be in a different emotional range that day. It’ll be amazing for all of us.”

Tool’s Maynard James Keenan got hooked into Sabbath when a cool aunt gave him copies of Black Sabbath and Joni Mitchell’s Blue during the same weekend. “I was listening to all the garbage that my [other] aunts and uncles brought me, like the DiFranco Family and Osmond Brothers and stuff,” shares the Tool frontman. “So on a nice Saturday morning, at my grandmother’s house watching monster movies on TV, she turned on Black Sabbath, and it was all uphill from there.”

Keenan, who sang “Crazy Train” during Ozzy Osbourne’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction last October in Cleveland, says he’s a fan of both Sabbath and Osbourne’s solo work. “Blizzard of Ozz, I was in high school when it came out and it was awesome ’cause I hadn’t heard from him in awhile. Back then we didn’t have Internet so we didn’t know what was going on, and out of nowhere you get Blizzard of Ozz and it was like, ‘Hallelujah!’ It was great. It’s just watching an artist progress and seeing what their journey is.”

He has “mixed feelings” about honoring Osbourne and Sabbath, and helping to usher them to what’s said to be a final end to their careers. “It makes you sad, because you want him to be able to do it forever,” Keenan explains. “So I’m honored to be able to step up, having been called to come do it, but at the same time, sad.”

Halestorm’s Lzzy Hale started listening to Black Sabbath when she was “around 11 or 12 years old” — ironically via the early ’80s Heaven and Hell and Mob Rules albums, when the late Ronnie James Dio fronted the band and Osbourne was beginning his solo career. “Then I traced the map back to the beginning and fell in love with Masters of Reality and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, etc. … Black Sabbath is how I define heavy music. Also, the spelling of my name would not be spelled L-Z-Z-Y without the legend of Ozzy. As more time goes by, I find myself rediscovering all the ways these men have influenced who I am today.”

Hale says she “fully reverted to my inner teenager and couldn’t believe it was real” when Halestorm “got an email asking if we’d like to be involved in this event.” She’s also the only woman on the bill, a distinction she does not take lightly.

“I am so incredibly humbled to … be the woman representing all of the women who were raised on this music,” she says. “I’ve never thought of rock or metal being a man or woman’s game. It doesn’t matter what gender you are. If you want to be a lifer like Black Sabbath, you have to be willing to give your life to it, break through the illusion of rules and spit in the face of adversity. This is the path they carved for all of us, and we are all Sabbath’s children.”

Slayer’s Kerry King, who was something of a latecomer to Black Sabbath, picked up on Heaven and Hell. “I was aware of ‘Paranoid’ ’cause that was a hit on the radio, and I knew about Ozzy, but I didn’t know why,” the guitarist recalls. “Maybe I was too sheltered to be into Sabbath. But once I got Heaven and Hell, I did my backwards homework and the stuff with Ozzy on it, and there it was, y’know?”

The other members of Slayer are kindred spirits in their regard for Sabbath, of course, and King is confident that the band’s late co-founder Jeff Hanneman, who passed away in 2013, would be “super proud” to be part of Back to the Beginning with the band. “He was so subdued and lackadaisical to fame that it’s hard to say,” King notes. “But in my opinion, I think he would be super stoked as well.”

King has been touring with his own band since last year’s release of his first solo album, From Hell I Rise, also featuring Iron Maiden songs in his set. Choosing a Sabbath tune for Back to the Beginning (he won’t reveal which one) was “a lot of fun,” but frustrating. “I certainly wasn’t dragging my feet, but by the time we got around to picking a song, all the ones you might expect us to do were taken,” he says. “So I really dove in on my homework and found a couple of appropriate songs and ran ’em by Tom Araya [Slayer bassist and vocalist]: ‘Are you cool with these?’ Then I picked one and it was  available, so we took it.”

For Charlie Benante — who will be doing double-duty at Back to the Beginning on drums for both Anthrax and Pantera — anything related to Black Sabbath brings back a semi-traumatic occasion during his childhood that he can laugh about now.

“My sister would take me to the record store,” he remembers, “and one time I bought this Black Sabbath T-shirt with an iron-on of the cover of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. I brought it home and my mother flipped out ’cause it had ‘666’ on it. She made my sister take me back to the story and return it. I had to stand there with her in humiliation.”

Benante will feel nothing but pride in Birmingham, however. “I’m just looking forward to being there and paying my respects to the guys who really turned a kid from the Bronx into what I became.”

Both of Benante’s bands have recorded Sabbath songs over the years, he notes; Anthrax covered “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath” on its 1987 EP I’m the Man, while Pantera has logged renditions of “Planet Caravan” — which Benante says “is probably the most mellow song that’ll be played that day” — for its 1984 album Far Beyond Driven and “Electric Funeral” for 2000’s Nativity In Black II Sabbath tribute album. Each band, he says, has a different way of approaching Sabbath’s aesthetic.

“With Anthrax it’s a little different ’cause Joey [Belladonna] is a different singer than Philip [Anselmo]; Joey can sing really high, so he goes for those notes Ozzy went for, and Philip takes it down to a lower register,” Benante explains. “And Pantera lays back a little more into the groove of it. It’s two completely different sounds, but it’s the same, if you know what I mean. It’s Sabbath.”

Lamb of God frontman Randall Blythe has no tolerance for any skepticism applied to Back to the Beginning. “Some people are like, ‘Oh, let him retire. Sharon’s just trying to get money,’” he says. “No. F–k you. Ozzy wants to do this. Let him sing. He loves doing this, let him do his thing one last time. Let him sit there and be honored by all of us, ’cause we came from him. All of us have Black Sabbath’s DNA in our music. They are the tree from which we have fallen.”

Lamb of God has history with both Sabbath and Osbourne, on the bill with the former during the 2004 Ozzfest tour and opening for Osbourne in 2007 (and also touring that same year with the Dio-fronted Sabbath reincarnation as Heaven & Hell). “So be asked to do [Back to the Beginning] is an incredible honor,” Blythe says. “This will be the last one. It’s not like the endless Kiss tour. This is it, and I think everybody, all the bands are pretty emotional about it. We want to go and give them the best send-off as possible and just show respect and thank them.”

Under any other circumstances, Judas Priest would be there for its fellow Brummies in person. But a previously scheduled slot for Scorpions’ 60th anniversary concert in Hanover, Germany, proved an insurmountable obstacle.

“When Sharon reached out, she was aware we were doing Scorpions,” Priest frontman Rob Halford says. “She wanted me to fly back and forth between the two. I would’ve loved to have done that, but it was just too risky. We’ve been best friends with Scorpions since they began, just like we’ve been best friends with Ozzy and Sabbath since they began. So it’s all understood. We’ll be there in spirit.” And via a tribute video, according to Halford.

“I shall probably stream the show while I’m singing on stage” — he breaks into song, singing “breaking the law, breaking the law” — “‘Oh, Ozzy’s just come on!’” Halford says with a laugh. “It just reinforces the importance of Ozzy and Sabbath in our world of music. All these massive bands love them so much they’re just running to this event, just to show much they mean to those artists, their importance and their value and they’re contribution is absolutely gigantic. It’s a big deal.”