Sabbath: “Long Live Ozzy" at the Rust Belt -- April 3.
Friday, April 3, 8 p.m.
The Rust Belt, 533 12th Avenue, East Moline IL
A full-throttle tribute to the music, madness, and legacy that defined heavy metal, Long Live Ozzy lands at East Moline venue The Rust Belt on April 3, with tribute band Sabbath delivering bone-crushing riffs and haunting as they lovingly re-create the sound, spirit, and stage presence that made Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne legendary.
In this In a theatrical re-creation of Black Sabbath’s greatest eras — the Ozzy years and the Ronnie James Dio years — every song Sabbath plays is performed note for note to exact album perfection, using the same equipment, tones, tunings, stage props, instruments, clothes, and costumes. Based out of Central Ohio, the band tours nationally, bringing audiences the most authentic Sabbath experience possible. Show highlights include songs from Black Sabbath, Paranoid, Black Sabbath Vol. 4, Sabotage, Mob Rules, and Heaven & Hell. As lifelong Black Sabbath fans, Sabbath strives to make this show just like how you remember seeing them in their heyday.
The discography of Black Sabbath includes 19 studio albums, eight live albums, 14 compilation albums, nine video albums, three extended plays and 37 singles. The band was formed in 1968 by John "Ozzy" Osbourne (vocals), Tony Iommi (guitars), Terence "Geezer" Butler (bass guitar), and Bill Ward (drums), and has undergone multiple lineup changes. Though the second-most recent line-up of the band to work together were Ronnie James Dio, Vinny Appice, Iommi, and Butler, for three new songs for a compilation in 2007, the original line-up was still considered the "current" lineup at the time and had been since their reunion in 1997. The 2007 sessions were deemed a one-off which led to the Heaven & Hell side project, resulting in a new studio album in 2009 titled The Devil You Know. In June 2013, a partial reformation of the original line-up released 13, which was the first album to feature Osbourne on vocals since 1978's Never Say Die! To conclude their farewell tour, Black Sabbath played its last concert for eight years in their home city in 2017. Occasional partial reunions then occurred, most notably when Osbourne and Iommi performed at the closing ceremony of the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. The original line-up reunited for a final show for both the band and Osbourne as a solo artist, titled "Back to the Beginning," at Villa Park on 5 July 2025; Osbourne died 17 days after the performance.
Black Sabbath had sold more than 70 million records, making them one of the most commercially successful heavy metal bands. The musicians have been referred to as being part of the "unholy trinity of British hard rock and heavy metal in the early to mid-seventies," along with Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin. Black Sabbath were ranked by MTV as the "Greatest Metal Band of All Time" and placed second on VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock" list. Rolling Stone ranked them 85 on its "100 Greatest Artists of All Time." They were inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005 and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006, have won two Grammy Awards for Best Metal Performance, and received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
Sabbath's Long Live Ozzy comes to East Moline on April 3 with an additional set by the guest tribute artists of WonkZilla'z Zombie Experience, admission to the 8 p.m. concert is $25.02, and more information and tickets are available by visiting TheRustBeltQC.com.
