Ozzy Osbourne’s Face Projected on New Zealand’s Sky Tower as ‘War Pigs’ Tops Rock 2000

Ozzy Osbourne dominates New Zealand’s Rock 2000 poll as his face lights up Sky Tower in Auckland.

Auckland’s Sky Tower lit up with the face of Ozzy Osbourne this week as New Zealand fans paid tribute to the late metal icon in massive style. The projection marked Osbourne’s domination of the annual Rock 2000 countdown, the listener-voted poll run by NZ radio station The Rock.

This year’s results placed Black Sabbath’s ‘War Pigs’ at number one, a leap from last year’s #19. Osbourne’s solo ballad ‘Mama I’m Coming Home’ followed in second place, a rise fuelled by his emotional performance of the track at Black Sabbath’s Back To The Beginning show earlier this year. Last year, it sat at #150.

Ozzy Osbourne’s catalogue continued to define the Top 50. ‘Crazy Train’ landed at #4, ‘No More Tears’ at #10, ‘Hellraiser’ at #15 and ‘See You On The Other Side’ at #29. Sabbath’s classics were also present: ‘Paranoid’ at #13, ‘Iron Man’ at #38 and ‘NIB’ at #44.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by The Rock (@therockfm)

However, the biggest surprise came at #7. Yungblud’s live version of Black Sabbath’s ‘Changes,’ recorded at Villa Park, was voted the seventh best rock song ever by Kiwi listeners. After Ozzy Osbourne’s death, Yungblud vowed to perform the song every night for the rest of his life in tribute to the Prince of Darkness.

That #7 ranking places the track ahead of AC/DC’s ‘Highway To Hell’ (#138), Led Zeppelin’s ‘Stairway To Heaven’ (#57), and Lynyrd Skynyrd’s ‘Freebird’ (#35).

The full Top 10 also gave space to two New Zealand acts: Blindspott’s ‘Nil By Mouth’ at #3 and Shihad’s ‘Home Again’ at #5, cementing local heroes among the international giants.

1. Black Sabbath – War Pigs
2. Ozzy Osbourne – Mama I’m Coming Home
3. Blindspott – Nil By Mouth
4. Ozzy Osbourne – Crazy Train
5. Shihad – Home Again
6. System Of A Down – Chop Suey!
7. Yungblud – Changes (Live From Villa Park)
8. Metallica – One
9. Pearl Jam – Black
10. Ozzy Osbourne – No More Tears

Sky Tower has a long history with celebrating rock and heavy music beyond just Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath. In 2023, Black Smoke Trigger guitarist Charlie Wallace bungee-jumped from the tower while playing for the band’s ‘The Way Down’ video, but even that feels small compared to Ozzy’s larger-than-life tribute.