Rocker Ozzy Osbourne made a surprise appearance in his home city of Birmingham, U.K., and performed at the closing ceremony of the 2022 Commonwealth Games on Monday evening.
Osbourne and his band Black Sabbath, featuring Tony Iommi on guitar, Adam Wakeman on bass and Tommy Clufetos on drums, performed their evergreen hit “Paranoid” in front of a capacity crowd of 30,000 at Birmingham’s Alexander Stadium.
It was the first time Osbourne, 73, had performed since Nov. 2020 when he had appeared on stage in Germany. He was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2019 and in June this year he underwent major surgery.
Osbourne and Black Sabbath’s performance, which was teased by commentators through the evening, capped a musical extravaganza that featured several local acts including Apache Indian, Beverley Knight, Dexys, Goldie, Jacob Banks, Jaykae, Jorja Smith, Laura Mvula, Ash, Mahalia, Musical Youth, Neelam Gill, Panjabi MC, Raza Hussain, Talulah-Eve, The Selecter and UB40.
The finale also featured a sequence from theater show “Peaky Blinders: The Redemption of Thomas Shelby,” featuring a newly-commissioned track from Laura Mvula, inspired by Nick Cave’s “Red Right Hand,” which is used as the TV show’s theme song. Written and adapted for the stage by creator and Birmingham local Steven Knight, and choreographed and directed by Rambert’s artistic director Benoit Swan Pouffer, the theater production will receive its world premiere at Birmingham Hippodrome on Sept. 27 as part of the Birmingham 2022 Festival.
The next Commonwealth Games will take place in Victoria, Australia.
Birmingham is one of the cities in contention to stage the Eurovision 2023 finals.
