Guns N’ Roses headlined the Bud Light Super Bowl Fest on Friday night. Prior to performing “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door”, Axl Rose dedicated the song to Kobe Bryant, the basketball legend’s daughter Gianna, and the other victims of Sunday’s helicopter crash.
The show took place at the American Airlines Arena in Miami as part of a three-night music festival leading up to Super Bowl LIV on Sunday.
Fan-filmed footage shows Axl addressing the tragic incident, telling the audience that he noticed a dense fog across Los Angeles on his way home from rehearsal on Saturday night, saying it looked “formidable” and “ominous.” And then he mentioned how it was even worse on Sunday morning.
“I want to dedicate this to Kobe and his daughter and everyone on the flight … their families, and everyone hit by this terrible event,” said Axl as the band launched into its famous cover of the Bob Dylan classic.
During the performance of “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door”, images of Kobe and Gianna were projected on the screen behind the band during Slash’s extended guitar solo. Watch below.
At the same show, the band took time to hang out backstage with rapper Snoop Dogg, who opened the concert. Both Snoop and GN’R posted images of Snoop posing with Axl, Slash, and Duff McKagan. In his Instagram post, Snoop joked, “New member of the group @gunsnroses.” See below.
GNR x Snoop F’n Dogg
pic.twitter.com/LIDWdLc0Nm
— Guns N’ Roses (@gunsnroses) February 1, 2020
Guns N’ Roses dedicate “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” to Kobe Bryant at Super Bowl fest: Watch
Spencer Kaufman
This content was originally published here.