In a new interview with Oran O’Beirne of Fistful Of Metal magazine, Lamb Of God frontman Randy Blythe looked back on the emotional weight of performing at “Back To The Beginning“, the historic all-star heavy metal benefit concert held in July 2025 at Villa Park in Birmingham, United Kingdom. Headlined by Ozzy Osbourne, the monumental event marked the final live performance of his career and saw the original Black Sabbath lineup perform together for the first time since 2005.
Given the immense significance of the event, which brought together some of the biggest names in heavy music to pay tribute to the genre’s creators, Oran O’Beirne asked the vocalist if nerves crept in before taking the stage, or if his decades of touring experience allowed him to treat it like a normal gig.
“Dude, I was terrified,” Randy admitted (via Blabbermouth). “But you know what?! Every single other band was. From Mastodon, who opened the show, to Metallica. I know this for a fact, because I talked to everyone. We were all, like, ‘Holy s**t! We are so nervous.'”
When asked if the feeling equated to genuine stage fright given the unparalleled magnitude of the concert, the frontman paused before clarifying the distinction between pure stage fright and the overwhelming reverence felt that day.
“Well, it wasn’t ‘stage fright’ I was experiencing that day,” he explained. “The last time I actually experienced stage fright was years ago when we played Download festival in 2007, the first time we played the festival. I walked out there and saw the size of the crowd and I was, like, ‘Holy s**t!’, but after a while, I got into it and felt like I could run through a brick wall. With ‘Back To The Beginning‘, it wasn’t stage fright, as I said, but I was extremely nervous.”
Randy revealed that even the most seasoned titans of the genre felt the pressure of honoring heavy metal’s founding fathers on their home turf.
I’ll never forget walking to the stage with my girlfriend to see Metallica and we were walking alongside Lars [Ulrich]. They were getting ready to go on and he looked at us and said, ‘Holy s**t, I’ve never been so nervous in my entire life.'”
The concert, directed musically by Tom Morello of Rage Against The Machine, served as a definitive farewell for Ozzy Osbourne, whose progressive health issues had forced his retirement from regular touring. For Lamb Of God, securing a spot on the bill was an absolute priority.
“We all knew this was going to be Ozzy‘s last show. It’s not gonna be like Kiss where it’s, like, ‘One more final run’. Hell, Kiss will probably be touring when I’m dead and gone,” Randy stated. “But with this show, we all knew that this was the final one for Ozzy because of his health. So, nobody wanted to be the band that got up there and f**ked up. We were all asked to be there by Ozzy and Sharon [Osbourne, Ozzy‘s wife and manager] by way of Tom [Morello]. He texted me and said, ‘Sabbath and Ozzy will be doing their very last shows and they have put in me in charge of organizing all the bands, and I’d like to know if Lamb of God wants to be part of it’, and I was, like, ‘Yes! Let me check with my guys if they’re free, but if they’re not coming, then I’m coming.’ Luckily, we were not in the middle of a tour and it all worked out.”
The frontman fondly recalled the band’s long-standing connection with the pioneers of heavy metal, noting the unparalleled privilege of participating in their send-off.
“It was an incredible day and definitely one of my top shows that Lamb of God ever played because there will never be another show like it,” he added. “We toured with the original Sabbath lineup, and also Sabbath with [Ronnie James] Dio on vocals, as well as touring with Ozzy. Sabbath was the first heavy metal band, and we play metal, so being able to play the very last show with the founders of the genre we have based our lives and careers on, was, and always will be, the highest honor. Something like this only happens once in a lifetime. Because metal is a relatively young genre, so how lucky are we to be there with the guys that started the whole thing to say goodbye?”
“I got to talk to Ozzy a week later because Frank Bello and Scott Ian of Anthrax, and myself, were doing a Comic-Con event in Birmingham, as was Ozzy, so we got to hang out with him in the green room for about half an hour and just thank him for inviting us to play the show. I remember that he was still really happy that the final gig went so well. The whole experience was so incredibly special,” Randy concluded.
To commemorate their appearance at the historic event, Lamb Of God officially released a studio recording of their cover of Black Sabbath‘s “Children Of The Grave“ on streaming services just hours after performing it live at Villa Park.
