Black Sabbath were awarded the Freedom of the City in their hometown of Birmingham, England over the weekend.
Ozzy Osbourne, Geezer Butler, Tony Iommi and Bill Ward, the four original band members, were presented with scrolls and medals by the Lord Mayor at a private ceremony on Saturday.
The Freedom of the City was awarded in recognition of the band's significance as heavy metal pioneers in Birmingham and beyond.
The four-piece will perform onstage together for the first time in two decades for the band's huge farewell concert, which will take place at the city's Villa Park on Saturday 5 July.
During the private ceremony, Butler called Birmingham "a great working-class city" and recalled how people used to make fun of their accents.
"We weren't given a chance when we started out, but Birmingham has always been behind us," he added.
Osbourne shared that his late father went into debt buying him a microphone and said that he thought his dad would be very proud of what he has achieved since that day.
"I first put an advert in a music store in town. If these guys hadn't come to my door, I wouldn't be sitting here now," he recalled. "It seems to have flown by so quickly. It's amazing... I'm a Brummie and I always will be a Brummie. Birmingham Forever."
The Paranoid hitmakers also stopped by a new Black Sabbath mural in the city to add their signatures to the artwork.
To celebrate their final show, dubbed Back to the Beginning, the rockers have assembled a star-studded support line-up, which includes Guns N' Roses, Metallica, Slayer, Pantera, Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan and Aerosmith's Steven Tyler, among others.
