Birmingham (United Kingdom) (AFP) - Thousands of fans flocked to wild man rocker Ozzy Osborne’s hometown of Birmingham Saturday for his final gig as Black Sabbath’s frontman, with heavy metal heavyweights kicking off the homage to the seminal band.

Many thousands more are expected to follow online after tickets for the show, starring the band’s original line-up, sold out in just 16 minutes.

Osbourne, 76, who revealed in 2020 that he has Parkinson’s disease, will join Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward for the “Back To The Beginning” show in Birmingham, central England, where the heavy metal giants formed in 1968.

The gig at Aston Villa Football Club’s stadium also features sets by Metallica, Pantera, Guns N’ Roses, Tool and Slayer, among others, as well as a short solo set by Osbourne.

Anthrax were one of the first acts on stage, with early arrivers giving the US rockers a rapturous welcome and getting the mosh pit into full swing.

They were later followed by a rock royalty collaboration, as Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler and Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood rattled through Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love”.

“This will be the greatest metal show of all time,” Jared Higginbotham, a tall, bearded 34-year-old who travelled all the way from Texas for the gig, told AFP.

He is one of the lucky 40,000 who will see the first show by Black Sabbath’s original line-up in 20 years.

The stadium, Villa Park, which hosted Champions League football last season, was transformed into something resembling a pagan cathedral on Saturday, with fans decked in dark metal T-shirts, many sporting long hair, thick beards and large tattoos.

“Birmingham is a city which means so much to Ozzy. When it comes to heavy metal music, Black Sabbath forming and his love of Aston Villa -– it all started here,” said his wife, Sharon.

Black Sabbath have sold over 75 million albums worldwide and are widely recognised as one of the pioneers of heavy metal, popularising the genre with songs such as “War Pigs” and “Paranoid”.

All profits from the show will go to charities including Cure Parkinson’s and Birmingham Children’s Hospital.

Osbourne’s diagnosis led to him pausing touring. But Sharon told the BBC the Villa Park gig would be his last. “This is his full stop,” she was quoted as saying.

“I don’t think he’ll show much emotion, but I think he’ll be quite sad,” said 22-year-old fan Henry Broderick, who said he was raised on heavy metal by his father.

- ‘Greatest’ -

The Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan was one of the early performers, saying before the gig that “this might be the greatest one-day lineup in the history of rock ‘n’ roll”.

The show is expected to deliver the area a multi-million-pound boost, with hotel occupancy in Birmingham city centre expected to surge close to 90 percent.

Osbourne’s live performances at the height of his hedonism have gone down in rock folklore, particularly a 1982 gig in Des Moines, Iowa, when he bit the head off a bat on stage.

Osbourne, known as “The Prince of Darkness”, says he thought a fan had thrown a fake rubber bat onstage, and it wasn’t until he took a bite that he realised it was real.

“I can assure you the rabies shots I went through afterwards aren’t fun,” he told US TV host David Letterman in 1982.

But there are unlikely to be any repeat performances on Saturday, with the rocker mellowing in his golden years.

Eager to soak in the historic occasion, many came without tickets, including Derya, who travelled from Cologne with her partner.

“We are here, hearing the concert even if we cannot see the bands,” she told AFP.