Metallica brought their sprawling “M72 World Tour” to a close at the 80,000-capacity London Stadium, capping one of the most ambitious live runs of their career — and they did it with a heartfelt nod to Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath. The finale was more than a victory lap through their own catalog: it carried real emotional weight, landing exactly one year after Metallica took part in Osbourne‘s “Back To The Beginning” farewell event.
That 2025 send-off, which gathered several generations of rock and metal artists on one stage, turned out to be one of the final major public moments tied to the Black Sabbath frontman, who died just 17 days later.
At London Stadium, the tribute came during Metallica‘s long-running “doodle” segment — the nightly interlude where guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo take the stage on their own. For the occasion, the pair worked up a mash-up that folded a piece of Black Sabbath‘s “Electric Funeral” into the Sex Pistols‘ “Holidays In The Sun“, with Trujillo handling vocals in Osbourne‘s honor.
Before they played, Trujillo stopped to mark the significance of the date. “A year ago today, there was a very important event. ‘Back to the Beginning’, Black Sabbath and so many other incredible people,” he told the crowd, before holding up a sign that had just been passed to him from the audience. “Somebody just gave me this right now, and it’s pretty powerful. It says ‘Do it for Ozzy‘ ….Ozzy we love you and we miss you brother.”
The moment drew a huge response from a London crowd, many of whom had lived through Black Sabbath‘s own emotional goodbye twelve months earlier.
Osbourne died on July 22, 2025, at the age of 76. His death certificate later confirmed he died of a heart attack, with coronary artery disease and Parkinson’s disease listed as contributing factors. A private funeral was held on July 31, 2025, at the Buckinghamshire estate he shared with his wife, Sharon Osbourne, attended by just 110 close friends and family — among them his Black Sabbath bandmates and figures from across rock and metal including Trujillo, Rob Zombie, Marilyn Manson and Corey Taylor.
The tribute closed out a monumental chapter for the band. Across the “M72” run, Metallica played 99 shows between April 2023 and July 2026, built around their album 72 Seasons and its signature “no repeats” format, which saw the group deliver a different setlist on each of its two-night stadium stops. The final night, the second of two London dates, featured support from Pantera and Avatar, and sent the tour out on a run of heavy hitters closing with “Enter Sandman“.
With “M72” now in the books, Metallica aren’t slowing down. The band next heads to Las Vegas for a 24-date residency at the Sphere, set to begin on October 1.
