Guns N’ Roses recently paid tribute to Black Sabbath, by performing cover versions of four of the heavy metal legends’ songs at Saturday’s July 5th “Back To The Beginning” event in Birmingham, United Kingdom. However, Axl Rose struggled to perform at the show.
The Axl Rose-fronted outfit kicked off the set by playing “It’s Alright” from Sabbath’s 1976 album “Technical Ecstasy” before launching into the title track of 1978’s “Never Say Die!” and “Junior’s Eyes” from the same album. Guns N’ Roses ended its Sabbath tribute with a version of “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath”. The band then played two of its own songs, “Welcome To The Jungle” and “Paradise City”.
Following the show, Axl Rose sent out a Tweet about Black Sabbath’s final show.
Rose shared a heartfelt message on X (formerly Twitter) the day after the show, revealing that he’d never actually met Osbourne or Black Sabbath before.
He wrote, “Wow! What an event! Extremely overwhelming! Really great crowd! Was very emotional for everyone! Met Ozzy! Crazy we’d never met before! He was really great! Was great to meet Sabbath!”
He added, “Was hard as I imagine for anyone to watch his struggles while at the same time everyone was rooting for him and massively respecting the challenges he took head on and he did it! Was great to meet Ozzy’s family and see friends and peeps in all the bands and the business. A huge thank you again to Ozzy, Sharon, Black Sabbath and all the fans for having us!”
However, some fans weren’t happy with the vocals of Axl Rose. One fan wrote on social media, “Genuinely gutted how shot Axl Rose is. Once, one of the best frontmen on the planet with a voice to match.”
Another said, “Axl Rose can no longer sing. This is Bad.”
More than 40,000 fans attended “Back To The Beginning”, which also saw performances from Metallica, Slayer, Pantera, Lamb of God, and Anthrax, among others. Profits from the show will be shared equally between the charities Cure Parkinson’s, Birmingham Children’s Hospital and Acorn Children’s Hospice.
The all-day event at Villa Park, produced by Live Nation, was hosted and compered by American actor Jason Momoa, and featured a supergroup of musicians.
