The Final Performance Of These Legendary Acts

Ask any rock star (we're sure you're acquainted with several) if they prefer performing to recording, and it's pretty definite you'll get an affirmative response roughly 100% of the time. Making records can be a tedious process even when it's going really well, and for most performers, the stage is where they're in their element — rocking out with their buds in front of thousands of screaming fans, perhaps getting pelted with undergarments, presiding over a giant, raucous party in their honor, then packing up to move out and do it again in a different town the next night.

The artists on this list are all legends, but even for them, the party had to wind down eventually. These are the final performances of some of the greatest acts of all time, and while a few went out with a whimper instead of a bang, the vast majority of these curtain calls were suitably epic.

Boston-based New Wave outfit The Cars had a relatively brief run, releasing six albums between 1978 and 1987 (and unexpectedly reuniting for a seventh, "Move Like This," in 2011). But their sound, rooted equally in the shredding guitar of Elliot Easton and the razor-sharp keyboard work of Greg Hawkes, was highly influential on their peers, and the contrasting lyrical and vocal styles of co-lead singers Ric Ocasek and Benjamin Orr provided an ever-shifting and always-interesting complement to the band's unique sonic palette.

Minus Orr, who died in 2000, The Cars mounted their final performance for a fitting occasion — their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017. With Weezer's Scott Shriner filling in for Orr on bass, the band performed a quartet of their most iconic hits: "My Best Friend's Girl," "You Might Think," "Moving in Stereo," and "Just What I Needed." At the time, Ocasek indicated that he almost enjoyed the experience enough to reconvene the band, with one understandable reservation. "Maybe this will be a good reason to do it again, though I really miss Ben as part of the thing," he said. "As much as I want it to be The Cars and I love everyone so much in The Cars, without him it just feels different" (via Rolling Stone). Unfortunately, any chance of that happening came to an end just two years later, when Ocasek passed away in September 2019.

When "Licensed to Ill" by the Beastie Boys became the first rap album ever to reach #1 on the Billboard chart, few expected them to put together a long, fruitful career while earning the complete respect of their peers — and yet, that is exactly what they did, displaying a remarkable ability to find fresh, inventive angles to their craft while staying totally true to their hip hop roots. Their 1989 sophomore effort "Paul's Boutique" constituted a 180-degree turnaround from its predecessor's sonic and lyrical simplicity, and is widely regarded as a masterpiece; 1992's "Check Your Head" saw them picking up instruments to function as an actual band (and do it quite well).

By the time the Beasties played a barn-burning set at Bonnaroo in 2009, they were nothing less than Hip Hop elder statesmen. They blazed through all the hits, from "No Sleep 'Til Brooklyn" to "Intergalactic" and the set-closing "Sabotage." Nobody expected the set to be their last — but even then, Adam "MCA" Yauch was dealing with a pain in his throat that would, weeks later, be diagnosed as cancer of the salivary gland. In a statement, Yauch announced his intention to "get this in check" so the band could get back to performing — but it was not to be. The cancer proved to be aggressive, and Yauch passed away on May 4, 2012. Speaking with NME in 2015, Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz confirmed that Yauch's passing meant that the Beastie Boys were no more, saying, "Adam started the band, so we couldn't do anything without him."

If humankind were to endeavor to select footage for a time capsule in order to illustrate for future civilizations what a rock star is, pretty much any clip of Prince in action would suffice. The Purple One not only embodied rock 'n roll, he simply seemed to subsist on music. As one of the most insanely talented musicians to ever live, he habitually surrounded himself with prodigious talent when performing live, which makes his final tour — and performance — an interesting outlier.

Dubbed the "Piano & A Microphone" tour, Prince's last outing saw him alone onstage with ... well, you can probably guess, performing stripped-down versions of tunes from his voluminous catalog. The final two shows took place in Atlanta, Georgia, where those in attendance were treated to a powerhouse performance with no signs of the illness that had previously forced Prince to cancel the dates, per TMZ. He was, as ever, the consummate showman; wrote CNN's Lisa Respers France, who was in attendance, "He played with one hand. He hovered above the piano seat pounding on the keys as if sweetly punishing them. He chuckled that Prince chuckle that made men grin and women swoon." For his final number, Prince performed his iconic, majestic ballad "Purple Rain." Just a week later, he was no more. Prince passed away from an accidental drug overdose at the age of 57 on April 21, 2016.

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During the last few years of his career — and in particular, those during which he was affiliated with Suge Knight's Death Row Records — Tupac Shakur was famously combative toward his perceived rivals. His final performance, at Los Angeles' House of Blues, is illustrative of this. It took place on July 4, 1996, as Tupac opened for label mate Snoop Dogg and his associates, the Dogg Pound, and it saw Tupac in full diss mode, lobbing shot after shot at his former friend Christopher "Notorious BIG" Wallace and his label Bad Boy Records, with which Death Row had been embroiled in a bitter feud.

In between songs, Tupac reiterated his previously-stated belief that Bad Boy CEO Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs and Wallace had masterminded the shooting that had left him hospitalized two years prior, per AV Club. He also chided Wallace for failing to approach his own formidable sales numbers, doubled down on his declaration that he had slept with Wallace's wife (which he had asserted on the venomous diss track "Hit 'Em Up"), and dismissed out of hand the prospect of ever making peace with his former buddy. 

Tupac never got the chance to change his mind. On September 7, 1996, he was shot four times while leaving a Las Vegas boxing match with Knight; he died in the hospital six days later. On March 9 of the following year, Wallace was likewise killed in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles; both crimes remain unsolved.

When a band has been in existence for over 50 years, they're bound to go through a stylistic change or two. But Genesis, which dropped their first album in 1969, took this notion to an extreme, beginning as prog-rock innovators before moving into a more rock-oriented sound in the late '70s, then sidling right on through to conquer the world of pop in the '80s. When original lead singer Peter Gabriel left the band to pursue a highly successful solo career in 1975, they simply turned to drummer Phil Collins to sing lead — and when he in turn became a solo star in the early '80s, he continued to hold down Genesis through their greatest period of commercial success, which reached its peak with their multi-platinum 1986 effort "Invisible Touch."

While the band's final studio album was released in 1997, they continued to sporadically tour, with Collins singing even as a spinal injury slowly robbed him of his ability to play drums. On the final night of the band's "The Last Domino?" tour in 2022, Collins informed the crowd at London's O2 Arena that evening's performance would be the final one for Genesis, per Rolling Stone. ("After tonight, we've all got to get real jobs," he quipped.) The band's final two songs: "Dancing With the Moonlight Knight" and "Carpet Crawlers," both tunes from the tenure of Peter Gabriel, who was in attendance and snapped a photo with Collins and longtime tour manager Richard McPhail backstage.

Of all the distinctive voices to grace the world of popular music, perhaps the most distinctive belonged to Roy Orbison. He began his career at the dawn of the rock era in 1956, and soon established himself as one of the most gifted singers of his time with hits like "Only the Lonely," "Crying," and "Running Scared." Possessed of a quavering, emotional vibrato, Orbison was also capable of digging deep into the baritone range, then leaping to the other end of the spectrum to produce a soaring, powerful tenor and a searing falsetto.

In the late '80s, Orbison was in the middle of an amazing and unexpected career resurgence, having joined George Harrison, Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, and Jeff Lynne in the supergroup Traveling Wilburys. On December 4, 1988, he stepped onstage for a show in Highland Heights, Ohio. While he had recently completed a solo album with Lynne co-producing, the material wasn't ready for prime time yet, so his set focused on his classic hits, according to Rolling Stone; the final two songs he performed were "Oh! Pretty Woman" and "Running Scared." 

Orbison, who had been complaining of chest pains for a few weeks prior, passed away from a heart attack just two days later at the age of 52. His final album, "Mystery Girl," was released months after his death; per Billboard, it produced the Top 10 single "You Got It," and is considered to be among the finest albums of his storied career.