As heavy metal was frenzied by new influences and technology, Ozzfest reverted to an undisputedly heavy center when it presented the return of Black Sabbath in 1999. The original quartet had previously played three songs together at the Live Aid benefit concert in July 1985, then briefly reunited in November 1992 for a pair of gigs in Costa Mesa, California, with Rob Halford of Judas Priest handling most of the vocals. This return of the original lineup at the close of the 1990s, however, had a higher, preordained feeling. "It's like putting on old shoes," Ozzy told VH1. "It fits."

Fully thirty years after four lads from Birmingham formed the band and twenty years after parting ways, Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and Bill Ward reunited. "I think itıs kind of agreed that metal all started with Sabbath, then there was Priest, then Maiden, and so on," says Rob Halford. "By the truest definitions of what we call heavy metal, at least, Sabbath were the godfathers. They were a major inspiration to countless new artists. Even today all the new bands on the block cite this great band Sabbath as a major influence." Returning with the platinum-selling Reunion double CD, recorded on an ecstatic night in Birmingham in 1997, the band headlined Ozzfest in 1999 to gleeful cross-generational crowds. Regaling audiences with "Iron Man," "War Pigs," and "Children of the Grave" for the first time in many fans' lives the band added forgotten gems like "Dirty Women" and "Behind the Wall of Sleep," cloaking three decades of heavy metal in a celebratory mood. Thus marked the return of the solid gravitational core that metal fans had lacked since the mainstreaming of Metallica...