Who Is On Tour With Black Sabbath?

Black Sabbath"—the legends, which continue to tour even as they are releasing their final album.

Likely the greatest rock band of all time, Black Sabbath Tickets, started their last tour called The End in early 2016. Of course, after more than 45 years of creating music and traveling round the globe, the hard-rock stars realized that it was high time to retire and stop devastating their guitars. Yet the band, formed by guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler, isn't packing it in or turning into the rock version of Golden Girls. The idea of Sabbath is to go out with a blaze and thus the band is touring around the globe for the final time.

For this particular tour, the group is joined by Iommi and Butler, with other aspects of music industry giants. What a great team helps Black Sabbath bring the noise after all these years? It is a group of great musicians who are touring with the band. Let's take a closer look at who is sharing the stage with Black Sabbath for their last hurrah:Let's take a closer look at who is sharing the stage with Black Sabbath for their last hurrah:

Ozzy Osbourne vocals

Well, of course, Black Sabbath cannot be complete without Ozzy Osbourne, the “Prince of Darkness” on vocal duties. Ozzy left Sabbath in 1979 and the band went on for several changes of lead singers over the next few years. However, in the last 90s, Ozzie joined the sabbath and has been with him as their vocalist since then. Osbourne, almost 70 now, is still in good voice and can deliver those eerie wails with operatic conviction. He is still the dynamic stage performer that is more charged and passionate as he takes the stage and performs. The chance to watch a band with a member who most likely saw metal being invented is good enough to catch Black Sabbath on this tour.

Tommy Clufetos, Drums

Unfortunately, Bill Ward is unable to attend the tour as the drummer of Sabbath, which is why Tommy Clufetos, the drummer from the previous decade, is on the kit. He started working with them starting from 2010, when Ward was not involved in the project of Heaven and Hell. Despite his brash playing and aggressive energy (he is only 40 years old), Tommy serves as a solid backbone for the veterans that perform in the band. When Geezer Butler is your bassist and Tommy Iommi is your guitarist and you are producing those dirty, gritty riffs, you need power behind the drums, and Clufetos delivers that.

Adam Wakeman, Keyboards

Adam Wakeman was also a very talented musician, who had worked with Ozzy Osbourne but also with famous bands such as Yes and Strawbs with his father, Rick Wakeman. Wakeman can play live on many songs on the synthesizer, adding pads and strings and other things to the dark mood of the night. His soloing and embellishing also go well with Sabbath's raw, dark guitar work. Replacing Nicholls, Wakeman joined Black Sabbath for touring after Nicholls left the band due to health issues in 2004.

Additional Backup

In addition to Tommy Clufetos on drums and Adam Wakeman on keys, Black Sabbath's three other backup musicians help fill out the live sound: bassist Jörgen Engler, keyboardist Scott Warren, and guitarist Tony Newton, who was famously known as Wonderboy. These veterans each join in on selected tour dates depending on the show and play the supporting role to Iommi, Butler and Osbourne. Nine of them have worked as openers for Ozzy and seven of them have played with former Sabbath singer Ronnie James Dio. While the humble ones in the background contribute to the backing vocals, percussion, guitars, and keyboards in support of live performances, so that Geezer Butler can provide his powerful bass lines on stage.

Decoding The End of an Era for Metal Giants

Despite Osbourne's statement claiming that this is Black Sabbath's last large-scale tour, it is always possible to hear whispers of yet another project, especially given that during the early 2000s the band tried to claim this is it™ only to release two or three more albums afterwards. But for now, this seems to be the last opportunity fans get to see these masters of metal perform live hits such as Iron Man," Paranoid," and War Pigs."

There is no doubting the fact that Butler, Iommi, Osbourne, and Ward have been members of Black Sabbath for over 45 years and the history shared between the four musicians is exceptional, but the communication between the musicians is perfect. The fact that the list of legendary performers is endless because personalities rotate in and out of the live concert touring formation over the decades also points to the duo of Iommi and Butler, which was behind some of the most influential metal riffs.

Depending on whether Metal will commit themselves to playing the occasional single show, one-off festival appearances or mini-tours after this year, we are witnessing the final comprehensive global trek from the legends of heavy metal: Black Sabbath. See the greats before they are gone as Black Sabbath still remains with Ozzy Osbourne on vocals and Tony Iommi on guitars, accompanied by a great line-up of musicians. Finally, it is the last bow for Black Sabbath; they are playing the doomy metallic sound that they pioneered for generations and bands of all sub-genres of hard rock and metal.