Robert Plant revealed that he turned down an invitation to go to Black Sabbath’s farewell show in Birmingham, England, last month. The star-studded Back to the Beginning concert, which served as the final performance of Ozzy Osbourne’s career, took place at Villa Park in Aston on July 5. Osbourne died 17 days later at age 76. In an interview with Mojo, Plant, 76, said he was personally invited to the concert by Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi, but he told him he couldn’t do it. “I said, ‘Tony, I’d love to come, but I can’t come,'” the Led Zeppelin legend told the outlet. “I just can’t. I’m not saying that I’d rather hang out with Peter Gabriel or Youssou N’Dour, but I don’t know anything about what’s going on in that world now, at all. I don’t decry it, I’ve got nothing against it. It’s just I found these other places that are so rich.” Plant explained that at this stage of his career, he preferred the smaller-scale feel of his band Saving Grace. “The gigs are small enough so that if nobody wants to go, it’s not the end of the world,” he said. “And so, by having that laissez-faire, easy-going attitude, instead of doing the football stadium with some old mates, there it was: we were free.” “We’ve got to be very careful now that we make sure it stays closer to Bert Jansch than Axl Rose,” the singer added.
