Tony Iommi recently confirmed that Black Sabbath was originally approached to play the Power Trip festival this fall. The three-day event, which features a lineup of hard rock legends Guns N’ Roses, Iron Maiden, AC/DC, Ozzy Osbourne, Metallica and Tool, will be held October 6-8 at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, home of the Coachella Valley Music And Arts Festival.
During an appearance on yesterday’s (Thursday, June 22) episode of SiriusXM’s “Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk”, he was asked if it’s true that there was talk of Sabbath doing the show, Iommi said:
“Yes, there was. But I didn’t, at that point… It’s hard, because Ozzy’s [Osbourne, Sabbath singer] been going through a lot of stuff lately. He’s in hospital and out of hospital, and he’s really been fighting it; he really wants to get out there. But in my mind, it’s very difficult to sort of say yes. I’ve gotta think of the people in the band as well. I’ve gotta think of Ozzy, if he’s gonna be all right to do a show and whatever. So I wasn’t that comfortable with it. But I didn’t know Ozzy [chuckles] would be doing it on his own. But it’s great. I hope he can do it and that it’ll be really good. He really wants to do it. And he’s really trying to pull to get himself back. He’s had to go through such a lot of hard stuff lately. It’s such a shame, really. But he’s still fighting there.”
Pressed to confirm that the original lineup of Sabbath was asked to play Power Trip but that he eventually decided against it, Tony said: “Yeah. Sort of, yeah. I mean, we hadn’t approached the others as far as doing it. They might have said no. But it didn’t get much further than me, really. But, yeah, that’s the way it is.
“If you’re gonna go out, I want to do a good show,” he explained. “I want to go out on the top and do it. I don’t wanna just go and slap something together. And I’m not saying it would have been, but it could have been difficult.”
