Billy Joel Ends MSG Residency On A High Note With Axl Rose

UPDATE (August 21, 2024): Multi-cam video featuring soundboard audio of the full show has surfaced. Watch the visual below:

The lights went out on Billy Joel‘s historic decade-long Madison Square Garden residency last night with the Piano Man’s 150th lifetime show at the venue. Special guests were a hallmark of the 104-concert run at MSG and Joel welcomed Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose to help close out the residency.

Billy Joel’s residency consisted of one show each month since January 2014 besides a pause thanks to the pandemic and a few rescheduled shows due to medical issues. Joel sold out every concert of the record-breaking residency with tickets to last night’s show fetching a hefty premium on the secondary market.

Fittingly, Billy Joel opened with “Miami 2017 (Seen The Lights Go Out On Broadway).” Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon emerged a few songs later to present a banner commemorating Joel’s 150th show at Madison Square Garden. The legendary musicians young daughters Della and Remy sat on Billy’s piano as the banner ascended to the rafters.

Watch Jimmy Fallon’s appearance to lead the banner-raising ceremony below:

Della and Remy Joel stayed on stage to sing “My Life” with their father. Soon thereafter, “New York State Of Mind” became the first song played at all 104 shows of the residency. “Allentown,” “It’s Still Rock And Roll To Me,” “Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song),” “Piano Man,” “Scenes From An Italian Restaurant,” “The River Of Dreams” and “You May Be Right” also joined the club by the end of the night.

Axl Rose initially came out late in the main set. Rose and Joel have a long friendship and last night was not the first time the pair shared the stage. The GN’R singer previously sat in with Billy Joel during the Piano Man’s 2017 concerts in Los Angeles and Minneapolis.

The latest Axl Rose/Billy Joel collaboration began with the former leading the latter and his band through a rare cover of Paul McCartney & Wings’ 1973 smash “Live And Let Die.” Guns N’ Roses scored a hit and Grammy nomination with their version of the song featured on the band’s 1991 album, Use Your Illusion I.

Rose stuck around to front a take on AC/DC’s “Highway To Hell,” a song he sang with Joel at his 2017 guest appearances. “Highway To Hell” had been covered 12 previous times by Billy Joel during the residency. The most recent performance at MSG came on September 30, 2018.

Billy Joel brought back Axl Rose for the evening’s “You May Be Right” finale. Joel and his band threw a bit of Led Zeppelin’s “Rock And Roll” into their last song of the night and residency.

Watch audience-captured video of Billy Joel joined by Axl Rose and his daughters below: