It was on a sweltering May evening in 2014 when heavy metal’s Prince of Darkness lit up Abu Dhabi.
Ozzy Osbourne’s sole performance in the Middle East came when Black Sabbath took the stage at Etihad Park (then du Arena) as part of a world tour promoting the album 13.
Everything about that period suggested a band rejuvenated. The album – their first with Osbourne in 35 years since 1978's Never Say Die! – was praised for pairing the group’s monstrous riffs with sharper songwriting. And on stage, despite the well-documented tensions behind the scenes, the band delivered a spirited and muscular performance.
Osbourne, who died on Tuesday at the age of 76, will be remembered by many for his final live appearance – an emotional hometown show in Birmingham earlier this month where he sang from a wheelchair. In Abu Dhabi, however, we remember him stalking the stage, clad in signature black, his circular shades masking what must have been a glint in his eye.
The performance was greeted with a mix of awe and curiosity. While Black Sabbath's music had long permeated the region through record stores, radio stations and guitar tabs passed around in bedrooms, this was the first time many fans had experienced the sound live – direct, unrelenting and anchored by Osbourne's presence.
As The National noted in its review, the evening was “part event, part musical education”.
From the band's maiden regional visit, fans got what they wanted. The 16-song setlist featured many vintage hits, from the stomping War Pigs with its anti-war message underscored by projected footage of military conflicts, followed by Into the Void and Iron Man, with Tony Iommi’s sludgy and walloping riffs.
“Go … crazy!” Osbourne shouted before Paranoid, and the crowd obeyed.
As our review noted, their time away from stage didn’t diminish the band’s ferocious sound: “Osbourne sounded stronger than ever on the classics. The most pertinent case in point arrived after he announced that Sabbath were about to 'take you back', right to the very beginning, to the title track of the debut album Black Sabbath, heralded by a cascade of haunting church bells and a riff heavier than an overladen 16-wheeler lorry.”
In a pre-show interview with The National, Osbourne described the tour as a kind of renewal. “We have sold out every gig and had a No 1 album in 15 countries. It just feels like a regeneration for us,” he said, adding the Abu Dhabi show was part of a wider effort to reach new audiences. “There is a whole market out there that we didn't know about,” he said. “I have still never seen any of the Arab countries … and I understand that in India we have a lot of Black Sabbath fans. That's amazing!”
The concert also reflected a quieter shift in the band's internal dynamics. “We also don't do drugs and we don't do alcohol,” Osbourne said. “The music is what we are about now. We have matured and we have families and responsibilities, and I am just having a great time playing with the boys all over again.”
That maturity translated to a performance that was less about chaos and more about connection. The crowd was a mix of long-time fans, younger listeners and the kind of families Osbourne described as “grandfathers coming in with their children and they are bringing their kids as well”.
With Osbourne's death this week, the Abu Dhabi show feels more pointed than ever. While it never felt like a farewell, we knew how privileged it was to witness this most unexpected of reunions.
Black Sabbath never returned to the region on future tours, but their sole gig is fondly remembered for all the right reasons: it was loud, unrelenting and oddly tender – exactly as it should have been.
