Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett discussed their upcoming “Back To The Beginning” charity show appearance in a conversation with Heavy Consequence.
Scheduled for July 5 at Villa Park, the highly anticipated event — known as “Back To The Beginning” — sold out in under 10 minutes last month.
This concert will mark the first time in 20 years that the original lineup of Black Sabbath — Ozzy Osbourne, guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler, and drummer Bill Ward — will share the stage together.
Also joining the lineup for this historic event are Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, Tool, Slayer, Pantera, Gojira, Alice In Chains, Halestorm, Lamb Of God, Anthrax, and Mastodon.
“It’s a real opportunity to say thank you to Ozzy and Tony and Geezer and Bill, ’cause they fricking wrote the book on the genre,” Kirk said. “They developed it, they fleshed it out so that we can use what they did as a stepping stone to other ways to do this.
“If it wasn’t for those four guys, man, we might still be just kind of like wandering around in the dark,” Hammett continued. “But the fact that they created a genre — not only created it, but then developed it and, and, and then turned it into like a few different things over the course of their career — is completely awe inspiring to me and my peers musically.
“I mean, how do you thank someone like that? … I feel lucky and blessed that I’m in a situation where I can actually say thank you to the progenitors of a fricking genre,” he added. “I love those guys. I have love for them for what they did. And I just want them to know that I’m just extremely thankful, ’cause my life would be extremely different if they didn’t do what they did.”
Ozzy — who has not performed a full show since late 2018 — revealed his final performance on February 5.
The proceeds from “Back To The Beginning” will be donated to Cure Parkinson’s, the Birmingham Children’s Hospital, and Acorn Children’s Hospice, a facility supported by Aston Villa.
