Axl Rose Surprises Fans at Final Billy Joel Residency Show at Madison Square Garden
Billy Joel had a lot to celebrate this week. He played his 150th and show of his longtime residency at Madison Square Garden, to a sold-out crowd. Of course, he played some of his biggest hits for fans, including “New York State of Mind,” “Uptown Girl,” “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” “Piano Man” and “The Entertainer,” but also brought out a special guest during the show: Axl Rose showed up to play an AC/DC song and a Wings cover.
Joel played the piano while Rose came out on stage performing Wings’ James Bond theme song “Live and Let Die.” Later on, Joel swapped his piano for an electric guitar and the two performed AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell,” throwing it back to when they collaborated on the song during a 2017 stadium show in Los Angeles. Rose returned for the finale of the final show, performing a duet of “You May Be Right” with Joel.
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Not only did Rose appear during the show but talk show host Jimmy Fallon and Joel’s young daughters came out as well. Fallon appeared to raise a banner that will commemorate Joel’s 150 shows at the historic music venue and said, “No one has done this. We are here tonight witnessing this. We are part of history. Congratulations. I love you, New York City loves you — we all love you.”
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Even with all of his famous friends, it was Joel’s daughters with wife Alexis Roderick — Della Rose, 8, and Remy Anne, 6 — who really stole the show. They performed his song “My Life” with Joel and danced around the stage. During the performance, he dedicated the song “This is the Time” to his wife and shared family photos in the background as he sang to her.
Joel thanked the audience and said, “To our audience, I want to thank them for coming to our shows for this long. It’s hard to end, even at 150 lifetime shows. I just want to thank everyone for the wonderful thing that’s happened here.”
It sounded like a very special show. Let us know if you were in the audience that night!
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Pop Music Legends
August 2017
Dedicated to the sights, sounds and stories of the golden age of pop.
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