Ozzy Osbourne meets Axl Rose for the first time at final Black Sabbath show: “At my age, you don’t get to meet many legends” 

8 July, 2025

Ozzy Osbourne

Ozzy Osbourne and Axl Rose met for the first time at Black Sabbath’s final live show. Check out what each had to say about the moment below.

Taking place on Saturday night (July 5), the performance was held at Villa Park in Birmingham and marked the final farewell for the heavy metal pioneers. At the show, founding members Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward performed together for the first time since 2005, and they were joined by a star-studded line-up.

Rage Against The Machine’s Tom Morello served as musical director, and actor Jason Momoa hosted the event – as well as making headlines after starting a moshpit during Pantera’s set.

Those performing alongside Sabbath included Metallica, Slayer, Pantera, Alice In Chains, Gojira, Anthrax, Guns N’ Roses, KoRn, Tool, Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler, and many more.

For Guns N’ Roses’ appearance, the addition to the line-up marked the first time that frontman Axl Rose had the chance to meet Ozzy Osbourne. After the event, both the Prince Of Darkness and the ‘November Rain’ singer were quick to share what the occasion meant to them.

Ozzy shared a photo of the two of them backstage and described the GNR singer as a “legend”.

“My first time meeting Axl Rose, at my age you don’t get to meet many legends, seriously an utter gentleman,” he shared in one post, then sharing another that showed him alongside Axl Rose and guitarist Slash.

For Rose, he shared his own thoughts on meeting the heavy metal veteran in a post on X/Twitter, saying that he was grateful to be part of the “emotional” and “great” event in Birmingham.

“Wow!! What an EVENT!! Extremely overwhelming!! Really great crowd!! Was very emotional for everyone,” he began. “MET OZZY!! (Crazy we’d never met b4!!) He was really great!! Was great to meet Sabbath!!”

He added: “Was hard as I imagine for anyone to watch [Ozzy’s] struggles while at the same time everyone was rooting for him n’ massively respecting the challenges he took on n’ HE DID IT!!!!

“Was great to meet Ozzy’s family n’ see friends n’ peeps in all bands n’ the business. A HUGE THANK YOU again to Ozzy, Sharon, Black Sabbath n’ all the fans for having us!!”

The “struggles” he mentions relate to the health issues the ‘Fairies Wear Boots’ singer has battled in recent years, meaning he hasn’t played a full show since 2018.  These include him undergoing multiple surgeries for various ailments, and struggling with Parkinson’s disease. For these reasons, he had to perform the final show while seated.

At the event, Guns N’ Roses paid tribute to the iconic metal band by covering four of their songs: ‘It’s Alright’, ‘Never Say Die’, ‘Junior’s Eyes’, and ‘Sabbath Bloody Sabbath’. They then also broke out two of their own classic tracks, ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ and ‘Paradise City’.

Other standout moments of Saturday’s show included Tool’s Danny Carey, Blink-182’s Travis Barker and Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Chad Smith taking part in a drum-off while covering Sabbath’s ‘Symptom Of The Universe’. They were also joined by Tom Morello, bassist Rudy Sarzo (Quiet Riot, Ozzy Osbourne’s solo material), and Extreme guitarist Nuno Bettencourt.

As well as that, Morello, Steven Tyler, Travis Barker and The Rolling Stones’ Ronnie Wood came together to cover Led Zeppelin, and Yungblud led another supergroup in a version of ‘Changes’, which they dedicated to the late footballer Diogo Jota.

Find out more about what went down at the event here.

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