An estimated 40,000 metalheads were on hand to watch the original lineup of Black Sabbath — singer Ozzy Osbourne, bassist (and lyricist) Geezer Butler, drummer Bill Ward, and guitarist Tony Iommi — do their thing, as only they can do it, one final time. (Osbourne, 76, is in failing health.) The band performed four songs: “War Pigs,” “N.I.B.,” “Iron Man,” and “Paranoid.”
A seeming cast of thousands took the stage throughout the day, including Axl Rose and Slash of Guns n’ Roses, the entirety of Metallica; Tool singer Maynard James Keenan and drummer Danny Carey; Smashing Pumpkins frontman Bill Corgan; Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith and Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker; Living Colour guitarist Vernon Reid; Extreme guitarist Nuno Bettencourt; Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello, and Sammy Hagar.
Tyler performed three songs, beginning with “Train Kept A-Rollin’,” which featured Ronnie Wood of the Rolling Stones on guitar. He then led the band through Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way” before closing the set with the Led Zeppelin classic “Whole Lotta Love.” Tyler’s voice held up for three songs, but it’s hard to imagine he could sustain such a howl for a full show.
Closer to home, meanwhile, the creative team that’s working on a jukebox musical based on the songs of James Taylor attended the singer’s sold-out July 4th show at Tanglewood.
Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tracy Letts, who’s writing the musical — to be titled “Fire and Rain” — attended the show with his wife, the “White Lotus” actress Carrie Coon, and also Tony Award-winning director David Cromer, who’s set to direct the JT musical. (It was Letts’s 60th birthday.)
The musical is bound for Broadway, but it’s not clear when. The 77-year-old Taylor, who lives in the Berkshires, wrote “Fire and Rain” when he was 21 years old and trying to kick his addiction to heroin at the Austen Riggs Center in Stockbridge. The song appeared on Taylor’s second LP, 1970’s “Sweet Baby James,” which sold more than 3.5 million copies worldwide.
Mark Shanahan can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @MarkAShanahan.
