re: Back to the Beginning

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Halestorm and Rival Sons didn't belong

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Rival Sons opened for Black Sabbath on most of The End tour. Black Sabbath thinks they belong

Motley Crue,Marilyn Manson and Rob Zombie didnt belong anywhere near that event ..Now if you told me Deep Purple ,Glenn Hughes , Tony Martin, ok...Also, Judas Priest belonged but the rift between them and KK DOwing ,who was there and tore it up on guitar, probably prevented Priest being there if they could have

Just got back from Europe. I went to the show!!!

It was an incredible day and I'm here to answer any questions.

Some random observations:

It was crazy that a Rolling Stone and also Vernon Reid were there!

KK Downing was in Super group B, but Priest was evidently in fricking Hannover celebrating the Scorpions 60th anniversary. WTF

No Maiden was crazy. Presumably because of Bruce/Sharon beef? Felt like a huge hole in the roster.

Randy Rhoads tribute was totally appropriate and very touching. I would have been pissed if they left him out. Very emotional.

Absolute highlight for me was seeing Zakk/Ozzy do Mr. Crowley. Transcendent.

As many of you know, like many soccer stadiums in the UK, Villa Park is just in a neighborhood. Thus, the infrastructure isn't great. Combine that with the UK evidently banning surge pricing on Uber and it was IMPOSSIBLE to get back to the city center. LOL

I thought it was VERY ambitious of Axl to open solo at the piano with the obscure Sabbath tune (It's Alright) and then later do Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. He actually managed to do OK, but sheesh. (Ran into Richard Fortus in the hotel lobby Sunday AM).

The booing of Dave Draiman was preposterous.

Many of us cried during Mama, I'm Coming Home.

Geezer was going fricking nuts on bass. They had it mixed really well where you could hear every technical thing he was doing. Very impressed.

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Just got back from Europe. I went to the show!!!

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First, I have to say that you suck and I hate you.

Vernon Reid is awesome and overlooked. I saw Living Colour back in 1991 in a gym with maybe 300 people in attendance.

I would have loved to see Nuno and all the super group stuff he did. And Jake E. Lee, too.

I get the Zakk and Ozzy love. I've seen them three times, including the No More Tours tour.

I think Axl and Guns had a gig the previous night. Which isn't quite an excuse for the hit and miss nature of his voice.

As for bands that didn't make it, I think Motley Crue should have been there. I think Nikki said something about health problems in the band, so who knows what that means, he didn't elaborate.

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I personally would have liked it to be 5X as long as it was, but the entire day moved at a very brisk pace, so I knew they couldn't dwell. I think Morello was actually wearing a Tribute shirt all day.

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Jack Black recorded a version of Mr. Crowley for the show with Morello's son and Scott Ian's son. It was pretty good. Did that get shown?

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First, I have to say that you suck and I hate you.

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I hear you. However, don't even ask what I paid. If it makes you feel better, I was in Madrid the week after and ended up just bopping by one of the two AC/DC shows also...

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I would have loved to see Nuno and all the super group stuff he did. And Jake E. Lee, too.

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I should have mentioned Nuno. I had not exactly forgotten about him, but just hadn't listened in awhile. He is truly a staggering talent and has not lost a step. That Portuguese soccer star on Liverpool died the day before the show. They mentioned it a couple of times, including Nuno doing a quick in memoriam in Portuguese. The crowd was very respectful.

Jake was cool to see too. He played The Ultimate Sin with the Super Group A - and the Halestorm gal sang. It was pretty good. I would have been down for Killer of Giants, though.

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I think Axl and Guns had a gig the previous night. Which isn't quite an excuse for the hit and miss nature of his voice.

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No, I was saying that Axl beat expectations, as he's had some pretty rough outings in the past couple of years.

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As for bands that didn't make it, I think Motley Crue should have been there. I think Nikki said something about health problems in the band, so who knows what that means, he didn't elaborate.

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Yeah, that would have been fun. Maybe better just to include Tommy Lee in the drum off. It was kind of weird that it was Barker and Smith.

Also a little surprised they didn't have Brad Gillis from Night Ranger (filled in for Randy on the remainder of that tour).

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Did they play Shot in the Dark?

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Yep

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Both times I've seen Guns recently have been fantastic. Personally, I think his voice problems are not the problem people seem to think they are. He looks like he's in better shape now, too.

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In 2016, he sounded great. By the end of 2018, it was an embarrassment.

I did a backstage tour in late 2023 where the manager guy claimed Axl spent 3 hours warming up before the show now and 3 full hours "warming down". I agree on him looking less fat now, so perhaps there is something to it. He has been up and down and appears to be on mostly an up presently.

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Stephen Tyler killed it.

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Yeah, truly was not expecting him to go full performance mode. I had believed their press release that he was done for good.

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Good deal on catching AC/DC. Saw them on the Thunderstruck tour in 1990.

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It passed the time and was worth saying I did. I never did get the hype though. Outside of the 4-5 actually decent hits, most of the rest really just sounds the same to me. They somehow manage to sound neither major nor minor - just blah. They didn't play Thunderstruck or Money Talks.

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they played a touching message from his sister on the screens. Looked like it must have been recorded very recently. She said some words about how much her brother had meant to Ozzy and then they introduced some supposedly previously unheard studio outtakes - it was kind of like video of Ozzy in the studio in 198? hearing Randy actually working on some new stuff and saying over and over how great he was.

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Gotta go find that on YouTube.

Randy’s senseless death still hits so hard. Oh, what could have been.

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I think Maiden had a show the same night in another part of Europe.

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OMG - I just looked. They played Madrid the same night! The crazy thing is, I went to Madrid after Ozzy and saw AC/DC at the same stadium exactly one week later!

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Plus I am not sure Sharon & Maiden on good terms or any terms at all.

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There's always been reports of Bruce v Sharon drama. It seems hard to believe Maiden would have planned the other show had they actually been invited.