Metallica, Smashing Pumpkins, Judas Priest Members on Ozzy Osbourne

Ozzy Osbourne has persisted for so long in pop culture, and re-emerged in so many different guises — including fiendish hard-rock ringleader and bewildered Beverly Hills dad — that it’s easy to lose sight of the core of his fame. His bone-chilling work with Black Sabbath in the ’70s up through his surprisingly nuanced solo material in the ’80s and beyond have helped define the sound and persona of the heavy-metal frontman.

Despite a pair of well-received recent albums, Osbourne performances have been scarce in recent years, as he has battled health issues including Parkinson’s disease and emphysema. On Saturday, at a daylong event in his Birmingham, England hometown, the 76-year-old musician will appear both solo and with his original Black Sabbath bandmates — the guitarist Tony Iommi; the bassist Terence Butler, known as Geezer; and the drummer Bill Ward — at what’s being billed as his last-ever concert.

The lineup for the event — dreamed up by Sharon Osbourne, his wife and manager — reads like a roll call of some of the biggest names in metal and hard rock, including Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, Slayer and Tool. Its musical director is Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello.

“I can tell you that if we weren’t invited to play, I would find a way to be there anyway, even if I had to sneak in under the fence line,” the Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich said. “I think it’s pretty safe to say that if there was no Black Sabbath, there would be no Metallica.”

Ulrich’s sense of debt to Osbourne is widely shared, both in the worlds of heavy guitar-based music and far beyond. “Ozzy is one of the most remarkable singers and performers of our time,” Elton John, who was a guest on Osbourne’s 2020 album, “Ordinary Man,” wrote in an email. “He has an amazing voice and has done so much for metal.”