Metal Anarchy

As previously reported, Tool are among the acts set to take part in Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne’s final show at Villa Park in Birmingham, England on July 5. However, it appears Maynard James Keenan has some concerns about the concert considering Osbourne has suffered a number of health setbacks in recent years due to his battle with PRKN 2 and numerous surgeries related to a 2019 fall.

Keenan told Loudwire Nights the following:

“The conversation first came up when I was at the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, hanging out with Wolfgang [Van Halen] and some of the guys, I think even Robert Trujillo. We were on the travel over there, just going, ‘Okay, well, there’s a rumor about the Black Sabbath show.’ I was like, ‘Well, let’s do something.’

So I kinda had planned a song to do and all of a sudden I’m at home and I get the call, ‘Hey, Tool‘s been asked to do a song,’ and I’m like ‘Fuck.’ Now I have to call back Wolfgang and those guys and go, ‘I’m going to do it with Tool, sorry.’

But that’s kinda how it came up. But I think for me, seeing Ozzy moving around at that event, the idea of him playing a show at all, if we’re being honest, you know, the conversation about going to do the song was like, ‘we’ll have this conversation, but, ahh… I don’t know that this gonna happen.’

And even now, I’m cautious about saying, ‘Yeah! All in, he’s gonna do it.’ Because man, I don’t know what kind of modern miracles we’ll come up with to get him on stage to do the songs, but this is gonna be a challenge for them. So, I’m honored to be a part of it, but I’m kinda preparing for the worst — but hoping for the best, as they say.”

He continued when asked about the initial call:

“I wasn’t sure who the call was coming from. And having seen Ozzy move around I was doubtful it was gonna happen at all. Initially we passed because I was like, I don’t know how this is going to go. So when it came back up, I was like, OK, I guess I can hop on a plane and go over and do the song with a couple of guys on site, rather than dragging the whole band and going through all that.

With Tool, nothing’s easy. Nothing is a simple decision of just ‘Yes! Let’s go!’ It always ends up being something difficult, so I didn’t think it was going to happen. But then everybody was like, ‘Yeah, let’s do it.’ Oh, okay. Let’s do it then.”

Notably, Osbourne’s participation is expected to be limited. He is also reportedly planning to perform from a throne. That being said, the frontman is training for the event.

[via The PRP]