At a gig stacked with iconic moments, this one might’ve stolen the crown: Ozzy Osbourne met Axl Rose for the very first time — at Black Sabbath’s final-ever show.
That’s right. After decades of dominating rock from different corners of the chaos, the Prince of Darkness and the Guns N’ Roses frontman finally crossed paths backstage at Villa Park in Birmingham, during Sabbath’s farewell concert dubbed Back To The Beginning. About time.
Ozzy shared a backstage snap of him and Axl on Instagram with the caption: “At my age, you don’t get to meet many legends… seriously an utter gentleman.” He later followed it up with another shot — this time with Slash in the mix. If ever there was a backstage photo that screamed “download this and frame it,” it’s that one.
Axl, clearly buzzing, took to X (formerly Twitter) after the show to describe the event as “extremely overwhelming” and “very emotional.” He added: “MET OZZY!! (Crazy we’d never met b4!!) He was really great!! Was great to meet Sabbath!!” The GNR frontman also gave Ozzy props for pushing through his health battles to make the night happen: “Everyone was rooting for him… and HE DID IT!!!!”
The show itself was an all-star affair. Guns N’ Roses honoured Sabbath with a four-song tribute set including ‘Never Say Die’ and ‘Sabbath Bloody Sabbath’, before tearing into their own classics like ‘Welcome to the Jungle’. Elsewhere, we saw a three-way drum-off featuring Tool’s Danny Carey, RHCP’s Chad Smith, and Blink’s Travis Barker, plus Sabbath covers from Metallica, Tool and more. Tom Morello served as musical director. Jason Momoa moshed. Yungblud fronted a ‘Changes’ supergroup. You couldn’t make it up.
But amidst all the noise, it was that quiet, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it backstage handshake between two icons — Ozzy and Axl — that’ll go down as a proper rock’n’roll moment. Legends only.
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