Soundgarden have spoken on their absence from the final Black Sabbath show, sharing a statement with their fans on social media.
The grunge legends were set to join the bill for ‘Back to the Beginning’, the final show of heavy metal icons Black Sabbath, featuring founding members Ozzy Osbourne, Geezer Butler, Tommy Iommi and Bill Ward. The stacked support lineup featured other rock and metal royalty such as Metallica, Alice In Chains, Gojira, Anthrax, Guns N’ Roses, KoRn, Tool, Slayer, Pantera and more.
@consequence Black Sabbath perform “War Pigs” at their farewell concert. Credit: Universal Music Group #blacksabbath #ozzyosbourne #backtothebeginning #warpigs #heavymetal ♬ original sound – consequence
But during the event, fans noticed that Soundgarden didn’t make their planned appearance at the show. It was speculated that they may have been the band that organiser Sharon Osbourne kicked off the show due to a dispute, where Sharon claimed their manager was making up “bulls**t lies”, as reported by NME.
But Soundgarden have now shared an explanation of their absence on social media, clarifying that they weren’t the act to be booted off the lineup. On the band’s Instagram account, they wrote: “Congratulations to Black Sabbath on the grand and final pealing of their vesper bells!
“Thank you for an astounding career that provided us and your legion of fans with a lifetime of beauty, horror, love, power, happiness, melancholy and a profoundly sublime, yet viscerally rocking transcendence informed by both doom and hope. Your majestic brilliance has inspired greatness in scores of other bands, musicians and songwriters. However, the crown will forever remain yours!
“We are very grateful to Tony, Ozzy, Geezer and Bill, as well as Sharon Osbourne and music director, Tom Morello for the honor and invitation to Soundgarden to perform at the Back to the Beginning festival! We are super bummed and regret that we were unable to coordinate the schedules of our individual and collective projects to attend and contribute to the festival. The warmth, love and support from the Black Sabbath team has been a continuing source of encouragement and strength throughout our career.”
Alongside their kind words, they shared pictures of themselves with members of Black Sabbath. This included a cheery snap of the band with Tommy Iommi, Ozzy Osbourne and Soundgarden’s late singer Chris Cornell at Download Festival in 2012.
You can catch MXDWN’s highlights of the Black Sabbath farewell show here.
